How long does the lemon law stay in effect?

Lemon laws were enacted to offer some protection for car buyers who get less than satisfactory vehicles from a seller. The Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act, a federal law created to protect a buyer who buys a product worth more than $25 and comes with an express (written) warranty. It’s mostly used in relation to automobiles whereupon a buyer would be able to either recover the purchase price or exchange the automobile he bought but turned out to be a lemon with a better one. Of course one does not have a free hand to enforce lemon law as he pleases.

 

There are a number of conditions to be met. The first obvious one is the existence of a warranty from a manufacturer. If a car does not have any warranty, then it is not legally possible to invoke lemon laws. Another thing is that if one bought the car on an “as is’ basis it will not be possible to invoke the lemon laws to the buyer’s favour.

The lemon laws require a car owner who notices certain kinds of defect to report the defects to the seller, and give the manufacturer the opportunity to repair the defects. Records of the visits should be kept to substantiate the visits. If the defect is not cured after at least four attempts, then the buyer may then claim the purchase price or a different car, and the automobile then may be a good candidate to qualify as a lemon. Scrupulous examination of state laws however, should follow in order to ascertain if the automobile actually qualifies.

Lemon laws vary from state to state but most of the steps described herein tend to be present in many states. Lemon laws would perhaps be effective as long as the warranty is in force, and many car warranties last for a period of about five years. If one bought the vehicle from a second hand car dealer, the lemon laws would be effective in some states if the period for the warranty has yet to run out.

In some states, it is possible to invoke lemon laws in respect of an old vehicle in cases where the vehicle in question was involved in a natural disaster (which might include floods, blizzards, hurricanes and twisters), or that the vehicle was fixed with stolen car parts, or had a rolled back Odometer, or had a history of mechanical faults. In this case, lemon laws would continue to operate even if the automobile no longer had a warranty from the manufacturer.

The conduct of the automobile owner may preclude him from seeking protection under the various lemon laws. For instance, delay in seeking help from the manufacturer may hurt the car owner’s case. One of the requirements required f the car owner is to give the manufacturer the opportunity to repair the defect. Continuance of the car owner to operate the car even after noticing the defect would thus undermine his case, especially considered that doing so may exacerbate the defect. Thus a general answer as to how long lemon laws stay effective for the benefit of the automobile owner, the general answer would be “it depends”.