Posts Tagged ‘alternative vehicle lemon laws’
What if Your Motorcycle Isn’t Covered by State Lemon Laws?
All 50 states have lemon laws that protect consumers against owning vehicles that fail to live up to their warranty. But not all states have lemon laws that cover alternative modes of transportation, such as motorcycles, speedboats and all terrain vehicles. However, if you own a lemon motorcycle and your state’s lemon laws don’t cover motorcycles, you still have the right to be compensated for your investment under the Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act; a Federal lemon law that protects consumers against faulty products when state lemon laws do not.
The Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act provides consumer protection that is similar to state lemon law. As with state lemon law, the Act permits owners of lemon products to seek financial compensation if the manufacturer cannot make a faulty product conform to its warranty within a reasonable period of time. In addition, the act allows consumers to recover attorney fees from a product’s manufacturer if they are successful. If your state lemon laws cover motorcycles but don’t permit the recovery of attorney fees, it’s important to note that you may be able to recover attorney fees under the Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act.
Despite the similarities between state lemon law and the Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act, they also possess significant differences. Unlike most state lemon laws, the act permits consumers to seek compensation for defective used vehicles, as long as the problem occurred when the vehicle was under the manufacturer’s warranty. The act also differs from state lemon law by not setting a range of miles within which unsuccessful repair attempts must occur for a vehicle to be considered a lemon. Whether your faulty motorcycle has been driven 8,000 miles or 80,000 miles into its 100,000-mile warranty, you can still receive compensation under the Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act.
