Effective 11 November 2026.
The Lemon File gives general information only. It is not legal advice and not a substitute for the advice of an attorney. Lemon laws, deadlines and required steps vary by state and change. The statute, the maker, a state board or a court decides a claim.
General information only
Everything on The Lemon File (thelemonfile.com) is general information, published to help readers understand how lemon laws, car warranties, service contracts, used-car rules, arbitration programs and recall rights work in the US. It is not legal advice, and it does not take your car, your repair history, your warranty, your contract, your state or your circumstances into account. It is not a substitute for the advice of an attorney who knows your facts and your state’s law.
What we are not
The Lemon File is not a law firm, a lawyer referral service, a dealer, a carmaker, a warranty seller, an arbitration program or a government agency. It does not offer legal services, represent anyone or refer anyone to a lawyer. Reading this site, using a tool or writing to us does not create an attorney-client relationship, and what you send us is not confidential or privileged the way a conversation with your own lawyer can be.
No view on your claim
Nothing on this site says whether your car is a lemon, whether you qualify or have a claim, what a claim is worth, what your deadline is, or whether you should sue, settle, arbitrate, accept or reject a buyback, a replacement or another offer, hire a lawyer or buy an extended warranty. Those are decisions for you. Whether a claim succeeds is decided under the statute, by the maker, a state board or a court.
Laws differ by state and change
There is no national lemon law for cars. Each state sets its own coverage window, repair counts, days out of service, notice steps, programs or boards that must come first, refund rules, use offsets, deadlines and fee rules, and some cover leases, used cars, motorcycles or motor homes while others don’t. Federal law adds its own warranty and recall rules. A rule on one state’s page does not apply in another. Statutes, agency rules and fees change, sometimes with little notice, and a change can apply to some cars and not others. Every state number on this site shows the day we read it, and it may have changed since. Where we have not read a state’s rule, the page says “not confirmed”, and that tells you nothing about what the rule is.
Deadlines may run earlier
A missed deadline or a missed step can end a claim. The period shown for a state is the general rule its lemon law states. Your deadline may be earlier. A state program or board can have its own, shorter filing window; written notice may be required within the coverage period; a sales contract can shorten some general limitation periods; and when a period starts, and whether it pauses, depends on the facts and on how courts read the statute. Where a lemon law states no period, a general limitation period probably applies, and we say when we have not read it.
Our pages and tools show the rule in words, its section and the date we read it. They never tell you what your deadline is. Do not wait until the last day a table shows. Nothing on this site, and no message to us, stops a deadline running.
Tools show rules and estimates, not decisions
Our tools do arithmetic on what you enter and on the state rules they show. The checker says whether your entries reach the numbers a statute names; reaching them creates a presumption in law, not a result, and the tool can’t check whether it is the same defect, whether the defect substantially impairs the car, or whether notice and any required program were handled as the statute requires. The buyback estimator’s results are estimates; what is refunded and deducted is decided by the maker, a board or a court. The deadline lookup computes no date. The extended warranty calculator uses only your numbers and gives no verdict.
Warranties and service contracts
What a warranty covers is set by the maker’s booklet for your car’s model year, and what a service contract covers is set by the contract you signed. Our summaries of a maker’s terms name the booklet and the date we read it, but your own documents control. An extended warranty is a service contract, not a warranty, under federal law.
Recalls
We do not track recalls or check vehicles. Use NHTSA’s own recall lookup for your vehicle, and contact the maker or a dealer about a recall repair.
Letters and forms
We host no notice letters, demand letters, complaint forms or templates. Where a page lists what a statute requires in a notice, that list does not replace a state’s own form or sample, and it may not meet every rule that applies to you. Get forms from the state agency or the program.
Accuracy
Pages are checked against the sources they cite, but no check catches everything. Check important details with the official text and the state agency before you rely on them. See also our terms of use.
How our content is made
Every page is fact-checked against its sources before it is published. Pages appear under The Lemon File name. Our editorial policy and how we check page explain the process.
Advertising and independence
The Lemon File is funded by display advertising. Advertisers have no say over what we publish, and an ad on a page, including an ad for a carmaker, a dealer, a warranty seller or a law firm, is not an endorsement or a referral. We use no affiliate links, accept no paid placements, sell no leads, make no lawyer referrals, sell no warranties and publish no rankings. Names of carmakers, agencies, programs and publishers are used only to identify them, and we are not affiliated with them.
External links
We link to statutes, regulations, agencies and makers’ warranty booklets so you can check what we say. We do not control those sites and are not responsible for their content.
Questions and corrections
If you think something is wrong, email contact@thelemonfile.com with the page address and a source, and we will look at it. We can’t answer questions about a car, a repair history or a claim. See also our corrections page.