Not a Moment Too Soon

New car dealers will still be able to sell “pre-owned vehicles” without replacing their “brake friction materials,” under legislation signed September 27 by Gov. Jerry Brown.

In English: New car dealers won’t have to install new brake pads on used cars they buy and resell after 2014.

Dealers were afraid they might be required to do so under a 2010 bill requiring less copper content in brake pads sold in California.

The California New Car Dealers Association sponsored the bill signed by Brown — AB 501 by Assemblyman Adrin Nazarian, a Sherman Oaks Democrat — to clarify that they didn’t have to remove “legacy” brake pads and replace them with new ones.  

(In this usage, “legacy” appears to translate to “existing” or “non-compliant.”)

Having to replace “legacy” pads would be expensive, the dealers say. The cost would ultimately be borne by the purchaser of the  “pre-owned vehicle.”

Hence Nazarian’s bill to clarify that  if a dealer acquires a vehicle equipped with “legacy brake frictions materials,” they aren’t required to replace them with new pads.

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