MARKETING: Anti-Lemon Aid

The story is all too familiar. A shopper buys a refrigerator, handsaw or any of hundreds of thousands of other products covered by a warranty only to have the product quickly break down. When the consumer reads the warranty's fine print, he discovers that the document is so filled with exceptions and qualifications as to make the manufacturer's promise to fix or replace the item almost useless. That situation is likely to become far less common in the years ahead because of the first of a series of strict new warranty regulations...