State lemon law
Vermont Lemon Law
When a new vehicle keeps failing, Vermont law can require the manufacturer to replace it or buy it back. These are the numbers the statute actually sets.
3
Repair attempts
30
Days out of service
What counts as a lemon in Vermont
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 manufacturer's express warranty term.
- Three unsuccessful repair attempts for the same defect, with at least the first of them inside the express warranty.
- Thirty cumulative calendar days out of service within the express warranty.
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 under an express warranty in Vermont.
What you get
A buyback or a replacement. Where the consumer wins, the manufacturer has 30 days from the order to complete it.
The deadline
The repairs have to fall inside the manufacturer's express warranty, and a Demand for Arbitration is what starts the case.
Where it is decided
The Motor Vehicle Arbitration Board, running since 1984, has five members appointed by the Governor: a new car dealer, a working technician and three people with no connection to the motor trade.
Worth knowing
- Only the first of the three repair attempts has to fall inside the warranty, so a defect first reported in time can still qualify after the warranty runs out.
How Vermont compares
No state on this site asks for fewer than Vermont's 3 repair attempts, and 19 others ask for the same 3. 7 states count fewer days out of service. Vermont 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 New Motor Vehicle Arbitration, 9 V.S.A. §§ 4170 to 4181 and from Vermont Motor Vehicle Arbitration Board, at the 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.
- 9 V.S.A. ch. 115
- Lemon Law eligibility requirements, Vermont DMV
- Motor Vehicle Arbitration Board, Vermont DMV
- Vermont Motor Vehicle Arbitration Board, at the 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 Vermont Motor Vehicle Arbitration Board, at the Department of Motor Vehicles, or to a lawyer in Vermont.
Compiled and maintained by guarledes . Data last checked 2026-08-20.
Independent developer and analyst