Home > West's Encyclopedia of American Law > Lemon Laws

Laws governing the rights of purchasers of new and used motor vehicles that do not function properly and which have to be returned repeatedly to the dealer for repairs.

Laws in all 50 states and the District of Columbia provide remedies to purchasers of defective new vehicles, often called lemons. These so-called lemon laws protect consumers from substantial defects occurring within a specified period after purchase and provide that a manufacturer must either replace the lemon with a new, comparable car or refund the full purchase price. According to the consumer advocate group Consumers for Auto Reliability and Safety, automakers repurchase 50,000 vehicles a year, about .33 percent of the 15 million vehicles sold annually.

California and Connecticut passed the first lemon laws in 1982, in response to dissatisfaction with remedies in state sales laws and the 1975 federal