How to Apply for Lemon Law in California

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. 

Know If Your Car is Under Warranty

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):

• BMW: 4 years or 50,000 miles
• Cadillac: 4 years or 50,000 miles
• Chevrolet: 3 years or 36,000 miles
• Dodge: 3 years or 36,000 miles
• Ford: 3 years or 36,000 miles
• GMC: 3 years or 36,000 miles
• Honda: 3 years or 36,000 miles
• Hyundai: 5 years or 60,000 miles
• Infiniti: 4 years or 60,000 miles
• Jaguar: 5 years or 60,000 miles 
• Kia: 5 years or 60,000 miles 
• Lincoln: 4 years or 50,000 miles 
• Mazda: 3 years or 36,000 miles
• Mercedes: 4 years or 50,000 miles
• Mitsubishi: 5 years or 60,000 miles 
• Nissan: 3 years or 36,000 miles
• Subaru: 3 years or 36,000 miles 
• Tesla: 4 years or 50,000 miles 
• Toyota: 3 years or 36,000 miles 
• Volkswagen: 6 years or 72,000 miles 
• Volvo: 4 years or 50,000 miles

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.

Contact Your Warranty Service Provider

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.).

If the Car Has Recurring Problems

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).  

California Lemon Law Claim Required Documents

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:

• Your car’s service records
• Purchase contract or bill of sale for the car
• The written warranty
• Emails or text messages between you and the dealership or mechanic that might help your case

Finally, Contact an Anaheim Lemon Law Attorney 

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.