"This Lemon Was Bought At_______"

Factual Questions
1

I saw a car in Atlanta which had this written on it, so I suppose the car’s owner was less than satisfied with his vehicle’s quality. But is this legal? It was written in large letters on the side of the car. It almost seems like slander to me.

Thanks

Quasi

2

A number of years ago, a fellow did the same thing in Greeley, Colorado. He went a step further and parked the car in front of the car dealership. A number of other things ensued (including threats, shoving matches, rotten eggs, etc.) and lawsuits and counter lawsuits were filed (it was a big enough deal that I was sent in to cover the whole hullabaloo for a Denver paper). The judge finally ruled that the car owner had the right to drive the car around but not park it in front of the dealership. It’s been awhile, and I don’t remember the specifics.

He also suggested (very strongly) that the dealership either fix the man’s car or replace it with a comparable model without the flaws of the original. He also suggested (once again very strongly) that to avoid being accused of economic harrassament or some such thing, the car owner accept the dealership’s offer if it were made. It was and he did.

3

IANAL, but your First Ammendment rights extent to your opinion about your car. Unless you violate an obscenity law in the text of your heartfelt message, I’d think that you can do whatever you wish to the body panels of your car.

As for Greely Colorado, that person was infringing upon the dealer’s reasonable right to make use of his road frontage as positive advertising. I can see why the judge ruled as he/she did.

Cartooniverse

4

Pretty much the very same scenario happened here in my town 15 or 20 years ago, except they had to go to court twice for the owner to get satisfaction. The first time the judge ruled that the “owner” couldn’t park in front of the dealership with the lettering but he could drive it around or park elsewhere. Result-- He had the car painted a bright lemon yellow and parked it permanantly in front of the dealership as a constant reminder to everyone in this small community of the buyers satisfaction with the dealer. The judge couldn’t/didn’t do anything the second time. The car sat there a couple years with the owner towing it every couple weeks around town to satisfy the police that it wasn’t a derelict.