Lemon Laws 

What is a Lemon?

A vehicle that qualifies as a Lemon continues to have a defect that essentially impairs the vehicles’ use, value or safety. In general, if the car has been repaired 4 or more times for the same defect, the car may qualify as a Lemon.

How do I know if I have a lemon?

Any safety features that are not working properly such as brakes or the vehicle will not go into reverse gear, the rear door opens mysteriously, the driver's seat wobbles, or the car chugs along at 30 mph when it should be going 50 mph, then you may have a Lemon.

You may have a Lemon, but if you do nothing to protect your Consumer Rights, such as documenting your repairs and allowing the manufacturer a chance to fix the problem(s), you lose all rights under the various State Warranty Acts. Warranties vary from state to state, so you should consult the Lemon Law Summary and the State Statutes for your particular state. Note that the warranty period may or may not coincide with the manufacturer's warranty

What are the Lemon Laws and what constitutes a Lemon?  

State Warranty Rights Acts

Only 2 states have not adopted these Lemon laws. While these lemon laws are not uniform,      they do follow a common theme.

·        The statutes define lemon cars and require that manufacturers (not dealers) remedy the defects. Most statutes define "lemon-ness" in terms of a car that continues to have a defect that substantially impairs its use, value, or safety of the car after a reasonable number of attempts to repair the car.

·        Most statutes set up a warranty rights period of either 12 to 24 months or 12,000 to 24,000 miles. The defects of the vehicle must occur sometime in this period.

·        Most of the statutes contain a 3 or 4 prong definition of when a manufacturer has had a sufficient number of attempts to repair the defected vehicle thus entitling the consumer to a refund or a replacement.

These include:

1.      If the defect is a serious safety feature involving brakes or steering, the manufacturer is granted one attempt to repair the problem.

2.      If the defect is not a serious safety feature, the manufacturer has two attempts to repair.

3.      For any other defect, the manufacturers are usually granted 3 or 4 attempts to repair the same defect.

4.      If at any time the vehicle is in the shop for a cumulative total of 30 days in a one-year period with at least one of those days occurring in the first 12 months or 12,000 miles.

If all of these criteria are met, the Lemon Law presumes that the buyer or leassee is entitled to a replacement vehicle or a refund. However, a replacement or refund may not be automatic; the manufacturer is entitled to prove that no problem exists and that a reasonable number of repair attempts have not been made, or that the problem does not substantially impair the vehicle's use, value or safety. Even if your car does not fit the presumption criteria, you may still be entitled to a buy back if you show that your vehicle has been in for a reasonable number of times or cannot be repaired.

·        Most lemon laws allow an offset for use of the vehicle for the customer. This reasonable offset for use often involves a reduction in the customer's purchase price return in relation to the number of miles he has driven on the vehicle. This law states the reduction in refund for use as follows:

(miles at time of refund x purchase price)/100,000

The customer can often effectively argue that they should not be charged for miles that were put on the vehicle after the initial attempt to repair the offending defect. For example, what if the consumer allows a dealer to make several attempts to repair a defect over a period of several thousand miles? Should the manufacturer be allowed to reduce his refund for the period of time he was unsuccessful in repairing the defect? The answer is no and the above formula should be computed using the mileage at the time of the first attempt. This can often make a difference of several hundred dollars to the customer. 

·        Only ½ of the lemon laws allow the customer to recover attorney's fees in their actions. Those states that do allow attorney's fees certainly provide greater access to representation in warranty disputes and greater likelihood of success.  

Magnuson-Moss Warranty-Federal Trade Commission Improvement Act-

 The Magnuson-Moss law is a federal law giving consumers substantial rights in dealing with manufacturers of lemon cars. One unrealized result of the Magnuson-Moss law is manufacturers began to advertise and compete on the basis of their warranty. This law provides for certain minimum requirements of warranties and provides for disclosure of warranties prior to purchase.

This is a federal law that protects the buyer of any product that costs more than $25 and comes with an express written warranty. 

Uniform Commercial Code TARR BABY-

The Uniform Commercial Code or UCC has been enacted in all 50 states and some territories of the United States. It is the primary source of law in all contracts dealing with the sale of goods. It contains what has been called called the TARR Baby law. See article entitled Tender, Acceptance, Rejection and Revocation, the UCC's "TARR" -Baby, 24 Drake Law Rev. 52

(1974) the understanding of this law is as follows: 

TENDER - The tender provisions of the Uniform Commercial Code contained in Section 2-601 provide that the buyer is entitled to reject any goods that fail in any respect conform to the contract. Unfortunately, new cars are often complex and their innermost workings are beyond the understanding of the average new car buyer. The buyer therefore does not know whether the goods are then conforming. 

ACCEPTANCE - The new car buyer therefore accepts the goods believing and expecting that the manufacturer will repair any problem he has with the goods under the warranty. 

REJECTION - The new car buyer may discover a problem with the vehicle within the first few miles of his purchase. This would allow the new car buyer to reject the goods. If the new car buyer discovers a defect in the car within a reasonable time to inspect the vehicle, he may reject the vehicle. This period is inexact. The buyer must be given a reasonable time to inspect and that implies a right to use the vehicle. However, continued use or use beyond a reasonable time to inspect will be held to be an acceptance of the vehicle. This reasonable time to inspect is based on the knowledge and experience of the buyer and the difficulty in discovering the defect. 

Note that if the manufacturer provides a certified arbitration program, the buyer or lessee must submit the dispute to the program before they can use the Lemon Law presumption in a lawsuit against the manufacturer. 

What Can I do?

Get in touch with your State Attorney General or Consumer Affairs Office and get the current lemon law information for your location. Keep very good records and documentation of all repair work made to the vehicle. You can also contact your local Legal Aid Service for information and possible assistance. Take the necessary steps and get all the information you can about how to protect yourself in this situation. 

Who do I contact?

·        Your counties' States Attorney's Office

·        Consumer Protection Agency

·        The Center for Auto Safety * http://www.autosafety.org/ * 2001 S Street, N.W., Suite 410 Washington, D.C. Telephone # (202) 328-7700

·        Better Business Bureau at 1-800-955-5100