What qualifies as a lemon in North Dakota?

The same fault has been subject to repair more than three times inside the warranty term or the first year, whichever ends sooner, and it still exists. Read literally that means the fourth attempt is the one that raises the presumption. The vehicle has been out of service for repair for a cumulative total of at least 30 business days during the warranty term or in a year, whichever is less. These attempts must fall inside whichever comes first: the express warranty expiring, or one year from the date the vehicle was originally delivered, with no mileage limit at all. (N.D. Cent. Code §§ 51-07-16 to 51-07-22)

State lemon law

North Dakota Lemon Law

When a new vehicle keeps failing, North Dakota 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 North Dakota

Meeting any one of these raises a presumption that the manufacturer has had a reasonable number of attempts. The repairs have to fall inside whichever comes first: the express warranty expiring, or one year from the date the vehicle was originally delivered, with no mileage limit at all.

The same fault has been subject to repair more than three times inside the warranty term or the first year, whichever ends sooner, and it still exists. Read literally that means the fourth attempt is the one that raises the presumption.
The vehicle has been out of service for repair for a cumulative total of at least 30 business days during the warranty term or in a year, whichever is less.

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

Passenger motor vehicles, and trucks with a registered gross weight of 10,000 pounds or less, sold or leased in North Dakota and normally used for personal, family or household purposes. House cars, meaning motorhomes, are excluded (§ 51-07-16(2)).

What you have to send the manufacturer

The presumption does not run against a manufacturer that has not had prior direct notification from or on behalf of the owner and an opportunity to cure (§ 51-07-19(3)).

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 vehicle, or return for a refund of the full purchase price including collateral charges, less an allowance for use. North Dakota caps that allowance where most states leave it open: ten cents a mile driven or ten percent of the purchase price, whichever is less (§ 51-07-18(1)).

The deadline

Six months after the earlier of the express warranty expiring or 18 months from original delivery (§ 51-07-21). On a three-year warranty that is two years from delivery; on a bumper-to-bumper year it can be as little as 18 months, and it is among the tightest windows in the country.

Where it is decided

No state-run programme. Where the manufacturer runs a procedure complying with 16 CFR 703, or takes part in an appeals board whose decisions bind it, the replacement and refund remedy is closed until the owner has used it. The Attorney General will, on application, rule on whether a given procedure qualifies (§ 51-07-18(3)).

Worth knowing

Thirty business days, not calendar days, which is roughly six weeks on the calendar.
It is an exclusive remedy. An owner who elects to proceed under these sections is foreclosed from every other remedy arising out of the same facts (§ 51-07-20). That is a harder bar than most states set, and it is worth advice before choosing the route.
A vehicle bought back cannot be resold in the state unless the manufacturer gives the same warranty again for at least 12 months or 12,000 miles and hands the buyer a signed disclosure in ten-point capitals. Selling one on without it is a class B misdemeanour (§ 51-07-22).

How North Dakota compares

20 states ask for fewer repair attempts than North Dakota's 4, and 29 others ask for the same 4. 7 states count fewer days out of service. North Dakota 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 N.D. Cent. Code §§ 51-07-16 to 51-07-22 and from North Dakota Attorney General, Consumer Protection Division, checked on 2026-08-21. 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 North Dakota Attorney General, Consumer Protection Division, or to a lawyer in North Dakota.

Compiled and maintained by guarledes . Data last checked 2026-08-21.
Independent developer and analyst