The Lemon Report

Buying a lemon, a car discovered to have defects only after purchase, is every car buyer’s nightmare. With cost-of-living pressures rising, it’s more important than ever to stay vigilant when navigating the used car market to ensure your hard-earned money doesn’t go to waste.

With more than 50+ years of expertise working across all types of manufacturers, Carma, Australia’s fully digital pre-owned car platform, is revealing the red flags to avoid purchasing a lemon and the green flags to look out for. Carma’s team of automotive experts have looked at more than five thousand vehicles over the past three months and found that only a fraction of them were worthy of selling to buyers.

As part of our inspection process, we check everything from safety features down to fuses and filters. Over the past two decades, we’ve evaluated thousands of vehicles for conditional problems and would say four out of every five vehicles on the road have issues.

“The fact that 80-90% of vehicles have conditional problems can be concerning to the everyday buyer who doesn’t know how to tell the difference between aesthetic issues and mechanical or manufacturing problems,” said Peter Willis, Director of Buying. “This is why our team gets behind the wheel and under the bonnet of every vehicle we evaluate to see what mechanical work needs to be completed in order to function flawlessly.”

So how can you avoid purchasing a lemon? Here are some things you can look out for to protect yourself.

Red flags:

• A shady past: Buying a car is the second-biggest purchase many will make in their lives, which is why it’s important to check the vehicle’s OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer) service passport to determine if the vehicle has been serviced regularly and on time. It can be easy to focus on the aesthetics, but before you get caught up in the features make sure you know what’s going on inside.
• Lots of baggage: Australia is one of the best destinations in the world for camping and road trips, but that can come at a cost. Heavy 4WD overloading, where people mount tents, racks and platform systems to their roofs, can make the vehicle overweight and impact long-term performance. An overloaded vehicle can impact its warranty status and insurance coverage, so it’s important to check this before purchasing.
• Overly private: Buying from a Licensed Dealer in New South Wales guarantees additional protections under the Australian Consumer Law (ACL) and Motor Dealers and Repairers Act (MDRA), including a three-month statutory warranty. However, buyers who purchase privately will not be covered by these protections.