State lemon law
Missouri Lemon Law
When a new vehicle keeps failing, Missouri law can require the manufacturer to replace it or buy it back. These are the numbers the statute actually sets.
4
Repair attempts
30
Days out of service
12
Months covered
What counts as a lemon in Missouri
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 express warranty period or one year following the original delivery, whichever expires earlier.
- The same defect has been subject to repair four or more times and still exists.
- The vehicle has been out of service for repair for a cumulative total of 30 or more working 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 motor vehicles bought in Missouri under an express warranty.
What you have to send the manufacturer
The consumer must give the manufacturer written notice of the need for repair, and after the vehicle is delivered to an authorized repair facility the manufacturer has ten calendar days to bring it up to the 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
A comparable new vehicle acceptable to the consumer, or the return of the vehicle for a refund of the full purchase price with reasonably incurred collateral charges, less a reasonable allowance for use.
The deadline
The attempts have to fall inside the express warranty or the first year, whichever ends earlier.
Worth knowing
- Missouri counts working days out of service rather than calendar days.
- The written notice is the consumer's job under § 407.573, and the ten-day cure period only starts once the vehicle is actually at the repair facility.
How Missouri compares
20 states ask for fewer repair attempts than Missouri's 4, and 29 others ask for the same 4. 7 states count fewer days out of service. Missouri 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 Mo. Rev. Stat. §§ 407.560 to 407.579 and from Missouri Attorney General, Consumer Protection, 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.
- Mo. Rev. Stat. § 407.571 (the presumption)
- Mo. Rev. Stat. § 407.573 (written notification and the cure period)
- Mo. Rev. Stat. § 407.567 (refund or replacement)
- Missouri Attorney General, Consumer Protection
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 Missouri Attorney General, Consumer Protection, or to a lawyer in Missouri.
Compiled and maintained by guarledes . Data last checked 2026-08-20.
Independent developer and analyst