YourAutoRights.com

As of January 1, 2008, The California Lemon Law extended its consumer protection to include the 160,000 active duty military personnel stationed in California, regardless of where they purchased or register their cars. Previously, the California Lemon Law only protected consumers who purchased and took delivery of their vehicles in the State of California. The law did not cover vehicles purchased out of state, even if those vehicles were registered in California.

For military troops stationed in California, they were only protected by the lemon law in the state where they purchased their car. As the Armed Forces do not allow their troops a leave of absence to deal with problematic vehicles, this created a loophole where military families suffering with lemons didn’t have the ability to pursue their rights of protection under the Lemon Law.

Whether you suspect that the vehicle you are driving may be a lemon or whether it has already been deemed a lemon by the manufacturer, you should always continue to make payments on your vehicle until the bank releases you from your liability.

Withholding your vehicle's payments from the bank payments should never be used as a leverage tactic, as it will not have any influence on the manufacturer in assessing your complaint whatsoever.

When you lease or purchase any vehicle, the agreement that you sign is only to borrow money from the bank and in no way makes any guarantee as to the quality of the vehicle. The financial institution will always be entitled to the repayment of their loan, even if the vehicle that you are signing for turns out to be a lemon.