Published:Sunday | September 13, 2015

Some used-car dealers are trying to get around the extended warranty terms stipulated under the year-old Revised Motor Vehicle Import Policy by striking side deals with customers who are being asked to accept a shorter coverage period.

Portfolio minister Anthony Hylton was unaware of the practice when Sunday Business approached him last week for comment but said the gambit is unlikely to survive for long as such agreements would become null and void as soon as the motor policy has the weight of the law behind it.

The process to gazette the policy is under way.

Some dealers have “taken a decision” to lower the price on vehicles for customers who sign to their warranty conditions, while those who do not will pay more, said Lynvalle Hamilton, president of the Jamaica Used Car Dealers’ Association (JUCDA) and operator of Autochannel Limited.

“You have dealers who will say to the consumer the price for the vehicle is $10 if you get the warranty for three months, but if you get the warranty for one year, the price will be $15,” Hamilton said.

The JUCDA president said the association saw nothing wrong with the move, arguing that the dealers “had a right not to give any warranty so long as the consumer examines the vehicle”.

“You have dealers who will say the customers reject the warranty in the RMVIP and accept ‘X’ warranty to accommodate a lower price. Nothing is wrong with that. The consumer has that right,” he said.

Before the revised import policy, which was implemented in April 2014, the sellers of second-hand cars typically extended a three-month, or 5, 500-kilometre, warranty to purchasers, regardless of the vehicle’s model year.

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