Examining the rights of consumers who may have purchased defective vehicles.

Abstract

My topic deals with the rights that consumers have if they are concerned that they may have purchased a defective vehicle. The main focus of my paper is to discover whether there is anything that consumers can do if they are in possession of vehicles which they suspect are defective, but where the defects have not yet manifested themselves. When vehicles are defective it becomes a great concern for consumers as the vehicles may pose a danger to their lives and also because many of them have taken out credit agreements in order to purchase their vehicles. There are various remedies under the common law and in terms of the Consumer Protection Act 68 of 2008 (CPA). The CPA provides certain rights to consumers who purchase defective vehicles. However, there are limitations when utilising these remedies. It is also often the case that consumers do not want their vehicles any longer. However, they are unable to dispose of them because there is no re-sale market for such vehicles. A vehicle recall is the best option for consumers under such circumstances. The recall can be issued by the National Consumer Commission (NCC) if the manufacturer does not do so. However once the recall is issued there is no guarantee that consumers would be relieved of their vehicles completely. Sometimes the manufacturer may only repair the vehicles and return it back to consumers. This would depend on the seriousness of the defect in the vehicle. The aim of this paper is to assist consumers and make them aware of what options are available to them if they may be in possession of a vehicle which they suspect is defective but where the defects have not yet arisen. This has become a major issue recently as there have been many reports of certain models of vehicles having defects and where a man had even lost his life a result of those defects.