Federal Laws About Auto Warranties

The government has enacted laws for the protection of car-purchasing consumers from negligent or unscrupulous manufacturers. In times past if a person purchased a vehicle with a defect, they could have been left paying the cost of the repairs to it themselves. It was for this reason that the various state auto warranty laws and the federal warranty law were created.

 Automobile warranties

The point of an auto warranty is to protect the buyer from the expenses that come with having bought a malfunctioning vehicle. The car’s owner will be compensated in the event of the vehicle being defective. It also works as a guarantee on the part of the manufacturer who, by offering a warranty is adding a form of insurance to the vehicle and giving shoppers another reason to buy it. The laws that govern auto warranties are called “lemon laws” and they have been enacted both on the state level and on the federal level.

Federal warranty law

The federal protection for car-buyers nationwide comes from the Magnuson Moss Warranty Act. The Act directs car manufacturers to disclose the terms of the warranty in plain English. The Act covers both written warranties and implied warranties, which are warranties that have not been put into writing. It also allows for the buyer of a defective car and whose warranty was breached to seek compensation. The car-owner may seek remedy in the form of a lawsuit enacted against the manufacturers either individually or in the form of a class action lawsuit. For the warranty to come into effect the vehicle has to be defective for reasons other than negligence on the part of the owner and for other reasons than as a result of the normal wear that comes with driving it. The manufacturer must repair the vehicle without charging the person who bought it anything for the repairs. The Magnuson Moss Warranty Act law does not alter or invalidate the various state lemon laws.