Australia should adopt ‘Lemon Laws’ to protect car-buyers who buy faulty second-hand vehicles, a peak consumer body says.

A Lemon Law would apply when the purchased vehicle suffers a major failure “within a reasonable period” of six months from the date of purchase.

If the failure cannot be repaired, the car-buyer would receive a refund or a replacement.

Denise Boyd, Director of Policy and Campaigns at the Consumer Action Law Centre told 3AW Breakfast, the law currently makes it “really hard to prove the definition between a minor failure and a major failure,” which often results in needing to take the case to a tribunal or a court.

Ms Boyd defines a Lemon as a purchase that “completely fails,” and “can’t be repaired, and that the fault that is causing all these problems is actually in the product at the time we bought it”.

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