Lemon Law Glossary

The dash read "Super Cruise Unavailable." Then the truck braked on its own with nothing in front of it. The 2025 Hummer EV case out of Nevada was an ADAS case first and everything else second: the hands-free system disengaging, phantom braking, infotainment freezing with the navigation gone, wind noise through the microphone on calls, a swing gate that would not behave, and an A/C odor. The truck spent 57 days out of service. ADAS means advanced driver-assistance systems, and a fault in one is a warranty defect like a bad transmission, except that these systems touch braking and steering, so a documented ADAS failure is often treated as a safety defect. GM took the truck back.

Reverse would not engage. On a 2023 Ford F-150 Lightning in Arizona that complaint came back across six visits and 132 days out of service, and the case closed as a cash-and-keep settlement. Arizona's statute, Revised Statutes 44-1261 to 44-1267, applies during the warranty term or two years and 24,000 miles from delivery, whichever comes first. The presumption arises after four repair attempts for the same defect or 30 cumulative calendar days out of service. Arizona also requires written notice to the manufacturer and gives it one final attempt to repair. Details are on the Arizona lemon law page.

Seven visits for ten thousand dollars. The 2025 Oregon X5 spent 66 days out of service on an electrical system that kept faulting, a charging system that would not hold, and a CCU module that finally failed, and it closed at $10,415. Nobody takes a case that size by the hour. It was worth taking because Oregon lets the court make the manufacturer pay the consumer's reasonable attorney fees when the consumer prevails (ORS 646A.400 and the sections after it). The Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act works the same way: the court may add fees based on actual time expended to the judgment. When the court awards fees, the manufacturer pays for the lawyer's time, not the owner. That is fee shifting, and it is the reason lemon law firms, including Easy Lemon, can take small cases without charging the client an hourly rate.

Repair attempts only count toward a lemon law claim when they are made by the manufacturer or its authorized dealer or agent. Keep every repair order the dealer hands you, even the ones that say "could not duplicate." Those documents are the spine of the claim.

After a manufacturer repurchases a lemon, some states require the title to be branded so the next buyer knows the history. New York, for example, requires the title of a returned vehicle to show that it was returned for a warranty defect. A brand lowers resale value and can change what an insurer will write. Read more in Does a lemon title affect insurance?

When a repurchased vehicle is repaired and resold, the disclosure tells the next buyer what the defect was and that the manufacturer took the car back. Disclosure rules and title branding differ by state. If you bought a used car and later learned it had been bought back with no disclosure, that is a separate claim from the original lemon law case.

The owner kept the vehicle. That is the whole structure: the title stays, the remaining warranty stays, and the manufacturer writes a check for the lost use and the lost value. The Wagoneer case was a 2023 in Florida: ten repair visits, 162 days out of service, 92 of them with the engine sitting at the dealer under no open repair order, nobody able to say what was being done to it or when. It closed at $22,000. Chapter 681 of the Florida Statutes does not name cash-and-keep anywhere. Its remedies are replacement or refund, so this came out of negotiation, not out of the book. It had 11 miles on it at delivery.

A CPO warranty is a written warranty under the Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act, so repeated failed repairs on a certified used car may support a federal claim even where the state new-car lemon law does not apply. New York and New Jersey also have their own used car lemon laws. Coverage depends on the warranty terms and the state, so check the used car lemon law page.

A used 2024 Silverado EV spent 44 days at a Florida dealer on a single repair visit for electrical problems. The owner kept the truck and received $11,000. No part of that $11,000 was a civil penalty. Not every lemon law has one. Where a statute does, it is an amount a court can add on top of the refund when the manufacturer willfully refuses what the law requires. In a Florida case, other damages measures sit outside Chapter 681, in FDUTPA and the Uniform Commercial Code, and can run alongside the lemon law claim. Whether a penalty is on the table where you live is a question for the state pillar page and for counsel.

Nobody ever found the noise. A Florida Telluride kept coming back with a sound from the rear that the dealer could hear and could not name, 40 days out of service, and Kia took the car back in a full buyback. The refund on a buyback is not the sticker price. It is the price plus the collateral charges, which Chapter 681 defines as what the owner paid on top of the price to put the car on the road: sales tax, registration, title, dealer fees, the small print down the buyer's order. All of it comes back with the price, less the offset for use. Pull the buyer's order out of the glovebox before the first call. Florida's statute requires the manufacturer to refund the collateral charges.

