- Eligibility: 4 unsuccessful repairs or 30 business days out of service after notice within shorter of 2 years or 18,000 miles.
- Resolution Attempt: Written notice + opportunity to repair to manufacturer.
- State-run arbitration mechanism available.
Update: November 30, 2011
The complications from purchasing a lemon can be frustrating and time-consuming. Knowing how to handle them can make things a bit easier.
An employee at the Consumer Protection department explained that the constituents of the lemon law cover new vehicles only, and must be less than 2 years old, and under 18,000 miles when the problem begins to qualify for lemon law. In addition to that, motorcycles and off-road vehicles are not covered.
If your vehicle meets the requirements, and you're not sure of the next step to take, the advisor says that usually consumers will follow through the department for resolution.
"Typically what happens is they'll call us.where they are recommended by us to contact the manufacturer by writing," he said. "They are going to ask the manufacturer to buy it back or replace it with a similar vehicle."
The advisor said that sometimes manufacturers are stubborn to adhere to consumers' requests, which is where their program steps in.
"At that point, depending on the manufacturer, they usually participate with the BBB auto line or NCDF, as the approved third party arbitrator," he said. "If they don't have one that is approved by our offices, then if it gets to arbitration it has to come through this office where we go through the process of hiring an arbitrator to oversee the arbitration."
The process is well worth it, however. The advisor explained how arbitration can bring about the solutions the consumer was looking for with their case.
"The consumer can ask for anything in arbitration," he added. "The ones I've seen recently are decided in the consumers' favor. Generally they are decided in the consumer's favor."
For more information on Montana's lemon law processes, you can contact the Consumer Protection department at (406) 444-4500.
