Buying a lemon is all fine and dandy when you're looking to make a margarita or use it on some fresh fish, but in the world of cars, trucks, and other machines, it's one of the worst feelings around. You've just spent thousands upon thousands of dollars, likely leveraging a good portion of it, on a new machine and then, without warning, it goes boom.
And while it sucks to have to deal with insurance, dealerships, and other interested parties like the manufacturers themselves, US lemon laws really only surround manufacturing defects on cars, trucks, and SUVs. Not so much powersport machines. And while they're rarer than in the automotive sector, instances can occur, which often leaves those customers scrambling to figure out what recourse—if any—they have.
Cough, cough, KTM camshafts, cough.
But in a bid to better insulate motorcyclists from purchasing lemons, only to then be stuck with them, Pennsylvania's legislators are looking to extend the state's lemon laws to finally include new bikes. And that's a good thing.
Introduced by State Senator Michele Brooks, the new addition to the already on-the-books law would apply to new motorcycles that become operationally defective within the first year, 12,000 miles of ownership or leasing, and would give manufacturers three opportunities to fix the issue before resolving in a lemon buyback or replacement.
According to Brooks who spoke with PennWatch, "Many people save for years to purchase their motorcycle and they deserve the same consumer protections as other motorists. Extending Lemon Law protections to motorcycles is a matter of fairness and ensuring that all motorists are safeguarded in their investments.”
In Brooks' memo of co-sponsorship, the state senator furthers with "Protections are not offered to those who purchase new motorcycles, leaving the owner to either pay out of pocket to repair potentially dangerous manufacturing defects or fix the problem themselves. Thanks to the combined efforts of ABATE, motorcycle manufacturers and dealers, and other important stakeholders, this legislation has been revised and strengthened over the last few years."
The addendum has now been sent to the governor's office for final approval, though this isn't the first time Pennsylvania has attempted other include motorcycles in lemon law language. A number of other states already have lemon law protections for motorcycles, too, including Utah and Texas, while Colorado has excluded them. Hopefully, it becomes more of a trend to include two-wheeled machines in the near future.
