What Exactly Is A Lemon?
A lemon is a car that at the time of problems was/is under manufacturer warranty experiencing the same problem consecutively (three times in a row over a short period, where previous attempts have not fixed the problem) or where defects have caused a new vehicle to be out of service for a prolonged period (typically thirty days or longer) for repairs. Contrary to common knowledge, a lemon cannot become a lemon once it is outside of the manufacturer's warranty, period. However, once a car is branded a lemon, it will be just that for the remainder of its existence.
The primary objective of the lemon law is to force manufacturers to repair defective vehicles or exchange them. Depending on the jurisdiction, a process similar to vehicle title branding may also be used to warn subsequent purchasers of the history of a problem vehicle. This portion of a vehicle's history is, however, often not retained with the vehicle title when exporting vehicles to another jurisdiction.
How to Avoid a Lemon
The best way to avoid a lemon is to order a vehicle history report, ask for a copy of the title (not always easy to get with common title delays) and a pre-purchase vehicle inspection to make sure that the title is clean and the vehicle is not experiencing any of the same problems that may have been reported on the history report.
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