There is a lot of confusion and misinformation on the Internet regarding the New Jersey Lemon Law. There are actually many laws available to help the owner of a "Lemon car" in New Jersey. The subject can be understood more simply be first illustrating the remedies available for the owner of a new "Lemon car" and then a used "Lemon car".
FOR NEW CARS:
The State of New Jersey has Lemon Law statute for cars that were purchased new. You can view the law here. However, this is only one of many laws that can help if you bought a new car that is a perpetual problem. Other New Jersey and Federal laws can be extremely effective for the "Lemon car owner?".
Here is a list of the various laws and a brief description of each:
NJ Lemon Law: Under the New Jersey lemon Law the owner must prove the following: (1) The same problem has been repaired 3 or more times or the car has been out of service for 20 or more days for one problem, (2) the existence of the problem affects the use, value or safety of the vehicle, (3) the problem persists after the last repair attempt, and (4) the problem meets the Lemon Law mileage and age criteria - 18,000 miles & 2 years.
If your car meets these criteria then you can get a lemon law hearing quickly in a special court. If you win, the manufacturer must refund your purchase price, sales taxes etc. The definition of a problem that "affects the use, value or safety of a vehicle" is where some claims get rejected. The problem must be substantial.
Rejection After Inspection: New Jersey has a law NJSA 12A:2-513 which allows the purchaser of goods to reject them after an inspection reveals that a problem exists. The rejection can occur anytime before the purchaser makes an official "acceptance" of the goods. In the context of automobiles, courts have allowed a purchaser to reject and return the vehicle to the dealer several days after the owner took possession of the vehicle. For example, if you owned your car for only 3 days and you notice it stalls often, you could successfully give the car back to the dealer and tell them you are rejecting it. A purchaser of a new car is entitled to a trial use period. However, the trial use period is usually very short (a few days at most).
Revocation of Acceptance: New Jersey has a law NJSA 12A:2-608 which allows the purchaser of goods to revoke acceptance of them upon discovery of a substantial non-conformity because it was difficult to discover or if he was assured that the non-conformities would be repaired. A substantial non-conformity may include a failure to repair the vehicle under the warranty. In a typical lemon law case a consumer has owned a car for many months, driven it for thousands of miles and has repeatedly brought the car to the dealer for repair of a substantial problem that will not go away.
Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act: This is a Federal law that was passed by Congress in 1975. This law has been used successfully in court by purchasers of Lemon vehicles to argue that the manufacturer should be given three attempts to repair a defect. If they can't the new car purchaser should not be required to continue to allow attempts to repair indefinitely. This law also provides for the award of attorney's fees if your case is successful.
Breach of Implied & Express Warranties: Express warranties can be verbal statements made by a car salesman to you at the time you purchased a car. Implied warranties are mandated by law and impose certain minimum standards on all goods sold in New Jersey. If your car does not live up to the criteria in the warranty(s) you may successfully sue the seller/manufacturer for breach of warranty.
Consumer Fraud Act: Any false statement or conduct in the connection with the sale of a new car may violate the New Jersey Consumer Fraud Act. The false statement does not have to be intentional, it could be made carelessly. In Lemon car cases consumers have successfully argued that it is consumer fraud for a car not to be repaired correctly pursuant to representations made in the warranty.
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USED CARS:
NJ Used Car Lemon Law: This law mandates that warranties be given with the sale of certain used cars. If a used vehicle has 24,000 miles or less the warranty must be a minimum of 90 days or 3,000 miles. If a used car has more than 24,000 miles but less than 60,000 then the warranty must be for at least 60 days or 2,000 miles. Between 60,000 and 100,000 miles the warranty must be a minimum of 30 days or 1,000 miles. If the seller cannot repair the car within the warranty period it must be repurchased.
Rejection after Inspection: You are allowed a brief trial use period just as with a new car. If you discover a non-conformity within the trial use period you can legally return the car to the seller and demand your purchase monies back.
Revocation of Acceptance: After a few weeks or a few thousand miles should you discover something substantially wrong with the vehicle, or if the seller has made multiple failed attempts to fix a problem, you may be legally able to "revoke acceptance", that is, return the vehicle and get your money back. Be aware that the seller may not be so agreeable and a lawsuit may need to be filed to enforce your rights under the law.
Breach of Express or Implied Warranty: Pay close attention to what the salesman is telling you when you are purchasing a used car. For example, if you ask the salesman if the air conditioning works well and he responds "yes", then he just made an express warranty to you that the A/C work well. If you discover that the A/C does not blow cold air and the seller does not fix the problem then you can sue for Breach of Express warranty.
Unless properly disclaimed, a used car comes with an implied warranty or merchantability. This means that the car is fit for its ordinary use and purpose.
Consumer Fraud: Any false or misleading statement made by a dealer in connection with your purchase of a used car may be a violation of the Consumer Fraud Act. Repeated failed attempts to fix the same problem as promised in the warranty may violate the Consumer Fraud Act.
If you leased a car:
Leased cars are subject to most of the same legal protections as cars that were purchased.
Summary: As you can see, a person stuck with a problem vehicle has potentially many choices of law available. There are also different courts to file your lawsuit in should you decide to pursue legal action. You may want to seek the opinion of an attorney on your situation. In many instances, attorney's fees are recoverable if your lawsuit is successful. Some attorneys will take your Lemon Law case on a contingent fee basis. This means that the attorney will get paid by the losing party.
The purpose of the above discussion was to give a brief overview of the legal causes of action available to a purchased of a lemon car.
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