Federal law defines a consumer as a buyer of consumer goods, any person to whom the product is transferred during the warranty period, and anyone entitled to enforce the warranty. State lemon laws use their own definitions, and most limit coverage to vehicles bought or leased for personal, family, or household purposes. A vehicle titled to a business can fall outside some state statutes but still qualify under the federal act.

Two hundred seventy-nine days out of service. That number made the case, not the mirror that would not dim, not the SOS button that quit twice, not the gateway module the dealer swapped on the fourth trip. An Illinois owner brought a 2023 Alfa Romeo Stelvio in six times and none of the complaints looked like a lemon on its own. The shop time did. Illinois counts business days toward the out-of-service total and wants written notice to the manufacturer, so every repair order got tallied by its in and out dates, the messy ones too. It closed at $17,000, cash-and-keep, and the owner still has the car.

The letter went out before anything else did. Colorado wants written notice to the manufacturer by certified mail before the presumption counts for anything, so on the F-150 case the notice came first. The truck was a 2024 with 7,000 miles that would not start: both batteries had failed, it kept discharging after the batteries were replaced, the DCDC inverter was replaced, and P0AA6:00 stayed stored through all of it. Ford took the truck back. A demand letter says three things: what the defect is, what the repair history has been, and what remedy the owner wants, and in the states that require a final repair attempt it starts that clock. Send it by the method the statute names. A letter sent the wrong way is a letter the manufacturer can say it never got.

A demonstrator has miles on it but has never been titled to a retail buyer. Florida's statute expressly covers new or demonstrator vehicles. In other states, coverage turns on how the statute defines a new vehicle, so check the pillar page for your state.

The new-vehicle limited warranty in your glovebox is an express warranty. Under federal law it is a written warranty when it affirms the product is defect-free or promises to repair or replace it. Lemon law claims are built on the manufacturer's failure to honor this promise after a reasonable number of tries.

Extended service contract is the retail name for what federal law calls a service contract. Dealers often sell it as an "extended warranty," for a price of its own, but it is not a warranty, and failed repairs under one do not by themselves create a lemon law claim. What it covers, and for how long, is whatever the contract says. The federal definition and the 90-day rule are under Service Contract.

FDUTPA prohibits unfair methods of competition and unfair or deceptive acts in trade or commerce. A dealer that hides a repair history or a manufacturer that misrepresents a fix can face a FDUTPA count in addition to the lemon law count. The act provides actual damages, and the court may award attorney fees to the prevailing party, which can be either side.

The Florida F-150 case, with electrical and drivetrain complaints on the repair orders and 26 days out of service, closed at $73,840. Florida requires written notice to the manufacturer once the repair threshold is met and then one last attempt before the owner can demand a repurchase, all of it inside Chapter 681 of the Florida Statutes. The final repair attempt is the manufacturer's last chance: one trip, after the notice. Georgia gives the manufacturer 28 days for it. Skip the notice where the statute wants it and a strong claim stalls at the door while the manufacturer points at the letter that never came.

A Florida Wrangler case came to 83 days out of service. It was a 2023 with six repair visits: a fuel tank isolation valve throwing evap leak codes, a charging fault on the IDCM that kept coming back, a timing chain tensioner piston that collapsed, coolant that kept disappearing, and on one of those visits a spun rod bearing on cylinder three that took the crankshaft with it and ended in a whole new engine. Florida's statute, sections 681.10 through 681.118, presumes a lemon after three attempts plus one final try on written notice, or 30 days out of service, inside a 24-month rights period, and the arbitration board hears it before any lawsuit. This one did not need the board. It closed at $13,000 and the owner kept the Jeep. More on the Florida lemon law page.

