Lemon law and defective cars

Lemon law - A law written to protect consumers from problems associated with perpetually defective cars, trucks or vans.

Does your state have one? Can it help you?

Before lemon laws, owners often had to harass, picket and sue dealers in order to address recurring problems with their cars.

The lemon law in your state may offer recourse if you own a problem vehicle. Such laws have been passed in every state over the last 25 years to protect people like you.

Lemon laws have been on the books in every state for more than ten years, guaranteeing a replacement vehicle for newly purchased or used vehicles with recurring problems, or “nonconformities”, as they are known. Obtaining relief isn’t always easy. You can do it yourself, but you may achieve success more quickly with the help of a qualified lemon law attorney who specializes in defective vehicle cases.

Until the early 1980’s, if you purchased a new automobile that had recurring problems that began shortly after purchase, you simply had to endure your bad luck. The first lemon laws were passed in 1982 in California and Connecticut and were designed to protect consumers from recurring problems with new vehicles.

Since then, every state has passed some form of consumer protection, and if you own a problem car, your relief may be just a phone call or mouse click away. In most states, relief can come in the form of either a full refund of your purchase price or a comparable replacement vehicle. Some states even offer limited protection for buyers of used vehicles, as well.

The sheer volume of cars manufactured each year virtually insures that a handful will be defective when shipped from the factory. As there are nearly twenty million new vehicles manufactured each year in the United States, it has been estimated nearly 100,000 vehicles annually could be considered to be auto lemons. Fortunately, that your chances of buying one are roughly one out of two hundred, but someone ends up with these cars, and if you’re reading this page, you’re probably one of those unfortunate customers. No manufacturer seems to be immune; you may own a Chrysler lemon, your neighbor may own a General Motors lemon, and someone down the road may own a defective Dodge, Toyota or Honda. Manufacturing errors affect eve