What qualifies as a lemon in Oklahoma?

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 business days. These attempts must fall inside the express warranty term or one year from the original delivery, whichever is earlier. (Okla. Stat. tit. 15, § 901)

State lemon law

Oklahoma Lemon Law

When a new vehicle keeps failing, Oklahoma 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 Oklahoma

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 term or one year from the original delivery, whichever is 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 business 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

Any new motor-driven vehicle required to be registered in Oklahoma, except vehicles over 10,000 pounds and the living quarters of a motor home.

What you have to send the manufacturer

The defect must be reported directly in writing to the manufacturer, its agent or an authorized dealer inside the warranty term or the first year. The presumption does not apply at all unless the manufacturer had that written notice and a chance to cure.

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 of the full purchase price including taxes, license, registration and similar government fees, less an allowance for use, or a comparable new model acceptable to the consumer. The use allowance is the price multiplied by the miles driven beyond 15,000, divided by 120,000.

The deadline

The report of the defect has to reach the manufacturer inside the warranty term or the first year, whichever ends earlier. Repairs themselves can happen after that.

Where it is decided

Where the manufacturer runs an informal dispute settlement procedure meeting the federal standard, the refund and replacement provisions do not apply to a consumer who has not used it first.

Worth knowing

Oklahoma is the only state on this list that gives the first 15,000 miles away: the use deduction only counts miles beyond that.
A returned vehicle may not be resold in Oklahoma unless the manufacturer either extends the same warranty for another year or 12,000 miles, or discloses in writing why it took the car back.

How Oklahoma compares

20 states ask for fewer repair attempts than Oklahoma's 4, and 29 others ask for the same 4. 7 states count fewer days out of service. Oklahoma 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 Okla. Stat. tit. 15, § 901 and from Oklahoma New 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.

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 Oklahoma New Motor Vehicle Commission, or to a lawyer in Oklahoma.

Compiled and maintained by guarledes . Data last checked 2026-08-20.
Independent developer and analyst