California Lemon Law Lawyer Blog

The Associated Press reports that a Subaru dealer in Golden, Colorado, did a double-take when a customer drove up in a 1985 Maserati Biturbo with 19,000 miles on the odometer. The owner, who had been trying without success to sell the car on his own, offered it in trade-in on a new Subaru Impreza. The biTurbo qualified for the Cash for Clunkers program under which the owner received $3,500.

Wes Guthrie, a salesman at Go Subaru, said the Maserati owner had complained “that he could drive it down the road for about 10 minutes, and then he had to call his mechanic.”

The Biturbo was one of the worst lemon cars ever built. KABO attorneys alone represented about 15 biTurbo owners back in the 1980s.

When Chrysler went through Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection earlier this year the court granted an important request to prevent current owners from suing the new company if they were injured by a safety defect in the future. But Chrysler has had a change of heart. It will accept responsibility if consumers who bought Jeeps, Chryslers or Dodge vehicles prior to its bankruptcy filing are injured by safety defects.

Mr. Palese said the company always listens to consumer groups and elected officials, but the major factor was that Chrysler now feels it can afford the future costs. He said he was not sure how much those claims might cost the company.

Side airbags, an important safety feature, were standard equipment on the 2006, 2007 and 2008 Chevrolet Impalas and on the 2007 and 2008 Chevrolet Cobalts. Even though the airbags were standard equipment, GM allowed fleet buyers to delete the side airbags to save $175 a car.l Enterprise Rent-A-Car bought thousands of these cars no side airbags to save $175 per car.

When it came time to sell these cars, Enterprise did not disclose to the ultimate buyers that there were no side airbags. Instead of an airbag, the place for it had a piece of corrugated plastic.

Enterprise sold some hundreds of these cars through its website, EnterpriseCarSales.com. After word got out that the cars had no side air bags, Enterprise offered to repurchase the cars for the blue book value plus $750. However, Enterprise has not made any offers to the consumers who bought the cars that ended up on Chevrolet dealers' lots that were sold as GM certified used cars.

The Kansas City Star reports that a man who bought one of these cars and was hit on the side of his car causing him severe injuries. His lawsuits against Enterprise alleges he would not now be paralyzed if an air bad had been present.

Owners can check the seventh position of their car's VIN to see if the car has side air bags. If the air bags are not present, the number will be a 5. If the air bags are present, the number will be a 7 or 8.

Nissan will sell an all electric car, the Leaf, in 2010 priced less than $20,000. The Leaf has a range of 100 miles. The cars initially will be produced in Japan; later, cars for the U.S. market will be produced in Smyrna, TN. Nissan is building a battery factory at the same location with the help of a $1.6 billion loan from the U.S. Government (!). The SF Chronicle's story on this very significant development is here