Are you afraid you just bought a lemon? If so, here are the steps you’ll want to take to have a chance at getting a refund or exchanging your vehicle. It’s very important that you do all of these items, or you may lose your window in which the lemon law can help you. Never hesitate to contact a law firm that handles lemon law claims to best protect your rights.
The first thing you’ll need to do is make sure your car is under some type of warranty. If you aren’t sure about the manufacturer’s warranty, here are a few popular ones. These are all bumper-to-bumper warranties, and the powertrain warranty is longer on most of these vehicles):
The above refers to being under warranty for X years from the car’s first sale date (not necessarily from the date you purchased it if you are not the original owner) or when the car reaches X number of miles (whichever comes first). So a 2-year-old car with 80,000 miles is no longer under warranty, nor is a 10-year-old car with 5,000 miles.
Used cars sometimes come with a 30-day warranty as well.
The next thing you need to do is take your car in for service with the mechanic designated by the warranty provider (usually the car dealership or the used car dealer that you bought it from). If you are a mechanic or your best friend, you can not do warranty service yourself. Keep detailed records of each service appointment (save the paperwork, take photos, save emails, etc.).
In order to qualify as a lemon, your car must either have a variety of different on-going problems (oil leaks, faulty brake lights, the radio shuts off by itself, or the battery dies frequently), or the car needs to have just one problem that has been fixed repeatedly yet still isn’t working properly (convertible roof still leaks after 4 trips to the dealer to correct it).
When you reach this point and the car is still defective, now you likely have a lemon law case. Before reaching out to a lemon law attorney, gather these documents:
From there, your attorney will take care of the next steps to contact the dealer or manufacturer for recourse. If you have already been through the above steps, schedule your free consultation with the “Lemon Law Lady” now.
Valerie G. Fernandez Campbell, known as The Lemon Law Lady, has dedicated her entire legal career to the specialized field of Lemon Law, a journey that began immediately after her
graduation from UCLA School of Law.
With a 99% success rate and a policy of no fees unless you win, her practice stands as a testament to her expertise in California’s Lemon Law, her commitment to her clients, and her unwavering dedication to justice and consumer rights.
