The Comparison Stands, and the Myth is Debunked

[Spoonman]

The past six weeks have opened my eyes with regards to many things. I have been through some drastic occurrences such as the loss of a close friend, an upswing in the oil industry and the buy-back of my 6 month old Ford F-250 6.0 liter diesel truck.

It is the buy-back process of my lemon truck that made me realize that there has already been legislation passed that strikingly resembles the firearms manufacturer liability bill.

It is called the lemon laws.
The original intent of these laws was to protect the consumer, but once again, the fucked up politicians and their need for campaign monies somehow managed to tilt the tables in favor of the manufactures and still made it appear to be a victory for their constituents.

If Ford manufactures an unsafe vehicle, it is sometimes recalled, however this is EXTREEMLY RARE.
The buy-back of the unsafe vehicle is through the lemon laws are generally what happen, but there’s something you might not know.
When they buy it back, you don’t get a full refund, you get the dubious pleasure of paying for all those “unsafe” miles you drove!
Not only do they have ZERO liability for these willful acts, (there is tons of proof that they knew they had a problem with the 6.0 ltr) but they can actually LEGALLY charge you for the mileage!!!!

Hmmm, sounds unfair to you? Well, it is, and there’s nothing you can do about it!
They are protected under state law that affords them the right to charge you for driving an unsafe vehicle!

Now for the truly screwed up part, they can and will charge you as much as 40 cents a mile for those miles you drove! That’s well over the allowed IRS deduction of 34.5 cents, and the IRS deduction is a reimbursement for wear/tear and FUEL!!!!

To make a long story short,

$4286.9 total charge for mileage ($1144.4 - 40 cents per mile for the first 2861 trouble free miles and $3142.5 30 cents per mile for the remaining 10,475 miles)

$29,337.58 Refunded (buy-back) to bank to pay off loan left me having to finance and additional $2,388.47 for the new truck.

It cost me damn near $1000 dollars a month for 6 months to drive the truck, not including the fuel!!!!!

The bottom line is two fold;

Ford and any auto manufacturer can produce a defective and or unsafe product, knowingly sell the product with said defects, charge the consumer for the use of it and be protected and allowed to do so by law!
The bill going through the legislative process that will limit the liability of firearms manufacturers is not as unique as some here have attempted to claim it is.

The moral of this tale is simple.

The comparison between firearms and automobiles (fatalities, liability, criminal misuse, etc.) has more truth and relevance than some care believe. Despite the blindness to the truth by those, the comparison stands on solid ground!

The next time we hear that the ONLY industry seeking protection from “liability” is the firearms manufacturers, we can all laugh out loud and remember the truth. The automotive manufacturers were afforded this protection several years ago!

[slackmaster]

1. Is that a state or a federal law?

And if state, which one?

California has its own state lemon law for cars.

http://caag.state.ca.us/consumers/general/lemon.htm

[Spoonman]

2. Almost every state has them

They differ quite a bit, but every one of them allows the manufacturer to charge for usage.

I forgot to mention, Ford is buying it back without me having to use the lemon law (voluntarily). They would lose anyway, but it would cost me more to go that route.
They claim the buy-backs (in the thousands) are part of a customer satisfaction program for this new truck, but I'm not very satisfied with it!

[slackmaster]

3. Sounds like you are handling the situation diplomatically

A friend of mine had a bad situation with a 1997 Lincoln Continental. He proved that his Ford dealer had not complied with several service bulletins regarding known problems with the Lincoln's unique transmission. He confronted the general manager with that information and said he wanted to buy a brand-new Mercury Grand Marquis for his wife. The manager cheerfully gave him high blue book for the Lincoln, which is presently unable to move under its own power.

Diplomacy pays.

:D

[DonP]

4. Fast Food too

Agree totally on the guns/cars issue.

The fast food people are working on the same kind of tort relief right now in congress. It's the "McDonald's is responsible for my weighing 500 pounds" lawsuits.

I can't understand why "people" that are so fanatical about John Ashcroft and his buddies can't wait to force everyone to turn their guns over to him and his thugs with a new tighter AWB act or provide him with the name of every gun owner in the US in the name of homeland security.

As my dad would say, "Son, you have to accept that some folks just have shit for brains and you can't stop them from letting some of it leak out their mouth on a regular basis."

A friend of my Dad's got a big old Chrysler Newport in the late '60's, before any of the lemon laws were on the books. The car was a disaster. He wound up renting a space across from the dealer, painting a huge yellow lemon on the sides and the dealer's name on the car.

The dealer tried to get it moved and finally, after a week and a couple of newspaper articles, bought the car back for cash. The guy wasn't even vaguely interested in another Chrysler at that point.

Good luck with your new truck.

Don

[Spoonman]

5. I love that one

"Son, you have to accept that some folks just have shit for brains and you can't stop them from letting some of it leak out their mouth on a regular basis."

Is it copyrighted?

[jody]

6. And "some folks just have shit for brains" for president! I couldn't

resist that one. :evilgrin:

[DonP]

7. Nope, but it should be ...

... used as a sign off by some folks hereabouts.

I got tired of trying to reason with what passes for Benchley's circular thinking and decided to go put a couple of hundred rounds downrange from my Milsurp collection on his behalf Friday and Saturday.

Wilde was right, "the best revenge is living well" and shooting straighter each time out.

The only question is .303 or 30-06. maybe both

Have a great holiday to one and all.