When quickly reading over the lemon law statutes, it appears that consumers are required to take their car in for multiple auto repair attempts to address each problem their car is experiencing. But, while taking your vehicle into the auto repair technician a few times could be necessary, that is not always the case, and consulting with an attorney experienced in handling these types of incidents may save consumers time and money.
Under the lemon law, manufacturers are allotted a reasonable number of opportunities to figure out how to fix a defective vehicle before it is officially considered a lemon. This portion of the lemon law can be confusing or misleading and may have consumers taking their vehicle into the auto repair shop too many times without seeing any results and with the consumer still not knowing how to fix their car. While there is no set number of auto repair attempts that qualifies as a reasonable number of attempts, the lemon law does contain a presumption that lists guidelines for determining when a reasonable number of auto repair efforts have been made. If the manufacturer has not determined how to fix the same problem with your vehicle after four or more attempts or if your vehicle has been in the auto repair shop for the same problem for more than thirty days, it is likely that the lemon law will consider your vehicle a lemon. The presumption also provides that if your vehicle’s problems could cause death or serious bodily injury, and the auto repair technician has made two or more attempts without determining how to fix the car, it is likely that the lemon law will then consider the vehicle to be a lemon. But, because the lemon law requires manufacturers to repair serious warranty problems, it allows manufacturers a reasonable opportunity to do so, even without regard to the lemon law presumption.
Unfortunately, because of the language used in the lemon law, consumers are often confused about the amount of times they must take their vehicle in for auto repairs. This confusion can be further exasperated when a consumer is experiencing multiple defects with their car. A plain reading of the law requires that the manufacturer, or auto repair technician, be provided with a reasonable number of attempts before admitting that they do not know how to fix the problem. But, depending on the nature of the problem, two or more defects could be caused by the same issue, and what constitutes a reasonable number of repairs could be easily debated between the consumer’s attorney and the attorney for the manufacturer. To save time and money, once a consumer determines that their vehicle is defective they should immediately seek out and consult with an attorney who has been trained in this area of the law.