State lemon law
Massachusetts Lemon Law
When a new vehicle keeps failing, Massachusetts law can require the manufacturer to replace it or buy it back. These are the numbers the statute actually sets.
3
Repair attempts
15
Days out of service
12
Months covered
15,000
Miles covered
What counts as a lemon in Massachusetts
Meeting any one of these raises a presumption that the manufacturer has had a reasonable number of attempts. The repairs have to fall inside one year or 15,000 miles from delivery, whichever comes first, which massachusetts calls the term of protection.
- The same defect has been through at least three repair attempts and still exists.
- The vehicle has been out of service for 15 or more business days during repair attempts, which counts even if there have not been three attempts.
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 and leased vehicles bought in Massachusetts inside the term of protection.
What you have to send the manufacturer
After the three attempts or the 15 business days, the manufacturer gets one final chance to fix the defect, and it may not take more than seven business days.
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 or a replacement vehicle.
The deadline
The term of protection is one year or 15,000 miles. Massachusetts publishes no separate filing deadline alongside it, and the state arbitration program is the place to ask before assuming a late claim will be heard.
Where it is decided
Massachusetts offers state-certified arbitration, and a consumer who is refused a refund or a replacement can go to arbitration, mediation or court.
Used cars
Massachusetts has a separate used vehicle warranty law, which requires dealers to give a warranty whose length depends on the mileage on the car when it is sold.
Worth knowing
- The 15 business days is the shortest out-of-service test of any state on this list, and it does not require the days to be for the same defect.
- The final repair attempt is capped at seven business days, which stops it being used to run the clock out.
How Massachusetts compares
No state on this site asks for fewer than Massachusetts's 3 repair attempts, and 19 others ask for the same 3. Nowhere counts fewer days out of service than Massachusetts's 15. 6 states stop counting at fewer than 15,000 miles.
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 Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 90, § 7N1/2 and from Massachusetts Office of Consumer Affairs and Business Regulation, 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.
- Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 90, § 7N1/2
- Guide to new and leased car lemon law, Mass.gov
- Guide to used vehicle warranty law, Mass.gov
- Massachusetts Office of Consumer Affairs and Business Regulation
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 Massachusetts Office of Consumer Affairs and Business Regulation, or to a lawyer in Massachusetts.
Compiled and maintained by guarledes . Data last checked 2026-08-20.
Independent developer and analyst