The oil came out full of metal. A 2025 Suburban in Florida had scored rod bearings, scored main bearings, a damaged crankshaft and a seized engine, all on a single repair visit, so nobody counted repair attempts and the calendar did the work: 72 days. A Florida case like that does not start in a courthouse. It goes to the Florida New Motor Vehicle Arbitration Board on a Request for Arbitration, a state panel under Chapter 681 rather than a manufacturer program, and the board hears it and rules, either side free to appeal to circuit court. Two clocks run under it. Fifteen days out of service and the owner owes the manufacturer written notice. Thirty raises the presumption. The Suburban passed both sitting at the dealer. It closed cash-and-keep.

A warrantor that labels a warranty "full" must remedy defects within a reasonable time without charge, may not limit the duration of implied warranties, and must offer a refund or replacement if it cannot fix the product after a reasonable number of attempts. Most automaker warranties are labeled "limited" to avoid these duties. The label matters for the federal claim, not the state claim.

The J533 module failed from the inside. Before it did, the 2024 Atlas had come into a Georgia dealer with a cracked rear hatch light bar, a 12-volt warning that came and went, coolant codes that cost it a thermostat housing, and a not-charging warning after that. It spent 18 days out of service. Volkswagen bought it back, and the case never got near the 30 days Georgia counts, because it did not need them. Georgia's number is three: three tries on one defect, one try on a serious safety defect, or those 30 days, all set out in Georgia Code 10-1-780 through 10-1-795. Once that threshold is reached, the owner writes the manufacturer by certified mail or statutory overnight delivery and the factory gets 28 days for its last attempt. The Georgia lemon law page has the rest.

One year or 12,000 miles. That is the Illinois window, shorter than most states, and it is the first thing to check on any Illinois case. The 2025 Telluride case fit inside it: a pulsing vibration on acceleration above 45 mph, four visits, 60 days out of service, and a full buyback. The act sits at 815 ILCS 380/1 to 380/7, counts business days rather than calendar days for the out-of-service test, and requires written notice to the manufacturer before the presumption does its work. Details are on the Illinois lemon law page.

If you told the dealer you needed a truck to tow a 9,000-pound trailer and the dealer sold you one that cannot, the fitness warranty may be in play. It is narrower than merchantability and depends on what the seller knew at the time of sale. Under federal law, a written warranty cannot disclaim it.

A sale by a dealer carries an implied warranty that the car will pass without objection in the trade and is fit for ordinary use, unless the sale lawfully disclaimed it. A car that stalls, will not start, or throws the same fault code every month arguably breaches it. Under the Magnuson-Moss Act, a seller that gives a written warranty may limit the duration of the implied warranty but cannot disclaim it outright.

The Q5 came in on a flatbed. A 2025 in Connecticut lost power on the road with warning lights, and the tow was the first cost that had nothing to do with the sticker. That tow-in was one of four repair attempts on a car that also had a check engine light returning with stored codes, a fuel filler cap replaced and still bad, an Audi KD2 service action done twice after post-OTA software faults, and a lug nut missing with the rest loose. It spent 34 days out of service, and the first repair came at 8,008 miles. Audi bought it back. Incidental damages are what the defect cost outside the car, the tow, the rental, the rideshare fares while it sat, and the Uniform Commercial Code covers expenses reasonably incurred in the inspection, transportation, care and custody of goods rightfully rejected, plus other reasonable expenses tied to the breach. Keep every receipt.

A warrantor may set up an informal dispute settlement procedure that complies with FTC Rule 703 and require consumers to use it before suing under the federal act. The decision is not binding on the consumer. Whether a given program qualifies, and whether your state requires it, is a state-by-state question.

A lease gets unwound, not bought back, but it comes to the same thing for the lessee. The Kia Sorento file was a 2025 in Ohio, a no-start with a check engine light on day one, four visits, 41 days out of service, and Kia unwound the lease. The manufacturer pays off the lease and refunds what the lessee paid in, less the use offset, and the lessee returns the car and walks away from the remaining payments. Every state statute summarized on this site extends coverage to vehicles bought or leased in the state. Leasing does not cost you the claim.

Ten days after delivery, with under 320 miles on it, a 2026 Ram 1500 Rebel GT in North Carolina lit up with warnings across the digital cluster, and the dealer found the instrument panel cluster had failed internally. One visit. The truck sat from September 15 to November 5, 2025, 52 consecutive days, while the cluster was replaced, a proxi alignment re-paired it to the truck, and RRT 25-223 was run. The slang word is lemon. The legal test is a covered defect that substantially impairs use, value or safety and that survives the attempts or the days your state sets. Fifty-two days on one repair order meets the days-out-of-service test. Stellantis settled it as a cash-and-keep, and the owner still drives the truck.

