Consumer Policy Research Centre

Under Australian Consumer Law consumer guarantees, consumers have a right to a durable, safe, and fit-for-purpose purchase that is free from major and minor failures. However, consumers who have purchased a car that they later discover to be defective or faulty (in other words, a lemon car) often cannot enforce these rights, as the process is costly, time-consuming, and inaccessible. This can not only negatively impact their economic and social participation but also their overall wellbeing.

This is a significant and widespread problem, with the Productivity Commission estimating that motor vehicle sales are the top consumer guarantee complaint received across state and territory regulators.

Conduct acted as a key facilitator for CPRC and various community legal centres (CALC, WEstjustice, and the Victorian Aboriginal Legal Service) in the definition of the problem and opportunity space for lemon car redress in Victoria, demonstrating the value of a qualitative, human-centred design approach to complex systematic policy challenges.

We also provided guidance and expertise in the selection of the most appropriate type of output for CPRC’s needs, resulting in the development of the first end-to-end representation of the lemon cars complaints and redress process in Victoria that illustrates the unreasonable burden that the current system places upon consumers.

This process map acts as a core framework in a major report that has been published by CPRC, ‘Detours and roadblocks: The consumer experience of faulty cars in Victoria. The report presents the research that has been undertaken to understand the impact of lemon cars on people’s lives and the need for a stronger lemon car redress system in Victoria, and puts forward a plan to make it easier and safer for consumers to buy cars with confidence.

If successful, any Victorian who finds themselves with a lemon car in the future will benefit from a more accessible, fair, and effective process that enables them to get the fix that they’re owed sooner.