Lemon Law for California

If you think you bought or leased a lemon car there are several steps that you must take to effectively use the CA lemon law.

• Peruse your warranty and owner’s manual.
• Go to the dealer and tell about the problem. Make sure it is fully described on the repair order.
• If required contact the manufacturer directly. Send a letter describing the problems that need further repair. Send your letter by certified mail to the address shown in your warranty or owner’s manual.
• Keep the certified mail receipt and the copy of the letter.
• Keep copies of all repair orders in the order in which they occurred. You should focus on the problems that affect the use, value, or safety of the vehicle to you.
• Make copies of the purchase order and finance/lease agreement, and any other documents, such as signed statements, that might help support your case.

After you have followed the above-mentioned steps you should contact an attorney or law firm specializing in California lemon law and provide all the necessary documents to determine if your car is covered by California lemon law and what your best legal options are. California lemon law is to protect you as a consumer and an experienced attorney or law firm will help you get a refund or replacement.

If you’ve got a lemon car or truck and aren’t sure what to do in order to get it replaced or bought back under your state’s Lemon Law, these strategy tips will help you plot and plan your way to Lemon Law relief.

• Get Your Records Together

Get all your repair records and documents together and put it all in chronological repair order,starting with the oldest repair document first. To be sure you have everything and ask your dealer to give you a Vehicle Warranty Repair History.

• Figure Out What You Want the Manufacturer to Do

Decide what you want. Do you want a buyback or a replacement vehicle? Are you willing to settle for either approach? If you want a replacement vehicle, most manufacturers will want you to pay for any difference in sticker price but many Lemon Laws say you don’t have to do that; they usually will want you to pay for mileage too but many Lemon Laws say you don’t have to do that either. If you want a buyback, they will probably try to deduct something for mileage again, so be prepared for it. Generally, you are entitled to get back all your loan payments, your down payment, the value of your trade in vehicle, any permanent improvements you made to the vehicle, and make the manufacturer pay off the loan. But, it’s all negotiable. Remember, the harder you argue, the more likely you’ll get closer to what you want.

• Know Your State’s Lemon Law Rights

Every state has its Lemon Law and every manufacturer will know what the definition of a lemon is in your state. So you need to know that too in order to be ready for negotiation phase.

• Write Your Demand Letter to the Manufacturer

Lemon Law experience shows that writing a demand letter about your Lemon vehicle can help you get rid of your lemon car, lemon truck, lemon motorcycle, or lemon RV.

• Plan Your Counteroffer While You Wait

It will take the manufacturer most likely 30 days or more to answer your Lemon Law Demand letter. During that time you should be planning what to do, depending on how they answer. Remember that manufacturers hardly ever accept a consumer’s first request for Lemon Law relief and they almost always do one of two things: (1) make a counteroffer, or (2) refuse your request completely.  Be ready for that.

A car, new or with warranty, having one or more major problems that cannot be fixed in a particular time, is a lemon car. The best way to avoid buying a lemon car is to have some basic knowledge of the technicalities of cars.
To help you in this regard, we have come up with the tips to help you avoid buying a lemon car.

•    The very first step in buying a car to know exactly what you want. This can be done by research and window-shopping. Invest your time in going around and looking for the car you really want.

•    After you have already chosen the kind of car you want, you should search for the right dealer with good profile. This is a vital step to avoid buying a lemon car.

•    Don’t get too attached with a car. This emotional attachment may get you ripped off by a salesman because emotions can easily bend your choice and divert your attention from the signs that are telling you that the car could be a lemon.

•    Before buying a used car, get it thoroughly checked by a mechanic first. Of course you don’t want to spend money on a car which you don’t own, but it would be better to spend a little amount before you make the final purchase rather than spending a huge amount on fixing it after buying a lemon.

•    Note down the financing terms the dealer offers and compare them with other financing companies.

•    When buying a used car, always make sure that it is covered by a road worthiness certificate or a warranty. This will prevent you ending up with a lemon!

•    Avoid buying a car from a private seller because it will limit your claims in case it turns out to be a lemon car.