Every state has one, and no two are identical. They differ on the coverage period, the number of attempts, the day count, notice rules, and whether arbitration comes first. The federal Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act sits alongside them and covers warranty breaches the state law may miss. Start with the what is lemon law page, then find your state on areas we serve.

Because the statutes shift attorney fees to the manufacturer when the consumer prevails, lemon law attorneys typically work without charging the client hourly. Easy Lemon is a consumer brand of RockPoint Law P.C. Meet the attorneys on the team page.

Buyback and repurchase mean the same thing, and the Repurchase entry has the statute's formula. In practice, it looks like a 2024 Hummer EV in Florida with twelve repair visits and a rear hatch that would not latch no matter what the dealer did to it, latch adjusted, wedge adjusted, actuator replaced, gate module reprogrammed, a trip to a body shop for alignment, still would not latch, while the roof leaked into the cabin at both front corners and the Super Cruise button was missing from the steering wheel and the whole wheel had to be replaced. It spent 66 days out of service. GM took the truck back. That means the purchase price and collateral charges refunded and the lien paid off, less a reasonable offset for use, all of it laid out in section 681.104(2) of the Florida Statutes. Timing is covered in how long a buyback takes.

Florida gives you 24 months from delivery. That is the rights period, the window in which the defect has to be reported for Chapter 681 to apply, and it is not the deadline to file. The 2024 Mercedes-Benz C-Class case in Florida shows what it looks like in practice: a car that would not crank, a check engine light that came and went, a loud noise from the engine and transmission at low speed, a turbocharger replaced, and then a recommendation to replace the engine, all of it written on repair orders inside that window. Mercedes bought the car back. Ohio measures its period as a year or 18,000 miles and Maryland 24 months or 18,000 miles. Report the defect in writing inside the window, even when the repair visits run past it.

In a repurchase, the manufacturer pays the lienholder the loan payoff directly, and the balance goes to the consumer. If the payoff is larger than the refund because of negative equity rolled into the loan, the consumer may owe the difference. The lienholder must release its lien before title can transfer back to the manufacturer.

The Magnuson-Moss Act requires warranties on consumer products costing more than $10 to be labeled either "full" or "limited." A limited warranty can restrict remedies to repair only and can cap the duration of implied warranties, but it still must be honored. Failure to repair under a limited warranty after a reasonable number of attempts is a breach.

Seven days out of service would not get a Washington case past the state count. The Audi Q5 e case did not need it to. Wireless CarPlay dropped on every one of four visits, the MMI screen went black while driving on three of them, the charging pad overheated, and Audi applied TSB 2062466/5, then TSB 2064681/5, then a full MMI update and an engineering Android update, and the defect outlived all of it. The federal act, 15 U.S.C. 2301 through 2312, asks a different question than a day count. Did the warrantor fix the covered defect in a reasonable number of tries? Four documented failures on the same complaint answered that, and Audi took the car back. The act reaches used cars and older cars that state statutes leave out. Read the Magnuson-Moss page.

Lemon law obligations run to the manufacturer (or its distributor for imports), even though the dealer performed the repairs. The dealer is the manufacturer's agent for warranty work. Under the federal act the same party is called the warrantor: any supplier who gives or offers to give a written warranty.

On a 2024 Charger Daytona in Utah, the dealer reflashed five modules (MCPA, MCPB, EVCU, BPCM and IDCM) on the first visit, and a Service Electrical System message kept returning on codes U1208 and U1202. Then came a Uconnect Box error that survived a TBM2 reset. In all, the car had four repair attempts and more than 50 days out of service. It closed cash-and-keep. Utah did not make the owner use the manufacturer's program. It is not required there, so the case went ahead without it. Many states go the other way. Georgia, Maryland, Michigan, Ohio and Wisconsin require the manufacturer's program first where it is state-certified or meets the state's standards; Arizona, Illinois and Pennsylvania require it where it follows the federal FTC rules; and New York requires it wherever the manufacturer has one. New Jersey does not. Where it runs, the result generally binds the manufacturer but not the consumer, who can still go to court. The arbitration line on your state's pillar page says which.

