State lemon law
Maine Lemon Law
When a new vehicle keeps failing, Maine law can require the manufacturer to replace it or buy it back. These are the numbers the statute actually sets.
3
Repair attempts
1
If it is a safety defect
15
Days out of service
What counts as a lemon in Maine
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 manufacturer's express warranty term.
- Three repair opportunities for the same problem have not fixed it.
- A serious failure of the braking or steering system has survived a single repair attempt.
- Repair attempts have left the vehicle out of service for 15 or more business days, however many attempts there were.
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 under a manufacturer's express warranty bought in Maine.
What you have to send the manufacturer
Written notice to the manufacturer asking for a replacement or a refund starts a final repair opportunity of seven business days. If the vehicle is still not fixed after those seven days, the owner can apply for state arbitration.
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 replacement vehicle or the return of the vehicle for a refund. A consumer who wins is also awarded reasonable legal fees and costs.
The deadline
The arbitration hearing must be held within 45 days of the application being accepted. Maine measures the underlying window by the manufacturer's warranty rather than by a fixed number of months.
Where it is decided
Maine runs its own free arbitration program through the Attorney General, and the consumer argues the case in person at no charge.
Worth knowing
- Fifteen business days out of service is among the shortest tests in the country, and it does not matter how many separate repair attempts made up those days.
- Brakes and steering get a single attempt, as in Maryland and Minnesota.
How Maine compares
No state on this site asks for fewer than Maine's 3 repair attempts, and 19 others ask for the same 3. Nowhere counts fewer days out of service than Maine's 15. Maine sets no mileage limit at all, which is unusual: most states end the window at a mileage as well as a date.
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.
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 Me. Rev. Stat. tit. 10, §§ 1161 to 1169 and from Maine Attorney General, State Lemon Law Arbitration Program, 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.
- Maine Lemon Law, Office of the Attorney General
- Me. Rev. Stat. tit. 10 § 1169 (state arbitration)
- Consumer rights and the defective new vehicle, Maine consumer law guide
- Maine Attorney General, State Lemon Law Arbitration Program
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 Maine Attorney General, State Lemon Law Arbitration Program, or to a lawyer in Maine.
Compiled and maintained by guarledes . Data last checked 2026-08-20.
Independent developer and analyst