If you keep the above mentioned tips in mind, it will definitely help you avoid buying a lemon. In case despite all precautions, you have a lemon on your hands; seek professional legal help from a lemon law attorney in your state.

A car or truck is the second largest purchase the average American makes in a lifetime. That’s why every consumer should take time to get as much information about the vehicle they consider buying as possible. Consumers should know not only how it works, how to maintain the car, but also know the law and most importantly includes the Lemon Law, both state and federal. There was a serious need to protect consumers and the California Lemon Law or the Song Beverly Consumer Protection Act have been designed and adopted.

Often after the purchase the consumers find out that the vehicle they bought has persistent defects, but still these buyers continue to show loyalty to the brand and even keep trying to work with the dealership long after the dealership and manufacturer should have replaced their lemon vehicles without being compelled to do so.

There are several very important points that the consumer should know about the law and his/her rights. Following is the list of most important information you can find on our blog.
• What defines a Lemon vehicle in California?
• What is a defect? And what is substantial (regards defects)?
• How does a Lemon get manufactured?
• Finding resources for help with your Lemon car, motor home, boat or motorcycle, such as NHTSA, Bureau or Automotive Repair and consumer watchdog groups.
• Arbitration: Is it a good thing or a bad thing?
• Lemon Laundering: Is it still going on in California? How does it affect your lemon vehicle?
The list goes on and on. Please feel free to suggest topics of interest to you, the reader.

For most people, heavy summer rain results in congested rush hour roadways and perhaps increased travel time. For some unlucky car owners, however, driving in heavy rain means having to deal with annoying water leaks. The water leak is not only aggravating, but if allowed to persist, can turn into a hazardous mold condition.

The 2 main problems that usually cause water leaks are defective seals and/or defective drains.

1. Seals – Window seals and weather-stripping are designed to keep interior air in and the outside air out. One of the sings that the seal or weather-stripping is damaged is a hissing or whistle condition. Have the windows inspected for missing or damaged seals. Specifically, lumps or other imperfections may be preventing a seal and letting water in. You can try these 2 ways to check if the seal is working properly:

a. Chalk – Rub chalk on the surface of the weather strip. When you close the door, chalk will transfer from the strip to the door on areas that are sealed properly.

b. Dollar – Place a dollar bill in between the door and the car. Shut the door and then try and pull the dollar out. If your car is properly sealed, you will not be able to pull the dollar out.

2. Drains – Cars are made to channel water to places that are designed as drains. You may not realize it, but water flows all over the inside of a car body. Water can run inside the C pillars, the inside of doors, and through the cowl vents. Therefore it is important that you inspect your car for debris that can block the drains. This is especially true in cowling shields.

Basically, when you hire a lawyer they go through an extreme investigation in order to learn everything
that they can about your car. This is the only way for them to know how the concerns, which are typically referred to as non-conformities, have affected the use, value or safety of your car. At least this is what they do if you’ve used the previous guide to find a lemon law lawyer who know’s what they’re doing.

When the investigation is absolutely finished, the lawyer will confront the manufacturer of the car, present a very thorough statement about your case and then demand a full recovery for you. If the manufacturer agrees with your position, and you are satisfied with the offer, the case can generally be resolved very quickly.

It is entirely your own choice whether or not to accept or reject any offer. If you choose not to accept the offers made, the case next moves on to litigation which happens by your lawyers filing a lawsuit on your behalf in court.
No matter what you may think, it is not your word against the dealers either. Though this is what the manufacturers want you to feel, it just isn’t the case. Lawyers have the means to get all documents, repair records, service bulletins and names of witnesses to prove your case in court.

Good lawyers frequently take advantage of the services of Master ASE certified mechanics and appraisers who are can act as an impartial aid in understanding the nature of the non-conformities. If it’s necessary, the things that they find are then used in the testimony at trial to prove your case in the event it cannot be settled.
Lawyers use a large number of tools to prove your claim, so it is never your word against theirs. In this sense at least, you should feel at ease. You might be wondering how you can win a case when the repair records given to you by the dealer say the problem was never found. Well good lawyers are ready for this too.

