Many Queenslanders have "horror stories" about faulty new cars, but are not adequately protected by current Australian consumer laws, a parliamentary committee has heard.

The committee is gathering evidence for the Queensland Government as it continues to pressure the Commonwealth to set up laws to protect consumers who buy new cars that turn out to be "lemons".

Attorney-General Yvette D'Ath is spearheading a push by the State Government for national legislation to be enacted similar to that operating in the United States.

Ms D'Ath said US law made it far easier for people to receive either a replacement car or a refund if they bought a new vehicle that had proved itself to be repeatedly faulty.

Sunshine Coast man Ashton Wood told today's public hearing at Parliament House in Brisbane that he had been waging a social media campaign about so-called lemon laws since he felt compelled to go take extreme action when he could not get his new Jeep replaced.

"I destroyed my jeep in frustration after three years of lemon vehicle ownership, where the manufacturer and dealer wiped their hands of all responsibility and outright refused to replace my faulty vehicle or refund my money," he said.

"I've been contacted by husbands, wives, mums dads, even grandparents, whose lives have been affected by lemon vehicles and who would never have purchased their vehicle had they known about the safety reliability and build quality issues that they were about to experience.

"I hear horror stories from people every day and that is what keeps me focused on seeing the Government take a stand on behalf of voiceless consumers."

Australian consumer law 'not clear enough'

Ms D'Ath said consumer laws in Australia must be improved.

"Currently the Australian consumer laws, the wording's there but it's not clear enough," she said.

"There's a lot of grey areas in determining what is a vehicle with serious faults and I want to provide some more clarity around that.

"I've heard stories of people having their cars off the road for a month or more at a time, year after year, within weeks of purchasing the car, having problems with it and yet being told there's nothing wrong with it."

She said she was pushing for lemon laws to be considered as part of a Commonwealth consumer law review next year.

The state parliamentary committee is gathering evidence to be put to that review.

Ms D'Ath has asked the committee to examine how "lemon laws" in the United States could be introduced in Australia.

"The big difference is our laws don't define what is a significant fault with a vehicle to trigger the vehicle being replaced or the consumer being refunded," she said.

"The lemon laws in the US define what is a lemon. The definition is going to the amount of time the vehicle is off the road or the amount of times that that vehicle has been in for repairs."

She said other states had informed her they were not aware of the issue in their jurisdictions.

"Having said that, when I came in as Attorney-General, I was told the same thing in Queensland," she said.

"But I knew from my own experiences, from the people I had spoken to, that there are people out there, there are a lot of people out there and I don't think we understand the extent of the problem because most people just don't take up the fight."

The committee is due to report back to Queensland Parliament by November 30.