The Missouri lemon law covers family cars bought new for twelve months after the original owner buys them. To be declared a lemon, a car must either by out of service because of repairs for at least 30 days or have the same problem repaired at least four times.

Simple enough. If your car’s manufacturer can’t fix the problem, they must either replace the car or buy it back, at whatever price you paid for it minus a “reasonable” allowance for the time you’ve had the car.

If you have a problem with your car that you think might make it a lemon, pull out your owners manual and see how it tells you to proceed. Contact the manufacturer (through the dealer you bought the car from).

It’s extremely important that you 1.) do whatever they tell you to do, 2.) do it promptly and 3.) keep the most accurate records and receipts of everything that happens in regards to your car’s problem.

The manufacturer has ten days (not ten business days) to fix your car. If they haven’t fixed the problem, the manufacturer will tell you what dispute-settlement procedure they’ve established. If this information is detailed in the owners manual, then no further notice is required from them to you.

Keep track of work hours you’ve lost and other annoyances and inconveniences. Make notes of everyone you talk to, their name, their title, what they said, when they said it—anything you think might be important, write it down and save it. In the midst of feeling frustrated and angry, and possibly a dozen other emotions, it’s important that you prepare the strongest case possible for yourself.

Everyone who’s had a problem with a lemon car has their own frustrating story. One person leased a new Japanese car, and after the third oil change started to notice pools of oil under his car. It got so bad that his co-workers started to comment on it. Yet after SIX fruitless attempts to fix the problem, the car manufacturer insisted the only problem was with the way he was maintaining his car. After exhausting all his other options, he hired an attorney and got a jury trial. One of the smart things he did was to take pictures of the oil leaks, in his driveway, garage and at work. He also kept copies of the letters his home owners association sent him complaining about the unsightly oil leaks.

Success!

There was another story where the regional manager who resolved lemon law complaints had a completely crazy, (but very favorable to the manufacturer) definition of what an “occasion” was. After four occasions, the company had to re-purchase the vehicle. If the company’s mechanic couldn’t find the problem, or come up with a way to fix it, the company denied there was a problem and refused to count that complaint as an occasion. Thankfully the court laughed that right out of the building and awarded the buyer an $11 million verdict. (This was later reduced to about $100,000—maybe not enough to punish the dealer like they deserved, but certainly enough to buy a new car that wasn’t a piece of junk.)

In California, a regional customer service manager for the car manufacturer interpreted the company’s training material to provide that an “occasion” in which the customer brought the vehicle in with a complaint, but the staff was unable to find the problem, was not counted as a repair attempt. A former policy manager for the company said that, “If the technician does not replace a part or make an adjustment to the vehicle, and it's properly documented as no problem found, then I would not count it as a repair.”

The California Supreme Court didn’t buy this for a second. They said that, “[The manufacturer]'s narrow understanding of a repair attempt has been rejected.”

As difficult and frustrating as this struggle is, there is hope—at least a little. You can get satisfaction from the Missouri lemon law. Good luck!