Since 1st Sept 2012, the ‘Lemon Law’ provisions were added to the Consumer Protection (Fair Trading) Act with related amendments to the Hire Purchase Act and Road Traffic Act governing motor vehicles with the aim to protect consumers and provide remedies against goods that fail to conform to contract at the time of delivery (eg, through breach of express terms of the contract or implied condition of satisfactory quality)
What is ‘Satisfactory Quality’?
‘Satisfactory quality’ means the vehicle should be of a standard that a reasonable person would expect, taking into account relevant circumstances such as the following:
- Age of the vehicle
- Purchase Price
- Vehicle’s history
- Vehicle’s mileage
- Vehicle’s intended use
- Make and Model
- Durability
- Safety
- Any description made about the vehicle.
Timeframe for Lemon Law
Unless the motor vehicle dealer can prove otherwise, a defect proven to exist within six (6) months of delivery is presumed to have existed. Beyond the six-month period, the consumer needs to show that the defect existed at the time of delivery in order to make a claim under the Lemon Law.
Do note: The Lemon Law does not apply to pre-own COMMERCIAL VEHICLES as this is valid for Business-to-consumer related transactions, per confirmed by The Consumer Association of Singapore (CASE) and The Singapore Vehicle Traders Association (SVTA)
Situations When Lemon Law Does Not Apply
Consumer-to-consumer transactions are not covered under lemon law (when one private owner sells to another private owner)
Consumers are not entitled to a remedy if:
- They damage the vehicle eg. through misuse or unauthorised repair
- The fault was caused by wear and tear and not an inherent defect
- The consumer knew about the fault when they bought the vehicle (eg. The defect was specifically pointed out to them before purchase, or was obvious and would have been spotted upon inspection at the point of purchase)
- The consumer simply changed their mind and no longer wanted the vehicle.
At Skylink Group, all our pre-own COMMERCIAL VEHICLES come with a standard 3 months additional warranty on the Gear and Engine which are the 2 most critical components in any vehicle. Aside from that, each vehicle will be fully serviced prior to handover, and comes with additional complimentary servicing from our in-house automotive workshop.
Check out the full range of top-quality pre-own under 1 roof at Skylink Group.
