State lemon law
Mississippi Lemon Law
When a new vehicle keeps failing, Mississippi 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
What counts as a lemon in Mississippi
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 terms of the express warranty or one year from the original delivery, whichever expires earlier.
- Substantially the same defect has been subject to repair three or more times and still exists.
- The vehicle has been out of service for repair of the defect for a cumulative total of 15 or more working days, not counting routine maintenance.
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 motor vehicles sold in Mississippi under an express warranty.
What you have to send the manufacturer
Before using the act at all, the consumer must give the manufacturer written notice of the need for repair. The manufacturer must then name a reasonably accessible repair facility, and once the vehicle arrives it has ten working days to bring it up to warranty.
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
The consumer chooses between a comparable vehicle and a refund of the full purchase price with reasonably incurred collateral charges, less an allowance for use. Mississippi sets that allowance at a flat twenty cents for every mile the consumer has driven.
The deadline
An action must be commenced within one year following the expiration of the warranty term or the one-year period, whichever applied.
Where it is decided
Where the manufacturer has an informal dispute settlement procedure it must tell the consumer about it. If it fails to, the requirement to use that procedure does not apply.
Worth knowing
- Fifteen working days out of service is one of the shortest tests in the country, but unlike most states those days have to be for the defect being claimed.
- The twenty cents a mile deduction is a flat rate rather than a fraction of the price, so it bites hardest on cheaper cars.
How Mississippi compares
No state on this site asks for fewer than Mississippi's 3 repair attempts, and 19 others ask for the same 3. Nowhere counts fewer days out of service than Mississippi's 15. Mississippi 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 Motor Vehicle Warranty Enforcement Act, Miss. Code §§ 63-17-151 to 63-17-165 and from Mississippi Motor Vehicle Commission, 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.
- Miss. Code §§ 63-17-151 et seq., published by the Motor Vehicle Commission
- Mississippi Motor Vehicle Commission
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 Mississippi Motor Vehicle Commission, or to a lawyer in Mississippi.
Compiled and maintained by guarledes . Data last checked 2026-08-20.
Independent developer and analyst