BILL ANALYSIS                                                                                                                                                                                                    



                                                                  SB 95
                                                                  Page  1

          Date of Hearing:   July 15, 2009

                        ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
                                Kevin De Leon, Chair

                     SB 95 (Corbett) - As Amended:  July 1, 2009 

          Policy Committee:                               
          JudiciaryVote:10-0

          Urgency:     No                   State Mandated Local Program:  
          No     Reimbursable:               

           SUMMARY  

          This bill enacts the California Car Buyers' Protection Act of  
          2009.  Specifically, this bill:

          1)Places specified requirements on a dealer when the dealer  
            purchases or obtains a trade-in vehicle in a sale or lease  
            transaction and that vehicle has an existing credit or lease  
            balance.

          2)Increases by $25 the fee for the original license and annual  
            renewal license for dealers and lessor-retailers, and  
            increases by $50 the fee for the original and renewal of an  
            autobroker's endorsement to a dealer's license.

          3)Expresses legislative intent that the portion of the dealer or  
            retail-lessor license fee to be used by the DMV to investigate  
            noncompliance of dealers and retail lessors with state  
            licensing requirements be increased from $15 to $40.

           FISCAL EFFECT  

          Annual increased license fee revenue to the DMV of $475,000, and  
          one-time programming and administrative costs of $100,000 to  
          implement the fee increases.  The additional revenues will be  
          available, upon appropriation, to the DMV's Occupational  
          Licensing and Investigative Services program.

           COMMENTS  

           Purpose  .  According to the author, this bill, sponsored by the  
          Consumers for Auto Reliability and Safety (CARS), is intended to  








                                                                  SB 95
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          require dealers to pay-off car liens before trading or selling  
          the vehicles so consumers are not stuck with two car payments.   
          The most recent amendments, which removed opposition to the  
          bill, require a dealer to payoff a lien before it sells or  
          trades the vehicle, and do so within 21 days.  In addition, the  
          bill increases funding for DMV investigators by a small increase  
          in the dealer license fee.

          The author indicates that the DMV is reporting a significant  
          increase in the number of consumer complaints involving a  
          dealer's failure to pay off a trade-in.  As of the end of  
          February 2009, the DMV was investigating 256 active cases where  
          a dealer has failed to pay off a consumer's trade-in and 564  
          additional consumer complaints that the consumer had not yet  
          received verification that title to a vehicle bought from or  
          sold to a dealer had been transferred.

           Analysis Prepared by  :    Chuck Nicol / APPR. / (916) 319-2081