Bill Mason is a maverick. Unlike some of his marine industry colleagues who believe that lemon laws will sink the boat building business, the Fort Walton Beach, FL, dealer says his experience as a former car dealer taught him just the opposite, that consumer protection laws can make good business sense and keep customers happy at the same time.

Mason is a former executive with Volvo Cars of America and currently the owner of The Boat Outlet, a dealership for Chaparral, Pro-Line, U.S. Marine and Godfrey boats. For the past two years he has been campaigning in Florida for a boat lemon law.

Even though 49 states already provide lemon law protection for automobile owners, there are no similar statutes for boats. Other states currently considering boat lemon legislation are New York, Pennsylvania and New Jersey.

"Boat owners are fed up to the top of the gunwales" with bad service and boat defects, Mason says. "The consumer deserves the ability to get defects repaired in a timely manner without having to resort to litigation." A proposed Florida bill spells out boat and marine engine makers' obligations when their products can't be repaired after a specific number of attempts or if they stay in the shop for excessive periods of time.

For example, the proposed law states that if a new boat or marine engine undergoes three repair attempts for a single defect or if it is in the repair shop for more than 45 days for multiple defects during the warranty period, the consumer can set the lemon law in motion by formally requesting that the manufacturer make a final stab at repairs. If repairs are not successful, then the manufacturer is required to provide a replacement boat or a refund, less depreciation for a reasonable amount of use.

Mason contends that the industry opposition to the proposed Florida lemon law has used scare tactics to convince Florida boat builders that the law is harmful and unfair.

"There seems to be a pattern of misinformation about the end result of consumer protection laws," Mason says. Contrary to some industry claims, "consumer protection bills do not represent a 'three strikes and you're out' mentality" punitive to manufacturers.

"The boat lemon laws say that if a consumer can not get a defect repaired after three attempts" by the dealer, Mason explains, "then the manufacturer has the opportunity to satisfy the customer by making that repair before the complaint goes to state arbitration. With auto lemon laws, if the manufacturer can quickly repair a problem that eludes an incompetent dealer, then the dealer doesn't get reimbursed for his efforts.

"If a dealer can't fix something on a boat after three times, the manufacturer should get involved." Mason contends. He doesn't think this provision of the lemon law proposal will leave dealers holding the bag for factory-generated defects because his experience with auto lemon laws was just the opposite. "If it's a defect in materials or workmanship, it should be a lemon issue" and therefore the manufacturer's responsibility.

When the boat owner and manufacturer can not agree, the dispute would be brought before an arbitration board. Most auto lemon disputes are settled at this point, precluding the need for costly court proceedings. Auto dispute arbitration programs are run by the Better Business Bureau, auto makers and by some state agencies and are overseen by the state's attorney general.

"The law takes the attorneys out of the loop," says Mason. To keep the lemon law program from becoming a forum for customers with unreasonable expectations, he says the law "needs to be very clear that the defect must be a safety or warranty issue."

With dealers on the front-line for correcting problems with boats, he believes lemon laws will engender a closer relationship between retailers and boat building factories.

"Many of the problems can be repaired by the dealer, sometimes with technical assistance from the factory," Mason says. "This is how it's done with cars. The dealer makes the repair. Ninety-five percent of the problems can be resolved without a repurchase."

Nevertheless, at a recent lemon law meeting in Tallahassee, industry members said even if there were enough lemon boats to justify the legislation the cost of complying with the law would be prohibitive. State officials say, however, that the Florida auto lemon law is funded by a $2 fee paid by each new car purchaser.

Mason says he's heard marine industry members vow, "We'll spend anything not to make this thing happen." Ironically, the same sentiments were expressed over two decades ago by the U.S. auto industry. At the time, auto makers were feeling the triple whammy of newly-enacted federal consumer protection laws, the advent of auto lemon laws at the state level and a marketing onslaught by Japanese auto companies who made quality products and customer service the centerpiece of their business philosophy.

"Rather than asking, 'How are these Japanese guys doing it?'" Mason recalls, "We were thinking, 'Let's blame it on the dealer network.' The same thing's happening today with the marine industry."

Mason points out that once the U.S. auto makers embraced the Japanese companies' business philosophy, they became successful. "Look what happened when Ford introduced the Taurus," a car that he says was well-built, reasonably priced and thus highly popular with car buyers.

"The marine industry needs to mature to meet the customers' expectations," he says. "We're a long way from getting there but if we keep chipping away we'll make it."

(c) Copyright BoatUS Magazine, January 1999