Under Pennsylvania law, almost everything you buy comes with two implied warranties. Your car purchase is no different. Pennsylvania’s Uniform Commercial Code provides you with protections when you buy a car by setting minimum standards of quality that every dealership has to follow. The implied warranties are different than express warranties. Express warranties are the written warranties that you buy with your car that talk about the type of repairs the dealership has to perform. However, for the implied warranties, you cannot be charged for these and they won’t be given to you in paper form. Implied warranties apply to both New and Used cars regardless of the year/make/model. They are included in every sale. The only way to exclude implied warranties is with a proper “As-Is” sale, and those are rare. The two implied warranties are Implied Warranty of Merchantability and Implied Warranty of Fitness for a Particular Purpose.
The Implied Warranty of Merchantability is simple, if you bought a car, it should function like a car. In other words, a dealership is not allowed to sell you a car that has so many problems that you can’t rely on it to get you from point A to point B. There are basic functions that a car should be able to perform: start up, drive, stop, turn left or right, etc. If you are sold a vehicle that won’t start all the time or randomly shuts off while you are driving, your car cannot perform these basic functions.
Here is an easy example: You go to the dealership down the road and buy a used vehicle. You drive it around for about a week and all of the sudden, the car stalls and the check engine light comes up. You take it back to the dealership. The dealership says there is not much he can do, but since you got a 30 day warranty with your purchase, he will try to fix something. He gives the car back to you, and it starts to stall again. Out of “good faith” the dealership tries to repair it a couple more times, but has no luck. Now you are 2 months out of the sale and your car still stalls randomly.
The problem is that your car cannot function as a reliable car. You cannot drive from home to work without the risk that it will stall. You cannot take your car on long trips because it might stall half way there. You spent good money for a car that doesn’t function like a car. This is a breach of the Implied Warranty of Merchantability. Your car could not be sold as a car.
Not as common as the Implied Warranty of Merchantability, the Implied Warranty of Firtness for a Particular Purpose also comes with every car purchase. But, you have to be buyer the car for a very specific purpose. This warranty states that if you are buying a vehicle for a reason, and the dealership knows that reason, then the vehicle has to be able to fulfill your needs. This warranty is commonly seen in larger vehicles, like trucks and SUV’s, that are used for more than just driving to and from work.
The best example is the person who buys a used truck to hull a boat to the lake. This person goes to the dealership and says, “I am looking for a good used truck to pull my boat to the lake this summer.” The dealership tells him that it has the perfect truck. After the typical sales pitch and test drive, the person buys the truck. The next weekend, the person hooks the boat to the back of the truck and starts to drive down the road. Turns out, that truck can’t pull the boat. This truck is not Fit for a Particular Purpose.
The Implied Warranties come with every car purchase. The only way for a dealership to remove the implied warranties from a sale is if he sells you a car “As-Is.” However, most dealerships don’t follow the law on “As-Is” sales, so they cannot properly remove the implied warranties from your sale. The Implied Warranties are a great way to sue a dealership for a bad car sale when other Auto Fraud claims are present. If you think you have fallen victim to a bad car sale, give us a call. We can handle your case for little to no cost to you. We may even be able to make the other side pay for our services.
