State lemon law
Virginia Lemon Law
When a new vehicle keeps failing, Virginia law can require the manufacturer to replace it or buy it back. These are the numbers the statute actually sets.
3
Repair attempts
1
If it is a safety defect
30
Days out of service
18
Months covered
What counts as a lemon in Virginia
Meeting any one of these raises a presumption that the manufacturer has had a reasonable number of attempts. The repairs have to fall inside 18 months from the original delivery, which virginia calls the lemon law rights period, with no mileage limit.
- The same defect has been subject to repair three or more times and still exists.
- The defect is a serious safety defect, has been subject to repair one or more times, and still exists.
- The vehicle has been out of service for repair for a cumulative total of 30 calendar 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 where the defect significantly impairs the use, market value or safety of the vehicle.
What you have to send the manufacturer
Written notice of the defect to the manufacturer is required before a refund or replacement, where the manufacturer disclosed that requirement clearly in the warranty or the owner's manual.
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 acceptable to the consumer, or the return of the vehicle for a refund of the full contract price with collateral charges and incidental damages, less a reasonable allowance for use up to the date of the first notice of the defect.
The deadline
An action must be commenced within the 18-month rights period. Where the owner used the manufacturer's dispute settlement procedure inside that period and it did not resolve matters, they get 12 months from the manufacturer's final action, or the original period, whichever is longer. The period also extends where the manufacturer was notified and had not effectively repaired the vehicle by the time it ran out.
Where it is decided
Virginia does not run a state board, but the manufacturer's own dispute settlement procedure extends the deadline where it is used in time.
Worth knowing
- Virginia measures its window in months alone, with no mileage cap, which suits anybody who drives a lot for work.
- The use allowance is calculated only up to the first notice of the defect, not up to the refund, so the miles driven while waiting for repairs are not charged to the owner.
How Virginia compares
No state on this site asks for fewer than Virginia's 3 repair attempts, and 19 others ask for the same 3. 7 states count fewer days out of service. Virginia 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 Motor Vehicle Warranty Enforcement Act, Va. Code §§ 59.1-207.9 to 59.1-207.16 and from Office of the Attorney General of Virginia, 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.
- Va. Code ch. 17.3 (the whole act)
- Va. Code § 59.1-207.13 (nonconformity and the presumption)
- Va. Code § 59.1-207.16 (the deadline)
- Lemon Law, Virginia Attorney General
- Office of the Attorney General of Virginia, 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 Office of the Attorney General of Virginia, Consumer Protection, or to a lawyer in Virginia.
Compiled and maintained by guarledes . Data last checked 2026-08-20.
Independent developer and analyst