No heat and a check engine light, in the same week. The 2024 Blazer EV in Maryland went on from there to taillights that came on at random in cold weather, brake lights that stuck on, forward collision and cruise control that misbehaved, pin-fit repairs on the BCM and the BPS, and a 12-volt battery that quit. GM bought it back at $49,568. Four is Maryland's number, not three. The Automobile Warranty Enforcement Act, Commercial Law 14-1501 through 14-1504, reaches a new vehicle bought, leased or registered in the state during its first 24 months or 18,000 miles, and four tries on one defect raise the presumption, as do 30 days out of service or one failed try on brakes or steering. Notice goes by certified mail. Suit must be filed within three years of delivery. The Maryland lemon law page carries the rest.

A 2024 Kia EV9 in Michigan had a high-voltage battery failure, three visits and 75 days out of service, and Kia bought it back. Michigan's act runs from section 257.1401 to 257.1410 of the Compiled Laws and covers new vehicles bought or leased in the state for personal use. Two steps matter here. The consumer must give the manufacturer written notice, and the manufacturer then gets a final repair attempt before the repurchase obligation attaches. The act sets no filing deadline of its own; the defect must first be reported within the express warranty term or 1 year from delivery, whichever is earlier. Details on the Michigan lemon law page.

The Service High Voltage System warning kept coming back on a 2025 Silverado EV in New Jersey, with code P1E00 in the drive motor control module and P1C01 in the battery control module, then a high-voltage battery malfunction and a navigation system that went dead. GM bought it back, $75,015 on the settlement. Twenty is New Jersey's number. Twenty cumulative days out of service raises the presumption, as do three attempts on the same defect or one on a serious safety defect. The New Jersey Lemon Law, N.J. Stat. §56:12-29 to §56:12-49, covers vehicles bought or leased in the state within two years or 24,000 miles of delivery. There is no arbitration step in front of the courthouse. Dealer-sold used cars run under a different statute. The New Jersey lemon law page has both.

A 2024 Tesla Cybertruck in New York lost brake pressure and spent 19 days out of service, and Tesla took it back. Nineteen days is under the 30 the statute names, and the case still resolved as a buyback, which shows the day count is a presumption and not the only way in. New York's New Car Lemon Law, General Business Law 198-a, covers vehicles bought, leased or registered in the state, and four repair attempts or 30 cumulative days out of service in the first 18,000 miles or two years raises the presumption. There is a separate Used Car Lemon Law at 198-b, and New York requires the title of a returned vehicle to show that it was returned for a warranty defect. See the New York lemon law page.

The last finding on a 2026 Cadillac Escalade-V in New York was chafed wiring on circuits 4055 and 4054 at the water pump manifold assembly, after a check engine light that kept returning, a failed fuel pump driver module and a failed ECM. It settled at $32,000, cash-and-keep, and the truck stayed with the owner. New York's Attorney General runs the New Motor Vehicle Lemon Law Arbitration Program, the consumer files a request and pays the filing fee, and a hearing follows. Counsel can appear in the program for the consumer. It is an option, not a required step. What New York does require is the manufacturer's own dispute program, where one exists, before a claim for a refund or replacement. A New York case should be planned with both routes in mind from the first repair order.

The Refill Inverter Coolant dash message was the nonconformity in a 2020 Kia Niro case in Florida, and it appeared on all five repair orders. What the dealer did about it changed every time: a leaking evaporator core and a dead on-board charger on the first visit, debris in the radiator and a new long block on the second, a restricted low-conductivity coolant pipe on the fourth, and on the fifth, corrosion through the whole cooling circuit with a new traction motor, high-voltage pump, water pump and A/C chiller. The statute does not care which part. Nonconformity means the vehicle does not conform to its warranty, and a warning that survives five repairs and 110 days out of service is one condition, not five. It settled at $4,000, cash-and-keep.

