Lemon law, guest blog

Car Lemon Law Tips
Sergei Lemberg is an attorney who specializes in lemon law [link: www.LemonJustice.com]. His site www.lemonjustice.com offers detailed information about state lemon laws, as well as an interactive Lemon Meter [link: http://www.lemonjustice.com/lemonmeter.php] for consumers who want to see if their vehicle qualifies as a lemon.

If you’ve ever bought a new car, you know what a rush it is. There’s the new car smell, the feeling of power as you hit the accelerator, and the peace of mind knowing that you’ll have a reliable ride for a long, long time.
With all of the cars, SUVs, trucks, motorcycles, and RVs being manufactured in the U.S. and abroad, it’s reasonable to expect that some will have defects. After all, vehicles are incredibly complex pieces of machinery and a lot of things can go wrong. In the best-case scenario, any defects that weren’t caught by quality assurance are quickly repaired by the dealer. In the worst-case scenario, you have a vehicle with pronounced defects that make it run poorly, that constitute a safety hazard, or that reduces its value – and the dealer or manufacturer refuse to buy back or replace it.
Know Your Rights.
Lemon Laws are meant to protect consumers, but it's easy to get lost in the legal mumbo-jumbo and wind up more confused than ever. One of the best places to find out whether or not your vehicle is a lemon is to consult the Lemon Meter You can also consult your state Attorney General's website or LemonJustice's guide to state laws. Your best bet, though, is to consult a lemon law lawyer. A consultation usually doesn't cost anything and can help you understand your options.
Keep Records.
Lemon Law cases are often lost on "he said-she said" arguments. It pays to thoroughly document every conversation you have with your repair shop, and to keep all repair records and copies of correspondence. The more written evidence you have, the stronger your case will be.
Jump through the Hoops.
Yes, Lemon Laws theoretically put the little guy on equal footing with the big automakers, but in reality there are a series of steps you must take to preserve your Lemon Law rights. For example, you may have to send a demand letter to the manufacturer via Certified Mail within a certain timeframe, or you might need to take your vehicle in for repair a third time before the odometer hits 18,000 miles. It's important not to skip any of the steps, because doing so may compromise your case.
Expect to Settle.
Most car manufacturers don't want to go to court because a prolonged legal proceeding is very expensive. The chances are good that you'll be offered a settlement, that is if you claim has merit. Listen to the advice of your attorney, and if the settlement seems fair, accept it. Legal actions may not result in a favorable ruling for you - especially if you haven't jumped through every hoop - so it's often better to accept a decent settlement than to risk losing in court.
Don't Throw in the Towel.
Even if your vehicle doesn't meet every single criterion for a lemon, you still may be able to achieve a settlement. With a Lemon Law attorney at your side, you can often be compensated for the hassle and the repair costs - even if the vehicle was eventually repaired.
It has also been my experience that going to court isn’t necessarily the only – or best – option. In fact, most lemon law cases settle through negotiation or mediation. When a vehicle has a serious defect and the manufacturer refuses to do a buyback or replacement, it sometimes only takes the threat of a lawsuit for the manufacturer to do the right thing. Mostly, this is because losing in court usually means that the manufacturer could face the prospect of paying punitive damages or a doubling or tripling of the consumer’s attorney fees. A reasonable settlement is a winning proposition for both sides – the manufacturer doesn’t have to go through a lengthy court battle that it would most likely lose, and the consumer can get relief without dragging out the process.

Oil Prices Collapse

The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries agreed to cut oil production for the first time in almost two years to stem a collapse in prices.

Oil ministers of the 13 OPEC nations decided to reduce supply by 1.5 million barrels a day from November, ministers said today as they left a meeting at the group's Vienna's headquarters.

The decision was ``quick,'' Saudi Arabian Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi said in an interview after the meeting. The cut will be from the existing quota for 11 members of 28.8 million barrels a day, Kuwait's oil minister said...
Another cut in December is ``possible,'' depending on how the oil market reacts, Qatari Oil Minister Abdullah bin Hamad al-Attiyah said in an interview after the decision.

At a meeting last month, OPEC urged greater compliance with existing quotas, saying that would reduce supply by about 500,000 barrels a day. OPEC members excluding Iraq and Indonesia last month pumped 390,000 barrels a day more than their combined quota of 28.8 million barrels a day, according to Bloomberg estimates.


Note that the last paragraph illustrates the flaw with the production cuts. As reader Michael pointed out, this is a classic prisoner's dilemma. If everyone complies, all are a wee bit better off. If most comply and a few cheat, the cheaters are much better off and the obedient suffer a bit. But if most cheat, everyone is a lot worse off. And per the Bloomberg observation, members are cheating even when oil prices were higher. The lower they go, the more pressure to pump more to try to maintain national budgets.

From Naked Capitalism

What a difference six months makes. When we questioned the thesis that the oil price runup earlier in the year was due solely to supply and demand, we got a fair number of hostile comments (see here and here for some of many examples). And now the view that oil will keep falling has also developed a life of its own. Options contract prices indicate that a significant minority of traders are betting on $50 a barrel oil by December.

Even though OPEC moved its scheduled meeting up nearly a month, signaling eagerness to take action to combat plummeting oil prices, some traders remain convinced that oil prices have further to fall. Given that some expect OPEC production cuts of one to two million barrels a day, when demand for oil fell peak to trough by roughly eight times that much in the 1970s oil crisis, it is quite possible that OPEC's move may be inadequate in the light of declining consumption.

A perennial problem is diverging interests among OPEC members. iran and Venezuela need high oil prices to make their sulfurous, heavy crude economically viable and are calling for cuts deep enough to keep oil prices above $80 a barrel; Saudi Arabia, which has far and away the most clout by virtue of the size of its reserves, also has far and away the lowest production costs and thus is less affected than other producers by price declines.

Mission Accomplished

Energy companies fell sharply as crude oil dropped below $80 a barrel on recession fears

Confirmation from experts

Houston Chronicle, October 3, 2008: Front page, City & State section, Rick Casey quoted Henry Groppe, the dean of Houston forecasters of oil and gas prices, who stated, "We've been telling our clients all year that oil prices would inevitably go down to $70.00 by the end of this year."

There you have it.