Manipulation and/or poor preparation of repair records is one of the biggest concerns in lemon law cases. What most people don’t know is that when a car is taken to a dealer for a warranty repair, several copies of the repair order are made within the service department, most of these the customer will never see, even if you ask.
Each repair that is performed contains the following copies: customer; warranty payment; accounting and even a hard copy that shows all of the mechanics notes that were made for each repair. Most of the time these notes are not available to the customer; however, the customer copy will list a problem that is the most often complained about but the dealer’s actions might read “could not duplicate customer concerns.”
For that matter, it’s not entirely common for the hard copy to show you that the mechanic found the problem but has also been instructed not to try to do any repairs because no simple procedure can actually fix it.

When this happens, you, the customer get left with the wrong idea that the car is operating properly and will unknowingly drive it anyway; with a potentially dangerous defect.
You may be wondering why this happens so often. Well, it could be that a certain make or model in specific may suffer from a uniform problem such as a defective door latch which the manufacturer still hasn’t corrected.

Since there isn’t a factory authorized repair that was completed at the time, the dealer is told to either write “could not duplicate” or maybe “vehicle operating as designed” and the next thing you know the dealer sends you home with repairs still needed, but not performed.
Another reason that always seems to pop up is time. This is particularly the dealer’s time. Many dealers simply don’t have the resources or the mechanics that they need to properly diagnose and address a concern.

Other times, the manufacturer may limit the amount of time used to diagnose the cars for repairs and in many other cases, the dealer has to use unskilled mechanics who lack the knowledge to perform their function in an effective manner.
The bottom line here is that while repair records are always helpful to a case, they are not the only thing that will determine the outcome. If you feel you are not getting what you paid for in regards to your car’s quality and reliability, then no amount of misrepresentations on a repair invoice should convince you of anything else.

Here is a list of some of the things that you need to pay close attention to:
• How the vehicle is represented by the dealer at the time of sale.
• The repair history of the car and the repair orders that are not given to the customer.
• Accurate statement of customer concern per each invoice.
• Whether an effort of good faith was made to diagnose the problem already.
• Whether the model has a history of problems or not.
• Whether the customer was told the problem would disappear on its own.
• Whether the dealer noted on any invoice that there was a problem that could not be repeated.
• Whether the invoices make a reference to an accident that may have occurred before the sale and if so, whether the damage was mentioned.
• If the dealer told any lies about a customer’s legal rights and most importantly: Whether the customer got what he paid for.

When it comes to your individual case, the lawyer that you choose is very important to the outcome. And what they can do for you rests a great deal on what resources they have available to them and how much information they can gather on your behalf.
So, that’s about it for this guide to lemon laws and your options if you have a lemon car. We’ve covered a lot of information and I hope you’ve found it helpful. After all, that’s why I built this site.

In the interest of being thorough I decided to also include some information on the Magnusson-Moss Warranty Act as well as a complete list of all the state automobile lemon laws. Even though we’ve covered the must-know information already I do suggest taking the time to read through those sections as well.
Finally, if you did find the information in this site useful please let your friends and family know about it. You never know, you might just save them the time and trouble of dealing with a lemon of a car.

The first thing you need to know in dealing with your new lemon car is whether or not it actually qualifies as a lemon. After all, it does no good to try to exercise your rights under your states automobile lemon law if your car isn’t a “true lemon”.
So, the question is, do you have a lemon car?

 
Well, that’s what we’re going to answer here.
But first, what DOESN’T qualify as a lemon. Now, if the paint is just peeling, or if the light switch came out when you pulled on it, or if the car is starting to make strange noises, but it’s safe to drive it doesn’t qualify as a lemon.
If you found a bunch of stuff you don’t like about your new car but none of them actually makes the car undrivable or dangerous, you don’t have a lemon.
 
But, if the brakes don’t work, or it won’t go into reverse, or it won’t start on cold mornings or hot afternoons, or the car barely runs at 30 mph when it should easily be going 50 mph, then you may have a lemon. This of course, only applies if you have given the manufacturer an chance to fix it.
 