Ohio's statute, Revised Code 1345.71 through 1345.77, covers new vehicles bought or leased for personal use in the first year or 18,000 miles. It presumes a lemon after three attempts on one defect, one attempt where the defect is likely to cause death or serious injury, eight attempts on any nonconformities, or 30 cumulative days out of service. No certified-mail step, no final-attempt step. Leases count the same as purchases, and the Leased Vehicle entry follows a leased Kia in Ohio whose lease was unwound after four visits. See the Ohio lemon law page.

A 2025 Chevrolet Silverado 2500HD case in Pennsylvania closed at $21,000, and the owner kept the truck. The Pennsylvania Automobile Lemon Law, 73 Pa. Stat. 1951 through 1960, covers new vehicles bought, leased or registered in the state, and it presumes a lemon after three repair attempts for the same defect or 30 cumulative days out of service, all inside the shorter of 12 months, 12,000 miles or the warranty term. If the manufacturer has a dispute program that follows the federal FTC rules, the owner uses it first, and its decision does not bind the owner. Twelve months is short. The repair orders have to start early. See the Pennsylvania lemon law page.

A 2024 Audi Q8 e-tron in Texas spent 166 days out of service. Texas presumes a lemon at 30 days, so the count answered whether Audi had a reasonable opportunity. The Q8 e-tron went in three times: for an electric motor that failed, a coolant leak in the drivetrain, and then module failures cascading through the electrical system, while it sat at the dealer for the better part of six months. A presumption moves the burden. Once the attempts or the days are met, the manufacturer has to show it did not get its chance, instead of the owner proving it did. It is not the only road. A case one visit short can still prove a reasonable number of attempts on its facts. This one was not short, and Audi repurchased the car.

Each state fixes the number. Three attempts is the figure in Florida, Georgia, New Jersey, Ohio and Pennsylvania; four in Arizona, Illinois, Maryland, Michigan, New York, Texas and Wisconsin. In New York, four attempts on the same defect, or 30 days out of service, give the manufacturer its reasonable chance under General Business Law 198-a.

The recall got done. The light came back. That was a 2023 Mercedes-Benz GLE in New York, a persistent check engine light that returned after the recall repair, three visits, 106 days out of service, and a $10,000 cash-and-keep at the end of it. A recall is a fleet-wide fix ordered under federal motor vehicle safety law. A lemon law claim is about your specific car and the manufacturer's repeated failure to fix it. The two overlap when the recall remedy does not hold or is not available for months. Browse open campaigns on the recalls page.

Florida covers recreational vehicles with a longer 60-day out-of-service threshold. Texas covers towable RVs. Wisconsin includes motor homes. Other states limit coverage to passenger vehicles, so the answer depends on where you bought the unit. The federal warranty act applies to RVs regardless.

A 2021 GMC Yukon out of Idaho produced fifteen repair orders and 80 days out of service before GM took it back, with the check engine light throwing a different code almost every time: P2459, U02A9, P14D9, P3055, P3056, U043A. Nobody remembers fifteen visits. The paper does. Each order should show your complaint in your words, what the technician found, the odometer and the in and out dates, and you should ask for a copy every time, especially on visits where the dealer says it could not reproduce the fault. A visit with no paperwork is hard to count.

A 2024 Volkswagen Taos in Georgia had manufacturing defects that kept coming back, and Georgia's statute puts two doors in front of an owner like that: replacement or refund. Volkswagen bought the car back. A replacement vehicle is the other door, a comparable new vehicle swapped for the lemon, with the manufacturer typically paying the collateral charges on the exchange. In most states the consumer picks. Many owners take the refund instead so they can shop a different brand.

Repurchase is the statute's word. Buyback is what everyone else calls it, and the Lemon Law Buyback entry walks through a real one. The formula is set state by state. Florida's, section 681.104(2), has the manufacturer take the vehicle back and refund the full purchase price with all reasonably incurred collateral and incidental charges, less a reasonable offset for use, and the refund goes to the owner and the lienholder as their interests appear. A Florida owner offered a replacement can still insist on the refund. That choice belongs to the consumer, not the manufacturer. More in what a manufacturer buyback is.

