What qualifies as a lemon in Colorado?

The same defect has been through three failed repair attempts. A safety-related defect has been through two failed repair attempts. The vehicle has been out of service for repair for 24 or more business days. These attempts must fall inside the defect must be reported within the warranty term or one year of delivery, whichever ends first. (Colo. Rev. Stat. tit. 42, art. 10, as amended by SB24-192)

State lemon law

Colorado Lemon Law

When a new vehicle keeps failing, Colorado law can require the manufacturer to replace it or buy it back. These are the numbers the statute actually sets.

Repair attempts

If it is a safety defect

Days out of service

Months covered

What counts as a lemon in Colorado

Meeting any one of these raises a presumption that the manufacturer has had a reasonable number of attempts. The repairs have to fall inside the defect must be reported within the warranty term or one year of delivery, whichever ends first.

The same defect has been through three failed repair attempts.
A safety-related defect has been through two failed repair attempts.
The vehicle has been out of service for repair for 24 or more business days.

Failing all of these does not end a claim. The presumption is a shortcut through the evidence, not the whole of the law, and a vehicle that misses it can still be a lemon on ordinary warranty grounds. It does mean the owner has to prove what the presumption would have assumed.

Which vehicles the law reaches

New vehicles, and since the 2024 amendment vehicles used by small businesses for both business and personal purposes.

What you get

Replacement or buyback. The 2024 amendment set out how much may be deducted from a refund for the consumer's use, so the deduction follows a formula rather than the manufacturer's judgement.

The deadline

A claim must be filed within 30 months of the date the vehicle was delivered, and time the vehicle spent in for repair does not count against that.

Worth knowing

Colorado rewrote this law in 2024. The out-of-service test dropped from 30 business days to 24, the deadline went from as little as one year to 30 months, and safety defects were separated out at two attempts. Summaries describing the old rules are still circulating.
A buyback carries a Lemon Law Buyback decal and a note on the title, so the next buyer can see it.

How Colorado compares

No state on this site asks for fewer than Colorado's 3 repair attempts, and 19 others ask for the same 3. 6 states count fewer days out of service. Colorado sets no mileage limit at all, which is unusual: most states end the window at a mileage as well as a date.

Every state's thresholds side by side

Before you file: what is already on record

A lemon law claim is about your car. What other owners have reported about the same year, make and model is separate, and it is public: it can tell you whether the failure is a known pattern, whether NHTSA is investigating it, and whether a recall already covers the repair you have been paying for.

Check your VIN for open recalls Look up your year, make and model

Under investigation 2010 Ford Fusion 2012 Ford Focus 2011 Hyundai Sonata 2013 Ford F-150 2010 Toyota Prius 2011 Ford Fusion

Where this comes from

Read from Colo. Rev. Stat. tit. 42, art. 10, as amended by SB24-192 and from Colorado Attorney General, Consumer Protection Section, checked on 2026-08-20. Nothing on this page is copied from another summary, and there are a great many of them that disagree with the statutes they describe.

This is not legal advice. It is a reading of a public statute, written by somebody who is not a lawyer and does not know your car, your paperwork or your state's case law. A lemon law claim turns on facts this page cannot see. Take the statute and your repair orders to Colorado Attorney General, Consumer Protection Section, or to a lawyer in Colorado.

Compiled and maintained by guarledes . Data last checked 2026-08-20.
Independent developer and analyst