State lemon law
Texas Lemon Law
When a new vehicle keeps failing, Texas law can require the manufacturer to replace it or buy it back. These are the numbers the statute actually sets.
4
Repair attempts
2
If it is a safety defect
30
Days out of service
24
Months covered
24,000
Miles covered
What counts as a lemon in Texas
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 24 months or 24,000 miles from delivery.
- The same defect still exists after four or more repair attempts.
- The defect creates a serious safety hazard and still exists after two or more repair attempts.
- The vehicle has been out of service for repair for a cumulative total of 30 or more days, not counting days the manufacturer lent a comparable vehicle.
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 vehicles under a manufacturer's warranty, including cars, trucks, vans, motorcycles, all-terrain vehicles, motor homes and towable recreational vehicles, and demonstrators never titled. Not used vehicles outside the original warranty, not repossessed vehicles, not boats or farm equipment.
What you have to send the manufacturer
Written notice of the defect must have reached the manufacturer, converter or distributor, and it must have been given a chance to cure, before the department can order a refund or a replacement (§ 2301.606(c)).
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
Replacement with a comparable vehicle, or return of the vehicle for a refund of the full purchase price less a reasonable allowance for use, plus reimbursement of reasonable incidental costs (§ 2301.604).
The deadline
A complaint must be filed no later than six months after the earliest of: the express warranty expiring, 24 months from delivery, or 24,000 miles (§ 2301.606(d)). This is the shortest filing window of any state on this list.
Where it is decided
The TxDMV itself hears the complaint. There is a $35 filing fee, and an owner must exhaust this process before suing for a refund or a replacement (§ 2301.607).
Worth knowing
- Until 2017 the four-attempt test required two repairs in the first 12 months or 12,000 miles and two more in the 12 months or 12,000 miles after that. HB 2070 removed that structure, and summaries still describing it are out of date.
- Days the manufacturer lent a comparable vehicle do not count towards the 30 days (§ 2301.605(c)).
How Texas compares
20 states ask for fewer repair attempts than Texas's 4, and 29 others ask for the same 4. 7 states count fewer days out of service. 15 states stop counting at fewer than 24,000 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 Tex. Occ. Code §§ 2301.601–2301.613 and from Texas Department of Motor Vehicles, 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.
- Tex. Occ. Code § 2301.605 (the presumption)
- Texas Lemon Law, TxDMV
- Texas Department of Motor Vehicles
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 Texas Department of Motor Vehicles, or to a lawyer in Texas.
Compiled and maintained by guarledes . Data last checked 2026-08-20.
Independent developer and analyst