REFERENCE TO LEMON LAW
I bought a new car and had trouble with it since the first day I drove it off the car lot. I spoke with an attorney and he referenced a law called the Lemon Law. Since the first lemon law was passed in 1982, all fifty states have enacted some form of consumer protection for owners of defective automobiles. Although all fifty states now have a lemon law on their books, not all of them are the same, but they have been set in place for the same reason and that is to protect the consumer from being taken advantage of by a dishonest seller.
Before purchasing a car, either new or used, it is a good idea to research what your rights are with the lemon law and request a vehicle inspection from an outside company to make sure that the car is in good working order. The basic principle of the law is that it protects the new car buyer (that’s you) from purchasing a lemon and being stuck with no options. In general, the Lemon Law requires car manufacturers and not car dealers to refund the money a consumer has paid for if a car is found to be a “lemon. There are some guidelines you must meet in order to declare your vehicle as a Lemon. A motor vehicle may be declared a lemon if it meets all of the lemon law conditions. According the Lemon law the owner of a motor vehicle or the owner's designated agent may make a complaint concerning a defect in a motor vehicle that is covered by a manufacturer's, converter's, or distributor's warranty agreement applicable to the vehicle.
The lemon law does not cover any problems caused by the owner's neglect, abuse or unauthorized changes to the vehicle. Before filing a suit for any damaged vehicle for lemon law certain points must be ensured for proper proceedings in a federal court of law. The lemon law differentiates between minor and major malfunctions – in order to be eligible for compensation under the local lemon law, your vehicle must have a serious malfunction. Both the lemon law and an extended warranty can benefit you when you have purchased a new or used vehicle that appears to have defects that cannot be remedied by repeated repairs.
Most States have Lemon Laws that allow new and used car buyers to demand for refund or replacement when the cars that they have purchased have been proven to be defective. A lemon car is a defective car that, when purchased new or used, is found by the purchaser to have numerous or severe defects not readily apparent before the purchase. In relation to the repair-related clauses of the law, the used car lemon law also states that once an automobile has been repaired or parts of the machine replaced, three times, the dealership is obliged to accept the machine, should the buyer decide to send the auto back for a refund.
In addition to refunding the money, most Lemon Laws may also invoke the manufacturer to pay for incidental costs that the consumer has incurred due to the defect in question such as towing services and even rental of car while the “lemon” is still in the repair shop. It is important, however, to continue to pay your scheduled payments on the vehicle even if you are in the process of using the new car lemon law. One thing lemon law lawyers might tell you is that if you request the manufacturer to make restitution through a new vehicle or a refund before you file any civil suit and they refuse, you may be entitled to twice the compensation from the manufacturer should a civil trial find in your favor.
If you feel that you may have a lemon on your hands and would like to pursue your case in accordance with lemon law, consulting with an attorney is probably the best thing you can do if contacting the manufacturer directly fails. You may wish to hire an attorney to represent you; there are plenty of lawyers who specialize in lemon law cases, and they can probably bring the case to a solution more quickly than if you handle the case yourself.