FAQ – What is Lemon Law? How Does Lemon Law Protect a Consumer?
What is “lemon law”?
“Lemon law” is the area of law aimed to protect consumers from unreasonable manufacturers who provide defective products incapable of repair. California’s lemon laws are found in the Song-Beverly Consumer Warranty Act under the California Civil Code Sections 1790 et seq.
A federal lemon law, the Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act found at 15 United States Code Sections 2301 to 2310, offers similar protections to the California law.
In most cases, either law can apply, but the Song-Beverly Act provides more protection in most cases.
How many repair attempts are required?
This law permits consumers to seek replacement or reimbursement for major consumer products that are defective and which cannot be repaired within a “reasonable number” of attempts. As a general rule, at least two repairs are required for a safety defect and more than two if the problem is not related to the vehicle’s safe operation.
How does lemon law protect a consumer?
How does lemon law protect a consumer?
The lemon law allows consumers to file claims seeking FULL reimbursement, or a NEW replacement, for vehicles or consumer products where the manufacturer or dealer is unable to repair a defect after a reasonable number of attempts.
Mileage Offsets
The manufacturer’s liability may be reduced in proportion to the value of use of a vehicle. When a court offsets an award due to the owner’s use of the vehicle, typically the only use that offsets the award is that which took place prior to the first time the consumer brought the vehicle back to the manufacturer or dealer for the un-repairable defect. Manufacturers sometimes try to negotiate much larger offsets with consumers. This type of negotiating practice violates the law. Under Song-Beverly, the manufacturer is only entitled to an offset equal to the fraction of the purchase price. This fraction consists of a numerator made up of the number of miles at the time of the consumer’s first repair attempt and a denominator of 120,000, a figure designated by the California legislature as representing the average lifetime mileage of a passenger car.