My Car is a Lemon - What Do I Do?

If you purchased a car and the warranty is still in effect your state lemon law will probably be able to be applied. The federal law states that if a dealership or seller has attempted to fix your car's defects a reasonable number of times you may qualify for the lemon law. Unfortunately the phrase "reasonable number of times" is not specifically defined.

Most states have defined that phrase to mean that if your vehicle has been repaired four or more times for the same defect a lemon law should easily be applied to your situation.

The residents of some states receive the benefit of having leased cars qualify for state lemon law protection, and such is the case with the Arizona lemon law statutes.

If your car fails to meet safety standards repeatedly or fails to meet performance standards then your car may qualify under your state lemon law statutes. Be aware that the warranty implied by state lemon laws does not always coincide with the dates of the manufacturer's warranty. It is up to the consumer to know the difference.

Be sure to keep careful records of your for repairs including place, cost of labor, cost of parts, taxes paid, reason for repair, diagnosis by mechanic, estimated repairs and total cost. Be sure to get all of your repairs completed while the warranty is still in effect, and maintain all estimates and receipts in an easily accessible file to hand over to your lawyer. Make copies of everything and keep copies for yourself to take to court.

If your repairs are done in a timely manner and your record keeping is up to snuff, you should have no trouble winning your lemon law case.

Garret Langford is the webmaster of Arizona Lemon Law Attorney, a web resource where you can find the Arizona Lemon Law explained.