Under U.C.C. §2-608, a buyer who accepted a vehicle can revoke acceptance if a nonconformity substantially impairs its value and was hard to discover or the seller promised to cure it. Revocation must happen within a reasonable time after the buyer discovers the defect. It is a fallback when the lemon law does not fit, such as a used car with a dealer warranty.

A 2024 Escalade case in Florida closed on trim and HVAC complaints. Neither reads like a lemon on paper, nothing that strands a truck on a highway. In Florida, the step between a repair history like that and a result like that is the manufacturer's right to cure. Arizona's statute has an express right-to-cure provision. Florida calls the same step a final repair attempt, and the substance does not move with the label. The owner sends written notice, the manufacturer gets one more repair attempt, and if the defect is still there when the car comes back the presumption applies. It is the manufacturer's entitlement, not a courtesy. A claim that skips it hands over a defense the manufacturer never had to earn.

Two is Texas's number for a serious safety hazard, four for anything else. A seatbelt defect is the first kind. The Acadia case, a 2024 in Texas, had seatbelt, steering and dashboard complaints across four repair visits and 103 days out of service, and it closed as a cash-and-keep. Brakes, steering, airbags, fuel leaks, sudden loss of power, that is the usual list. Georgia, New Jersey and Ohio presume a lemon after one failed attempt on a serious safety defect, and Maryland applies the single-attempt rule to braking or steering failures after notice and a chance to cure. Write the risk in your own words on the repair order. The technician will not do it for you.

The Magnuson-Moss Act defines a service contract as a written contract to perform, over a fixed period or for a specified duration, services relating to maintenance or repair, entered into for separate consideration. It is not a warranty. Selling one within 90 days of the sale bars the seller from disclaiming implied warranties.

A 2024 Corvette in New Hampshire stored code U1608, a transmission control module and gateway fault, and also had a convertible top latch that failed, center console buttons that quit and a sun visor that deformed, 28 days out of service in all. GM bought the car back on confidential terms. Routing that case was simple. Certified means the state looked at the manufacturer's program and signed off on it, and where that has happened, and only there, the statute makes the program a required first stop. Georgia, Maryland, Michigan, Ohio and Wisconsin run on that conditional model. New Hampshire does not. Under RSA 357-D the Corvette went to the state's own Motor Vehicle Arbitration Board, not to anything GM certified.

The Porsche Macan case in Illinois had eighteen months to file. Illinois counts its filing deadline from delivery, 18 months and out, and the Porsche ran suspension, drivetrain and electrical complaints inside that window and closed at $144,550 under 815 ILCS 380. The statute of limitations is the deadline to file. It is a different clock from the window in which the defect first has to show up, and the two get confused constantly. Wisconsin and Maryland allow three years from delivery, and Florida measures from the end of its 24-month rights period. Miss the date and the repair orders stop mattering, however many there are. Find your state on areas we serve and read the deadline line before you wait on the dealer's next promise.

Back glass broken on day two is not substantial impairment. A radio stuck at full volume is not either, on its own. A 2024 Blazer EV out of Missouri had both, and then it had the defect that was. First came a Service High Voltage System warning and a failed coolant control valve, then the same warning with reduced power and a coolant hose found on the wrong port, then a Service Charging System warning twice, a temperature sensor and terminal 48 backed out of the X140R connector, and finally no cabin heat in an electric SUV with a battery message on the screen. Seven visits, 53 days. The test is use, value or safety, and courts ask whether a reasonable buyer would have paid the price knowing about the defect. Nobody pays full price for a car that may not charge. It closed as a cash-and-keep.

A TSB tells technicians how to address a pattern failure the manufacturer already knows about. It is strong evidence in a lemon law case because it shows the defect is not unique to your car. NHTSA posts TSBs by make, model and year. If the TSB fix has been applied and the problem returns, that visit still counts as a repair attempt.

The screen went blank on every one of seven visits. The car was a 2024 Cadillac Lyriq in Texas. It spent 36 days out of service, and GM repurchased it in full. Texas sets four repair attempts for the same defect, two for a serious safety hazard, or 30 cumulative days out of service, covers new vehicles bought or leased in the state including towable RVs, and puts the whole thing in the Occupations Code at sections 2301.601 to 2301.613. There is no manufacturer arbitration here. A complaint goes to TxDMV, which holds a hearing. See the Texas lemon law page.

