California Auto Lemon Law Attorney — New & Used Vehicles Welcome

Yes. The Song-Beverly Consumer Warranty Act applies to any motor vehicle bought or leased in California for personal, family, or household use, as long as the manufacturer’s written warranty was still in effect when the defect first showed up. New, used-with-warranty, and certified pre-owned vehicles all qualify.

Coverage runs across the consumer-vehicle spectrum: passenger cars, light-duty trucks, SUVs, crossovers, minivans, motorcycles, and most pickups. Heavier commercial trucks (Class 7 and 8) and vehicles purchased primarily for business use sit in a different bucket, but the line is fact-specific. A contractor’s personal-use Tundra is generally covered even if the truck sees occasional jobsite duty.

Leased vehicles are also covered. The remedy adjusts for the lease structure (you may receive a lease cancellation plus reimbursement of payments rather than a full repurchase), but the right to a remedy is the same as an owner’s. If a dealer told you leased vehicles fall outside lemon law, that was wrong.

Owners of RVs should start with the firm’s RV lemon law overview. Motorhomes are covered as motor vehicles under the same Song-Beverly framework, while fifth wheels and travel trailers are covered separately as consumer goods.

California auto lemon law gives you three primary remedies, and you choose which one fits your situation. The manufacturer cannot force a particular remedy on you.

• Full repurchase. The manufacturer buys the vehicle back at the original purchase price. That includes your down payment, monthly payments to date, sales tax, license fees, registration, and incidental costs like rental cars, towing, and storage. The only deduction is a mileage offset for miles driven before the first failed repair attempt.
• Replacement. A comparable replacement vehicle of the same year, make, and trim level. The manufacturer covers the swap and any difference in dealer charges.
• Cash settlement. A negotiated dollar amount that compensates for diminished value and the cost of the ongoing defect, while you keep the car. Useful when the defect is real but you would rather not part with the vehicle.

On top of the chosen remedy, Song-Beverly authorizes a civil penalty of up to two times actual damages when the manufacturer willfully failed to honor its warranty. This is the single biggest reason California cases settle for more than equivalent cases in other states. Going to trial on a willful-violation claim risks a doubled judgment plus the manufacturer’s own legal costs, and they know it.

Attorney fees and costs are paid by the manufacturer if your claim succeeds. That is the explicit fee-shifting provision in the statute. Reputable California lemon law attorneys work on a no-fee-unless-you-win basis. You should never be asked to pay legal fees out of pocket on a Song-Beverly claim.

For eleven years Jeff Le Pere sat on the manufacturer’s side of California lemon law cases. He represented GM, Toyota, Honda, Porsche, and others against consumer claims. The defense playbook is consistent across manufacturers, and knowing it changes how a case gets built.

Repair-attempt counting. Manufacturers dispute whether each dealer visit counts. “Could not duplicate” gets pulled out. Diagnostic-only visits get pulled out. Visits without parts replacement get pulled out. The goal is to push the consumer below the Tanner threshold even after five or six dealer trips. The counter is documentation: every visit on a written repair order with the symptom you reported and what the technician did.

Mileage offset inflation. When a buyback is on the table, the manufacturer’s offer reflects an aggressive mileage offset that quietly cuts the recovery by tens of thousands. The statute defines the offset narrowly. Miles driven before the first failed repair attempt, calculated against a fixed denominator. Defense math frequently overstates this number. The counter is statutory math, applied accurately.

Could-not-duplicate strategy. Manufacturers train dealer technicians to write “could not duplicate” aggressively. Internal manufacturer guidance treats CND visits as procedural defenses against future lemon law exposure. The counter is California case law. Presenting a vehicle for a complaint is a repair attempt regardless of what the technician wrote, and recurring CND entries on the same defect are evidence of inadequate diagnostic effort by the dealer.

Pre-litigation buyback offers. Manufacturer-direct buyback offers routinely understate Song-Beverly entitlements, especially the civil-penalty exposure. Owners who accept the first offer typically leave 30 to 50 percent of recoverable value on the table. Every direct offer should be benchmarked against full statutory recovery before anyone signs anything.