Lemon Laws

I saw this story the other day, about a man in Germany so fed up with his lemon of a BMW (a $160,000 lemon, btw) that he had been trying, unsuccessfully, for 5 years to get fixed, that he took it to the Frankfurt Motor Show and smashed it with a sledgehammer.

Happily I’ve never been in this situation, but the story reminded me of my grandfather, who was well known in Stockton back in the day, as he was a local businessman and on the city council as well. Grandpa used to buy a new car every year or two, and he paid with cash. In my mind, he bought Cadillacs, though that may not be the case. One year, he was unhappy with the car he had bought, as it had problem after problem that he didn’t think a brand new car should have. Perhaps we didn’t have lemon laws back then, so Grandpa took matters into his own hands. He went to the dealership and told them they needed to take the car back. They refused, and said it was his car now. He said, “Well then, I guess I’m going to go get a paint job then”, and they said, “What do you mean, Mr. Ward?” He said, “I’m going to get a big lemon painted on the side, and park it in front of your dealership every day. Whenever anyone asks, I’ll tell them exactly why, and who sold the damn thing to me.”

They took the car back.