All About Our Handling Of Lemons

The Yellow Guide To Lemons

The book is for any consumer who may have purchased a lemon, a vehicle that’s been in the shop multiple times that the dealer just can’t seem to fix. It’s intended as a general guide for consumers in all 50 states about the lemon law. This little guide should acquaint the consumer with the steps they need to take to enforce the law. It should also help consumers get the manufacturer to either take their lemon back or compensate them for the vehicle.

A Little Yellow Lemon Primer

The term “lemon,” as a reference to a defective vehicle, dates back to the early 1900s. Over the years, the word lemon infers a bad car, which came from British slang that meant to hand someone a lemon or give them something substandard. Thus, lemon is slang for a loser.

Every state has its own lemon law. They’re mostly similar, but some states have different requirements than others. Then, there is a national lemon law, called the Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act, that was enacted as a federal law in 1975. It protects citizens of all states to ensure that the car manufacturers honor their warranties on their vehicles.

Finally, lemon laws only apply to new vehicles. This means that a used vehicle cannot be a lemon, only a new one can—except in New York and Connecticut.

The Lemon Grove

Unfortunately, there are a lot of new vehicles that wind up being lemons. As proof, I’ve handled over 24,000 lemon law cases. In 2020, there were about 14.5 million new vehicles sold. Lemons make up .5% of all these vehicles, making a whole grove of over 72,500 lemons. Thus, purchasing a lemon is a fairly common issue, especially with vehicles being so technologically complicated these days.

The Time It Takes To Become A Lemon

While some consumers can drive their vehicle for two years before having problems, lemons generally “turn yellow” fairly soon after purchase.

Keep in mind that all states have time limits about the amount of time from the date of purchase of the vehicle to the date you submit a claim. That time limit can be anywhere from twelve months, for example in Colorado, to three years in Georgia, to four years in New York. If the consumer doesn’t have the problem for five or six years after they bought the vehicle, it’s too late to do anything about it.

Only Passenger Vehicles & Light Duty Trucks Qualify As Lemons

Generally, all passenger vehicles and light trucks are covered under state lemon laws.

Most states do have weight limits for vehicles covered under the lemon law. For example, in Georgia, any vehicle, usually a truck, that weighs over 12,000 pounds is not covered by the lemon law.

For this reason, most states do not cover motorcycles or RVs. Although most state Lemon laws would apply to the mechanical part of an RV, based on their weight they still may be too big to be covered.

Thus, most states have weight limits for the larger trucks because the law considers large trucks commercial vehicles even if they’re driven by you as your daily vehicle. Your monster truck may be too big to be a lemon.

For more information on Lemon Law in Georgia, an initial consultation is your next best step. Get the information and legal answers you are seeking by calling (844) 88-LEMON or 844.885.3666 today.