Lemon Laws In California For Used Car Purchases

If you are about to purchase a used car from a person or a dealer or have already purchased a used car in California, there’s good news for you.

You are actually protected under California’s Lemon Law which covers all kinds of pre-owned or used vehicles, as long as your vehicle possesses an active warranty from the dealer or the manufacturer.

However, since different manufacturers have distinct warranty guidelines, Lemon laws are not too specific on a vehicle-by-vehicle basis.

Therefore, we have brought for you a brief guide to know California’s used car lemon law better and understand whether your vehicle is protected by the law or not.

The Types of Vehicles Covered:

According to California’s lemon laws, if the car owners purchase their vehicles for family or personal uses, they are eligible for  protection against faulty manufacturing.

The law will also provide protection for a commercial vehicle if:

• The gross weight of the vehicle is below 10,000 pounds and
• The business owners have less than or equal to 5 vehicles registered under their name.

These vehicles include anything from cars, trailers, SUVs, trucks, and watercraft etc.

All such used vehicles should possess an active warranty in order to qualify for California’s Lemon Law. However, this warranty need not be same as the original manufacturer warranty.

Even an express written warranty in a used car dealership is eligible to qualify for the customer’s protection.

Cases Where Used Car Lemon Laws Are Less Specific:

There are instances where the guidelines for lemon laws applied to new vehicles are very specific, but these are left unspecified for the used car deals.

Due to this, used car lemon laws in California could be a bit more complicated compared to when the law applies to new vehicles.

Let us take an example of this:

If the owner of a new warrantied vehicle brings it back to the new-car dealer to have some of the recurring troubles fixed, but the dealer/ manufacturer is unable to fix them even after several efforts, the vehicle owner is eligible to get a replacement vehicle or full sum of the money that he/she has paid (many times, some amount of money paid to the vehicle owner is deducted if the vehicle is used considerably).

When the new vehicles are purchased, there is a clear formula for calculating the charge that has to be refunded to the vehicle owner.

However in cases where it’s a used vehicle, no such formula is provided to calculate the charge and the parties are left to discuss and negotiate the matter among themselves until a “settlement” amount is agreed upon.

Therefore, California’s used car lemon laws are quite specific for new vehicles but may lag to offer a concrete outcome in case of the used vehicles.

When To Consult An Attorney:

If you purchased a used car and it is still under warranty, you can ask the manufacturer for a fair sum of money or repair, in case it experiences some troubles and is beyond being repaired again.

However, if you and the manufacturer are not able to come to a concrete agreement, you always have an option to consult a lemon law attorney in California and seek his/her assistance in the matter.

The attorneys would help you in negotiating a fair deal with the manufacturer and if the matter still does not get settled, they would never hesitate to take it to the court.

Therefore, consulting a dedicated lemon law attorney can always help the used car owners, in case their vehicle experiences repeated troubles while being under manufacturer warranty and the manufacturer is not willing to buy back the vehicle or offer compensation.

So before you purchase a used car in California, get it diagnosed by expert ‘Car Inspectors’ so that you can get to know its condition, state of warranty and enjoy the warranty privileges provided by the manufacturer while owning or possibly even selling back the vehicle.