Who's to stop the victim from recording evidence, accepting the replacement car, and submitting said evidence anonymously to the media and / or consumer protection and / or the car safety institutions?
It would be a weird play for anyone to sign such a thing. Most states in the U.S. have lemon laws that prevent maufacturers from selling such vehicles. A manufacturer only gets a certain number of attempts at repairs (usually 3 for new cars) on new vehicles or a limited time frame to fix them before they must offer a full replacement.
> A manufacturer only gets a certain number of attempts at repairs (usually 3 for new cars) on new vehicles or a limited time frame to fix them before they must offer a full replacement
Wow that would be awesome. Someone I know here in the EU had a leaking sun roof on their Toyota and after so many fixes and replacements that did nothing (and she had to pay for) the dealer basically said "we can't fix it, the parts are made by another company bla bla ...".
> the dealer basically said "we can't fix it, the parts are made by another company bla bla ...".
If that was a new car recently bought from that dealer, that’s their problem. In the EU (for sales to consumers), it’s the seller that’s responsible for delivering a product that’s fit for purpose. This dealer can’t hide behind the manufacturer or its suppliers (https://europa.eu/youreurope/citizens/consumers/shopping/gua...)
If the car wasn’t bought there or was older than 2 years, the rules only apply to the repair, not to the entire car. I think that means they would either have to fully repair the roof or give you something that’s at least as good as what you brought in for free (things do get murky there for my understanding of the law)
(of course, all that is in theory. In practice, companies will try to avoid having to do that)
>Wow that would be awesome. Someone I know here in the EU had a leaking sun roof on their Toyota and after so many fixes and replacements that did nothing (and she had to pay for) the dealer basically said "we can't fix it, the parts are made by another company bla bla
I never heard of a US lemon law equivalent for the EU, but the EU has pretty good general consumer protection. It varies somewhat between countries, but here in Poland if you buy a new item, if it breaks, it gets repaired under warranty and then it breaks again (it doesn't have to be the same component) the consumer has a choice of asking for a replacement, lowering of the price, or even withdrawing from the purchase altogether. Most people are not aware of this and are getting strung along by unscrupulous sellers. I myself had a situation like this with an induction hob that broke 6 times during the warranty. They then replaced it for a new one and that too broke a month later. I didn't even call them, I threw the damn thing out and I bought a different brand. It has been 3 years and that one has been working fine. Had I known I can withdraw from the purchase back then I'd definitely do it.
We don't have lemon laws in Canada either, I had a major problem with my brand new truck and the manufacturer and dealer were useless, strung me along and refused to help. I ended up giving up and trading it in and buying something else (obviously another brand), it wasn't worth the fight.
Some dealers offer third-party accessories as options on new cars. I had a car whose aftermarket sunroof was installed by the dealer when it was bought by the original owner. Fortunately, mine never leaked, but I'm not sure the US Lemon Laws would have covered it if it had.
When buying in the EU (at least where I'm from) the contract is between the consumer and the seller. So if something is wrong the seller can't shift blame to the manufacturer and have me have to deal with them. How they handle the issue with the manufacturer is their problem. If they can't offer a repair or replacement they need to refund. Manufacturers can offer additional warranty on top of the legally required warranty the seller has to offer which will fall outside of the sellers responsibility.
Companies do sometimes make it difficult in a way I hope more of them get slapped one. The largest electronics retailer in my country will have their front line staff try their hardest to deflect you to the manufacturer warranty, their online return form will make you enter a manufacturer ticket number as a mandatory field, so to actually get that honoured, your best bet is usually to go in store and escalate to a manager.
Normally I try to support stores over Amazon in a "use it or lose it" sense but that particular retailer is the exception.
Yeah not so sure about that. States will have different laws, and NDAs are not Non-Competes -- different story altogether.
Most states can't / won't enforce Non-Competes, but NDAs often have teeth.
Most states also have warranty and lemon laws, often specifically aimed at cars, so you could fight the NDA or ignore it and push for a warranty violation or lemon law case.
That doesn't mean NDAs are unenforceable. It just means you're getting them to fix the problem without signing their NDA, and presumably going through more hassle in the process.
It's pretty painful to drop thousands on lawyers when you know they have significantly more money and better lawyers
I say this as a person who very much wanted to sue Tesla and backed down on the advice of my lawyer friend -- I was most likely only increasing my net loss and severely stressing myself out
This is exactly why NDA's are enforceable. If you sign one, you can not break it without risking litigation. In Tesla's case, they totally would. You can't share any information that is called out in the NDA. This would probably include video, recordings, messages, media, any and all online posts referring to the incident and future discussions of the incident. Whatever is specifically called out in the NDA as far as terms, timeframe, etc. There are some NDA's that are for life.
Are NDAs like that actually enforceable?