In most states, 10 different defects during the warranty period do not automatically make the car a lemon. In some states, a single defect that might cause serious injury makes your car a lemon if the manufacturer cannot fix the problem within 1 attempt.
As a general rule if your car has a serious defect that is unrepairable or is still defective after giving the manufacturer a reasonable chance to fix it AND all this happened during the warranty period, you may well have a lemon on your hands. Of course this is just a generality, every state has it’s own automobile lemon laws and you’ll have to go by your state’s lemon law guidelines to determine if your car qualifies as a lemon.

You may have a lemon, but if you do nothing to protect your rights, like keeping track of all repairs and giving the manufacturer a chance to fix the problem, you could lose all rights under the various state lemon laws.
Ok, so you’ve checked your state’s lemon laws and you are pretty sure you’ve got a lemon. Now what? Well, it would probably be a good idea to be sure of exactly what your responsibilities are as a lemon car owner as well as the responsibilities of the manufacturer. 

We know, you probably think this comes off as a sales page trying to get you to buy some kind of info-product and not a guide to recognizing a “lemon car” before you buy it. We purposely wrote that headline that way to get your attention.

Why, you ask? Well, because this is probably the most important thing we can teach you. After all, if you can learn to successfully avoid buying a lemon car in the first place you’ll be soooooo much better off. 
We’ll teach you how to successfully get out from under a “lemon car” if you do happen to end up with one. But, it’ll still be a big hassle that will cost you lots of time and cause pleanty of headaches before you’re done.

So, even though you can use your states automobile lemon laws to get some justice after the fact, it’s much better to just avoid the whole ordeal to start with. Agreed?
Ok, so with that in mind, here’s a checklist to help you tell if that shiny car you’re itching to buy is a “lemon” waiting to happen.

Check out this checklist before you buy your next car:
• Before you shop for a car, you should take the time to do enough research to know what you want. This is where it pays to do good research. You’ll often find out if the model of car your interested in has any well known defects or other known issues. There are lots of automobile review sites online that cater to consumers by giving alerts to these known issues. Start your research here.

• Don’t get too attached to a car before you buy it. It’s easy to let emotions sway your decisions, which could keep you from paying attention to the signs that are telling you the car you’re looking at could be a “lemon”.

• You should always buy used cars from lots that are connected to new car dealerships. They keep only the best trade-ins. Also, since they’re connected to large dealerships they may be a little easier to deal with if you happen to get a lemon vehicle.

• Don’t buy a used car from anyone without having it thoroughly checked out by an independent mechanic first. I know most people don’t like spending money on a car they don’t even own yet but look at it this way. The small amount you spend now can save you thousands of dollars and many months of headaches trying to fix the situation.
Besides, this should be the absolute last step before you sign on the dotted line. Make absolutely sure that everything else looks good before you take this last step. That way you’re not paying to have several cars checked out, and you’ll appreciate the peace of mind you’ll get from having a qualified mechanic tell you your new car isn’t gonna fall apart on you.

• The average yearly mileage that you should find on a used car is 15,000 miles. This is important for a couple reasons. First, most used cars start to break down once you pass 100,000 miles. Second, it gives you a good idea of how hard the previous owner drove the car. If it’s 2 years old and has 60,000 miles you can safely assume the previous owner drove it pretty hard, and the harder a car is driven the more wear and tear it’s parts get. Obviously, this will speed up any mechanical breakdowns.

• You’ll want to run the cars VIN (Vehicle Identification Number) to see if it’s been in any accidents or had any major repairs or recalls. The VIN number is what you’ll use to get all of the records for everything that has ever happened to that individual car. You should definately do this before you start buying a car whether it’s used or new. It could certainly save you a lot of time and money later.
If you follow this point by point system of buying it shouldn’t be too difficult to avoid getting stuck with most lemon cars.

You may drive the car (if it is drivable), but if the car does indeed turn out to be a lemon car, the law usually allows the seller to deduct a certain amount from your refund based on the miles you have driven. This applies to both new and used car sales.