Ohio Lemon Laws

Your car is one of your household’s most important possessions and essential for meeting both personal and professional responsibilities. Your car is something you depend on, and it needs to run the way you expect it to. Unfortunately, not every automobile provides the level of dependability you expect, and some cars are just lemons. A lemon in the automotive sense refers to an automobile that doesn’t run correctly and is constantly in the shop. While this is a common saying it does refer to a specific law and legal protections designed to protect the consumer.

In Ohio, the Lemon Law specifically refers to motor vehicles that have one or multiple problems that make the use of the vehicle impractical and unsafe. These issues have to be covered by the warranty and occur within the first year of ownership or within the first 18,000 miles. If you have a lemon getting the manufacturer to properly compensate you can be a challenge and an Ohio lemon law attorney can help in these situations. Lemon Laws in Ohio cover not just passenger cars but also motorcycles and motor homes without defined cooking and sleeping areas. Here are some specifics about the Ohio Lemon Law.

Duty To Repair

If you are having issues with your automobile the manufacturer or dealership you purchased the automobile from must be given a chance to fix the problem. Under the law, there are limits to what is considered a reasonable timeframe to make repairs. These include the following.

• If the same problem has been repaired three or more times and still isn’t fixed
• If the vehicle is rendered undrivable due to repairs for a total of thirty or more days.
• If there have been eight or more repair attempts and the result of this causes the vehicle to drop in value to the owner or have its usability impaired.
• If after at least one attempt at repair, the car is rendered unsafe to drive and the original problem still exists. Unsafe in this case refers to an automobile that is likely to cause serious injury or death if driven.

Replacing A Lemon

Once all attempts at repairing a lemon have failed the manufacturer must replace the vehicle with a suitable replacement or repurchase the original lemon. Note that in Ohio you do have the option of choosing if you want a replacement automobile or prefer getting a refund.

• In the case of a refund, you receive back the total value of the price of the automobile, any transportation cost, dealer-installed options, undercoat, accessories, dealer services, delivery charges, and any preparation fees.
• If you had a lease you instead receive all down payments, deposits, taxes, fees, lease payments, warranties, credit insurance, the residual value of the vehicle, and any associated charges or fees.

Also, no matter how the car was purchased or the nature of the contract (lease or financed) you are paid back any additional out-of-pocket expenses such as towing, rentals, meals, or lodging that having an unreliable car may have caused.

Final Thoughts

As the above shows a lemon can be a bother to deal with and many automobile manufacturers are not forthcoming with solutions in such a situation. If you have a lemon and are not being fairly compensated an attorney can help.