New Jersey lawmakers are considering a bill that they say will protect used car buyers. But many consumer advocates say the bill could have the opposite impact, giving buyers little recourse if they buy a used car with an open, potentially dangerous recall.

A 2018 Kane In Your Corner investigation examined how used car buyers might end up unknowingly purchasing vehicles with dangerous open recalls. Trinity Wixner was left with a vehicle that she was afraid to drive and no fix for the issue was readily available.

A new bill, under consideration in Trenton, would require used car dealers to notify the consumers if a car has one or more open recalls, but they would not be required to fix it. Consumer advocates say this bill might actually make things worse for consumers.

“It makes it easier for car dealers to get away with selling unsafe vehicles that have potentially lethal safety recall defects,” says Rosemary Shahan, president of Consumers for Auto Reliability and Safety. “Why should a dealer be able to sell a car that has bad brakes or a steering wheel that could come off into your hands?”

Shahan says if lawmakers really want to protect car buyers, they should just require used car dealers to fix any recalls.

Car dealers have long been opposed to being forced to fix recalls on used cars. And Kane in Your Corner found the industry has spent a lot of money getting that message across, making over $329,000 in campaign contributions to New Jersey state lawmakers through a political action committee called Car-Pac. Some of the biggest recipients of that funding are sponsoring the legislation, including state Sen. Joe Pennacchio (R – Montville), state Assembly members John DiMaio (R –Hackettstown) and Lou Greenwald (D – Voorhees), and state Senate President Nicholas Scutari (D – Clark).

DiMaio defends the legislation, saying, “The consumer groups have this all wrong.” He says requiring car dealers to fix all recalls on used cars would be a mistake, because dealers would simply refuse to accept cars with recalls as trade-ins.

As for the $12,000 DiMaio received from Car-Pac, he says, “We have a lot of campaign donors across the spectrum. It does not and cannot influence whatever we do as, as members of the Legislature.”

Two lawmakers have introduced legislation that would have required used car dealers to fix recalls rather than just notify buyers about them but that bill seems stalled in committee. The current legislation would prohibit used car dealers from selling cars that are under a do-not-drive order, but consumer advocates say those orders aren’t always issued, even in the case of serious recalls.