How to Utilize the Lemon Law

In the United States, three sets of laws protect you should you happen to buy a "lemon" - the Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act, the Uniform Commercial Code, and individual state "lemon laws." Though these laws cover most products that cost more than $25 and come with an express written warranty, it's most likely to be a defective automobile that gives you grief.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderate

Things You’ll Need:

• File Cabinets
• Calendars
• File Folders
• Notebooks
• Pens
• Personal Organizers
• Cameras
• Digital Cameras

1. Remember that if you're stuck with a lemon, your complaint is with the manufacturer. Although your instinct may be to blame the car dealer, the dealer is just the middleman for the defective product.
2. Document your repairs, and be accurate with each problem. Obtain copies of all warranty repair orders from the dealer and keep notes of your reported problems and all conversations you have with service people, including the date, time and participants in these conversations.
3. Contact your state attorney general's office or conduct other research to determine the provisions of your state's lemon law. There are variations in each state's laws.
4. Determine whether your previous efforts to repair the problem satisfy the requirements of your state's lemon law. Most state laws allow the manu-facturer three or four chances to repair the defect or defects.
5. Write to the manufacturer if problems persist. Explain how burdensome it is to continually repair the car, and how your trust in the product's reliability has been shattered. Ask for reimbursement of your related expenses (such as a rental car, if it was needed), or other compensation for your troubled experience. Your particular state's lemon law will prescribe methods for doing so.
6. State in your letter that you wish to exercise your right to a refund or replacement of the vehicle, if you would rather not keep the lemon. Specify which option you desire.
7. Consider hiring an attorney if the manufacturer is unresponsive. Find an attorney who specializes in lemon-law cases. Remember, though, that only some state lemon laws allow a consumer to recover attorneys' fees when suing a manufacturer.

Tips & Warnings

• Your best defense against an uncooperative manufacturer is a thorough, specific and accurate service-record paper trail. This shows that you made the correct
• number of attempts to have the problems fixed, whether the
• defect was the same each time, or several different ones.
• Most lemon laws allow an offset for the consumer's use of the vehicle when determining reimbursement amounts. That is, when refunding a buyer's money,
• the seller can deduct a certain percentage to account for the
• buyer's usage of the vehicle.