What is the manufacturer’s obligation under the lemon laws?

UPDATED: Jul 16, 2021

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UPDATED: Jul 16, 2021Fact Checked

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Jeffrey Johnson

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Jeffrey Johnson is a legal writer with a focus on personal injury. He has worked on personal injury and sovereign immunity litigation in addition to experience in family, estate, and criminal law. He earned a J.D. from the University of Baltimore and has worked in legal offices and non-profits in Maryland, Texas, and North Carolina. He has also earned an MFA in screenwriting from Chapman Univer...

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UPDATED: Jul 16, 2021

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We strive to help you make confident insurance and legal decisions. Finding trusted and reliable insurance quotes and legal advice should be easy. This doesn’t influence our content. Our opinions are our own.

Editorial Guidelines: We are a free online resource for anyone interested in learning more about legal topics and insurance. Our goal is to be an objective, third-party resource for everything legal and insurance related. We update our site regularly, and all content is reviewed by experts.

UPDATED: Jul 16, 2021

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It’s all about you. We want to help you make the right legal decisions.

We strive to help you make confident insurance and legal decisions. Finding trusted and reliable insurance quotes and legal advice should be easy. This doesn’t influence our content. Our opinions are our own.

UPDATED: Jul 16, 2021Fact Checked

Under lemon laws, the manufacturer is usually held responsible for compensating the consumer for the defective “lemon” vehicle. The exact obligations of a vehicle manufacturer under lemon laws will vary depending on state. Each state has its own rules and regulations for what constitutes a lemon vehicle and what the manufacturer is required to do in a given situation in order to make things right with the consumer.

For specific details on what your manufacturer may be responsible for, it’s important to check local statutes in your area. However, in general terms, under any given lemon law, the manufacturer has certain obligations, provided the vehicle and its problems fall within the statutes of the warranty contract. The manufacturer must make necessary repairs to the vehicle to remedy the non-conforming condition. Repairs must be done even after the lemon law warranty time has expired, provided the consumer notified the manufacturer of the problem within the time window. If reasonable attempts to repair the problem do not succeed, the manufacturer is obligated to either replace the vehicle with a comparable one, or accept a return of the vehicle from the consumer. The choice is up to the consumer.

Should the lemon vehicle be returned, the manufacturer must reimburse the consumer. Typically, the amount reimbursed is determined based a number of factors. These include the full contract price, non-refundable portions of warranties and service contracts, collateral charges (license fees, registrations, etc.), finance charges incurred after the issue was reported, and other costs to the consumer such as court fees, lawyer fees, and costs of alternative transportation.

Once again, all details will vary–sometimes significantly–by location and by case, so it’s important to research your local lemon laws before moving ahead with a lemon law claim. You should also consider consulting a consumer or lemon law attorney to learn about the lemon law guidelines in your area and to make sure you follow the proper steps in making the claim against the manufacturer.

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Jeffrey Johnson

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Jeffrey Johnson is a legal writer with a focus on personal injury. He has worked on personal injury and sovereign immunity litigation in addition to experience in family, estate, and criminal law. He earned a J.D. from the University of Baltimore and has worked in legal offices and non-profits in Maryland, Texas, and North Carolina. He has also earned an MFA in screenwriting from Chapman Univer...

Insurance Lawyer

Editorial Guidelines: We are a free online resource for anyone interested in learning more about legal topics and insurance. Our goal is to be an objective, third-party resource for everything legal and insurance related. We update our site regularly, and all content is reviewed by experts.

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