Nevada Lemon Laws

The U.S. Constitution grants many rights to the states. The theory goes that the federal government can't fix everything all the time. This is especially true in matters of specific consumer protection. Although there are many regulations that originate from Washington, D.C. concerning manufacturing fraud and abuse, it has fallen to each state to devise their own types of protections.

Nevada Lemon Laws are part of the state statues. Specifically, they are on the books as statues 597.600 through to 597.680. Those cover all the bases for dealing with a car that is deemed to be a lemon.

Nevada Lemon Law Qualifications
As you can imagine the voice of the people was heard when it came to writing lemon laws. Most states consider a lemon as to be any car that has a manufacturer defect which renders the vehicle inoperable. That's a fancy way of saying the car is broke and can't be fixed. For the purposes of the Nevada Lemon Law the car needs to be new and still under warranty.

A car is deemed a lemon in Nevada if one particular issue has caused the car to be taken into the proverbial shop at least four times while still under that warranty or four times in one year, whichever comes first. A lemon could also be defined as any car that couldn't be driven for at least 30 days because of all these repairs.

Most states draw the line at mechanical defeats that originate back at the factory. However, in Nevada, if your car is making an irritating noise that no mechanic can get rid of, you can call it a lemon and start the process to remedy.

Nevada Lemon Law Procedures
Once you've figure out that you might be stuck with a lemon, there are steps you'll need to take under the Nevada Lemon Laws to seek a remedy. First, you'll need to send a written certified letter (not an e-mail!) to the car maker. This isn't the person who sold you the car, rather the car company. This letter should state the defect and how you attempted to fix the car.

After the manufacturer has been officially notified, they will have the option to try and fix the problem. They might even have their own lemon law options to use. If not, you can proceed accordingly. The car maker can either replace that exact make and model of the car you bought or issue a total refund. That refund will include whatever money you paid for the car minus a fair use allowance. In other words, if you managed to drive it around for some time, that will be deducted off the refund price as if you rented the car.

Take note that as this process begins, the dealer or person who sold you the car can't make you sign away your rights to a replacement or refund. They might think they are helping out the car maker, but they could get into serious trouble with the law by doing that.

Ironically, there is nothing stopping that dealer from reselling that car. All they have to do is declare that the car was once deemed a lemon and slap a big sticker on the car stating the same thing. Then it becomes an issue of "buyer beware."