How do lemon laws work?

January 17, 2007 8:17 PM

Has anyone here had to invoke the US federal Magnuson-Moss warranty act for a lemon automobile? How did it go? If you've used your state's lemon law, I'd like to hear your experiences as well.

I'll try to spare all of you from listening to all of my car problems, but I have a 2004 Mazda3 with 10,000 miles and 6 months left on the warranty that I've lost my mechanical faith in. I live in Missouri, and I'm certain I don't qualify for the terms of my state's lemon law due to having had the car for too long. However, some descriptions of the federal Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act like this one state fairly generous terms that I certainly qualify for. Is this too good to be true? It's hard for a layman like me to navigate the actual law to find out for sure.

In any case, I'd also like to gather any experiences from anyone else who's had their car "lemoned" to see how feasible this would be for me.

Also, any advice on finding a non-scummy lawyer to help me would be appreciated. I'd rather not just rely on clicking whoever ponied up the bucks for Google Adwords for searches for "lemon law."

posted by zsazsa to travel & transportation (2 comments total)

Actually, I'd rely on the google adwords. That's how my law firm does marketing and it is how niche lawyers get their business.
posted by Ironmouth at 8:59 PM on January 17, 2007

When my wife had trouble with her Hyundai, just mentioning the lemon law at the dealership made a lot of things happen very quickly.
posted by Uncle Jimmy at 7:02 AM on January 18, 2007