A manufacturer cannot void your warranty because you had oil changes done at an independent shop or installed non-OEM brake pads, unless it provides those parts or services free of charge or has an FTC waiver. Dealers sometimes claim otherwise to deny a warranty repair. That denial can itself be a breach.

The hood came apart from the inside. A 2025 Genesis GV70 in Texas had about 4,000 miles on it when the hood started shaking at 70 mph and up, and on the second visit the dealer took the hood shield off and found the wooden frame inside the outer skin had separated. Two visits, 90 days out of service, a whole new hood, and Genesis bought the car back for $54,516. Texas does not send a case like that to a manufacturer program. The complaint goes to the Texas Department of Motor Vehicles, a hearing examiner takes the evidence, and the agency itself can order a repurchase or a replacement. The filing fee is $35, and the other side pays it back if the consumer wins. Two is the Texas number where the defect is a serious safety hazard. The filing deadlines are strict and sit on the Texas pillar page. Read them before the calendar decides the case.

UDAP statutes prohibit deceptive business conduct and typically allow a consumer to recover actual damages and attorney fees. Florida's version is FDUTPA; New York's is General Business Law §349. When a dealer misrepresents a car's repair history or a manufacturer denies a known defect, a UDAP count can sit beside the lemon law count.

Article 2 governs the sale of goods, including vehicles. Section 2-314 creates the implied warranty of merchantability, 2-608 allows revocation of acceptance, and 2-714 and 2-715 set the measure of damages. The Magnuson-Moss Act borrows these state-law warranties and adds a federal cause of action and fee shifting on top.

A Florida repurchase is not the sticker price back. The manufacturer gets to deduct a reasonable offset for use, and the statute, section 681.102, counts the miles driven up to the settlement or the arbitration hearing, whichever comes first, multiplies them by the base selling price and divides by 120,000, or 60,000 for an RV. On a car, every thousand miles costs the owner a little under one percent of that price. The Rivian R1S case was a Florida repurchase. The 2024 R1S had an airbag warning toggling on and off with nothing hit, roof trim loose above the driver's head in the rain, moisture in the taillights and the center light bar and a dead frunk switch, and after four visits and 69 days out of service Rivian took it back.

A used car bought from a dealer in New York carries a written warranty the statute requires, General Business Law 198-b, its length set by the odometer on the day of sale, and failed repairs inside that warranty are the claim. New Jersey does the same for dealer-sold used cars under its own Used Car Lemon Law. Most states have no used-car statute, so the claim rests on the federal warranty act and the UCC. The used car lemon law page goes state by state.

The Magnuson-Moss Act uses "warrantor" where state lemon laws say "manufacturer." A dealer that issues its own written warranty on a used car is also a warrantor for that warranty. The warrantor is the party liable for fee shifting when the consumer prevails.

The bumper-to-bumper warranty period and the lemon law coverage period are related but not identical. Pennsylvania covers the shorter of 12 months, 12,000 miles, or the warranty period; Arizona covers the warranty term or two years/24,000 miles, whichever comes first. A defect that first appears inside the lemon law window but is still unfixed after it closes can still be a claim.

A 2025 Kia K5 GT in Wisconsin had three visits for a transmission judder between gears and 54 days out of service, and Kia took the car back. Wisconsin's statute is a single section, 218.0171, and it covers new vehicles bought or leased in the state, motor homes included. The presumption arises after four repair attempts for the same defect or 30 cumulative calendar days out of service. Written notice to the manufacturer is required. If a dispute program certified by the state is available to the owner, the owner must use it before suing. See the Wisconsin lemon law page.

Telling the dealer is not the same as telling the manufacturer. Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Maryland, Michigan, and Wisconsin all require written notice to the manufacturer at some point in the process. Florida requires it after 15 cumulative days out of service. Use the address in your warranty booklet and the delivery method the statute names.

The Magnuson-Moss definition has two prongs: a written affirmation that the product is defect-free or will perform for a set period, or a written undertaking to refund, repair, or replace if it does not. The promise must be part of the basis of the bargain. A new-vehicle limited warranty and a CPO warranty both qualify.