When you buy a new vehicle, make sure you hold onto the initial paperwork and warranty. Keep a binder in your glove box where you can file away all the papers from the repair technicians as well. While it may seem like useless junk riding around initially, it can really help you if you feel the lemon law might apply to you. Many people are familiar with the car lemon law, although they may not know their local stipulations or understand the various state warranty acts. For this reason, some people hire special lemon law lawyers even though they can file the complaint on their own too.

The federal law defines a lemon as any new vehicle that has a serious defect that isn't fixed within "a reasonable number" of attempts or after "a certain number of days" out of service. Under the Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act, the buyer is protected for any product costing more than $25 that comes with a written warranty. The Uniform Commercial Code allows for consumers to get a refund or replacement for "lemon" products. As one can see, these federal laws are vague at best. It's the state-specific laws that really specify what restitution is given for the defect and what constitutes as a lemon purchase.

At www.lemonlawamerica.com or www.carlemon.com, consumers can get detailed state lemon law information. Many people feel the laws should be stricter. Unfortunately, there is a large amount of hassle involved, even though people are technically shielded by the consumer protection laws. Usually, the buyer must take the vehicle into a repair shop up to four times in the first 24,000 miles of ownership before a complaint can be filed. Also, the lemon law mandates that detailed records be kept or else all protection under the law is usually lost. Often times, even if the case is won, the dealer may still deduct value for the miles that have been driven.

Sometimes consumers win their lemon law cases because vehicle histories are attached to the VIN number. So titles, buy-backs, recalls, minor and moderate collision damage and previous owners can all be looked up by a reporting service. In many instances, vehicles were poorly rebuilt following an accident. Some vehicles were even tampered with to show lower mileage, hide mechanical defects or make corrosion look less severe. Lemon law lawyers aren't 100% necessary but many people who hire them feel they are better represented and more informed during the complaint process.

Rene Lacape has been in the insurance industry for several years now and he has been a proficient worker in this field already. If you need anything about insurance, you can give him a call or visit his website anytime.

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