The Song Beverly Consumer Warranty Act in California provides the definition of lemon law and mandates that if your car is a lemon, it be replaced or you get your money back from the manufacturer. While the Song Beverly Consumer Warranty Act goes a long way towards protecting a consumer from getting stuck wasting money on a lemon on their new or used car, you may wonder how to find out if your car is a lemon under the terms of the law.
How To Find Out if Your Car is a Lemon
If you are experiencing problems with your new or used car, the best way to find out if your car is a lemon is to see whether it fits in with the definition provided by the California lemon law. Under the Song Beverly Consumer Warranty Act, if your vehicle has been in the repair shop four or more times for the same issue within an 18 month or 18,000 mile period of time, then your car is probably a lemon. The rule is that four repairs during that time frame creates a “rebuttable presumption” that the car is a lemon- this means that the court will view it is a lemon unless or until the manufacturer proves otherwise.
What If My Car Doesn’t Meet the Lemon Law Definition?
So, what if your car has been in the repair shop three times in twelve months, or six times in 20 months, does that mean you are out of luck? Fortunately not, it just means that it may be a little bit harder to prove that the car is a lemon. While the law sets this definition as the conditions that create a rebuttable presumption, the law also stipulates that a car is considered a lemon once a manufacturer has had a “reasonable number of attempts” to repair the car and the car is still defective.
Therefore, if your car has been nothing but trouble since the beginning but doesn’t meet the strict definition necessary to create the rebuttable presumption, you still may have a lemon on your hands- you’ll just have to prove in court that there have been a reasonable number of repair attempts and that the defect still persists.
What Should You Do If You Think Your Car is a Lemon?
It can be hard for a consumer to find out on his own if the car is a lemon, so the best thing to do is to talk to an attorney experienced in lemon law. An experienced attorney will know the landscape of the law in the area where you live, and will be able to look at past cases in which manufacturers have settled and juries have ruled that a car is a lemon. Based on this information, your attorney can give you expert advice on whether the court or manufacturer is likely to consider your car a lemon and thus on whether or not you can get a replacement or your money back.
If you think your car might be a lemon please call our law firm for a free consultation. 1-877-702-7274 or email us at info@arashlaw.com
[...] take their word for it, check to see if you qualify for the California Lemon Law [...]