What qualifies as a lemon in Florida?

The same defect has been subject to repair three times and still exists after the manufacturer has had a final attempt. The vehicle has been out of service for warranty repair for a cumulative total of 30 or more days, or 60 or more days for a recreational vehicle. These attempts must fall inside 24 months from delivery, called the lemon law rights period. (Motor Vehicle Warranty Enforcement Act, Fla. Stat. ch. 681)

State lemon law

Florida Lemon Law

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

Repair attempts

Days out of service

Months covered

What counts as a lemon in Florida

Meeting any one of these raises a presumption that the manufacturer has had a reasonable number of attempts. The repairs have to fall inside 24 months from delivery, called the lemon law rights period.

The same defect has been subject to repair three times and still exists after the manufacturer has had a final attempt.
The vehicle has been out of service for warranty repair for a cumulative total of 30 or more days, or 60 or more days for a recreational vehicle.

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 or demonstrator vehicles sold or long-term leased in Florida, including the self-propelled part of a recreational vehicle. Not motorcycles, mopeds, off-road vehicles, trucks over 10,000 pounds, or the living quarters of an RV.

What you have to send the manufacturer

After three unsuccessful repairs the owner must notify the manufacturer in writing, by registered or express mail, and give it a final chance to repair. The manufacturer then has 10 days to respond and 10 days to fix it, or 45 days to respond for a recreational vehicle.

Keep every repair order. The dates a vehicle went in and came out are what the whole test is counted from, and they are the one part of the record the owner controls.

What you get

A refund of the price paid including collateral and incidental charges, less a reasonable offset for use, or a replacement vehicle. The choice is the consumer's.

The deadline

An arbitration application must be filed within 60 days after the 24-month Lemon Law rights period ends, or within 30 days after a certified manufacturer program's final decision, whichever is later.

Where it is decided

The Florida New Motor Vehicle Arbitration Board hears the case where the manufacturer has no state-certified program of its own, or where the owner rejects that program's decision.

Worth knowing

Florida measures its window in time alone. There is no mileage limit on the Lemon Law rights period.
Recreational vehicles get 60 days out of service rather than 30, and the manufacturer gets 45 days to respond to the final repair notice.

How Florida compares

No state on this site asks for fewer than Florida's 3 repair attempts, and 19 others ask for the same 3. 7 states count fewer days out of service. Florida 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 Motor Vehicle Warranty Enforcement Act, Fla. Stat. ch. 681 and from Florida Attorney General, Lemon Law Arbitration, 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 Florida Attorney General, Lemon Law Arbitration, or to a lawyer in Florida.

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