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Consumers Have No Idea That They Have Rights Most consumers have no idea that they have rights under the law. Even if they do, they erroneously believe that they cannot afford to hire an attorney to take their case. Nothing could be further from the truth. Consumers can seek . . . → Read More: Chapter 5 – The Need for Lemon Law (page-18) 
It is thoughtless and possibly worse for a dealership to replace the emission control valve when your car begins to stall, and then tell you that everything is all right. A week later, when it stalls in an intersection, the dealer will find some other component. But the dealer is just treating the symptoms, not addressing the real cause. It is similar to a surgeon replacing your arm because the brain isn’t sending it the right commands for proper operation. One answer, of course, is more rigorous testing of its products by the manufacturer. Mandatory programs to upgrade the skills of mechanics would also go a long way toward improving service, safety, and the vehicle ownership experience. Until then, consumers will continue to suffer the consequences of overly complex vehicles. Continue reading Chapter 5: The Need for Lemon Law (page-17)              
Still, the dealer has to get the work done; so, inexperienced mechanics are put to work on problems they do not understand and really do not want to do. Who bears the brunt of their lack of training, aptitude, and attitude? Right again, the long-suffering consumer. There is a nationwide shortage of trained mechanics, so severe that dealers and repair shops recruit from prisons in the Midwest. None of these conditions bode well for the consumer. Every microprocessor in the modern automobile has multiple sensor inputs. Sensors measure things like engine temperature, rpm, vehicle speed, and so on. Sensors may be variable, collecting changing values, like vehicle speed, which the computer uses to make decisions, or they may be looking at the output of switches that are simply on or off. The Engine Control Computer may be connected to fifty or more of these microprocessors and hundreds of sensors. Continue reading Chapter 5: The Need for Lemon Law (page-16) 
The need for simplification in manufacturing and design was brought to the fore in an article on the front page of the May 31, 2004, issue of Automotive News, titled “Mercedes ditches glitches with electronics.” The article speaks clearly about the problems of too much technology. Because of serious problems with defects, Mercedes is removing six hundred electronic functions from its vehicles. A recent review of lemon vehicle legal cases indicated that a remarkably high percentage had major defects that were directly or indirectly related to one or more of the on-board computers. When something goes wrong with an automobile, manufacturers want to talk about individual components, but not the part of the vehicle that tells the components how to operate: the on-board computer. Continue reading Chapter 5: The Need for Lemon Law (page-15) 
The dealership is caught between the demands of high warranty repair expense and the need to service the customer. And, finally, the manufacturer is under pressure to maintain the appearance of manufacturing cars that do everything advertised perfectly. Customers want more sexy gadgets. There’s a price: added complexity. . . . → Read More: Chapter 5: The Need for Lemon Law (page-14) 
Figure 5.4. Typical Vehicle Computer Systems
Figure 5.4. Typical Vehicle Computer Systems The main Electronic Control Unit and all the microprocessors that deal with specific vehicle systems are not independent. They talk to each other in diverse and complex ways. When something goes . . . → Read More: Chapter 5: The Need for Lemon Law (page-13) 
Automobile Complexity in the Computer Age Each year, cars, trucks, boats, and RVs get more complicated. In this new electronic world, computers manage most of the various vehicle operations, such as powertrain, transmission, brake systems, emission control system, and safety related systems, to list a few. Here’s a software truism: Garbage in, Garbage out (GIGO). If you stuff a half million lines of software code into a vehicle computer, the chance that some part of it is garbage increases significantly. Maybe that bad line of code is what makes your car lunge at stop signs, scaring you and your passengers half to death. Continue reading Chapter 5: The Need for Lemon Law (page-12) 
It isn’t difficult to see that producing lemon vehicles is inevitable. Indeed, it is in part a problem of our own making. Manufacturers put things in vehicles that consumers demand, and that will give the manufacturers the sales edge. Thus, you and I are partially responsible for the increased complexity that leads to lemons. Unless there is a fundamental change in vehicle design, cars, trucks, motor homes, and motorcycles are not going to become any less complex. Continue reading Chapter 5: The Need for Lemon Law (page-11) 
How Many Lemons? It is estimated that California car dealers sell 1,500,000 new motor vehicles per year. Various studies have found that an alarming percentage of vehicles manufactured in any given year turn out to be lemons. One such study in the late eighties estimated the percentage to be as high as 10 percent.3 This means at one time there may have been as many as 150,000 new lemons on the road in California alone! Even if the percentage were only 1 percent, 15,000 lemon vehicles every year, in just one state, is still a serious problem. Nothing we have seen indicates that these numbers have been reduced over the intervening twenty years. Continue reading Chapter 5: The Need for Lemon Law (page-10) 
Top Executives Set Standards of Corporations So far, I have tried to give you a small part of a bigger picture, something that can help you to come to grips with what may seem hard to comprehend. Why do you spend $30,000 of your hard-earned money on a car, only to have it inexplicably stall in traffic, scaring you and your family half to death? It starts at the top of the corporation. President of the United States Harry S. Truman had a sign on his desk that said The Buck Stops Here. He knew that ultimately responsibility flows to the top and stops there. Continue reading Chapter 5: The Need for Lemon Law (page-09) |
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