Florida Lemon Law for New Cars: What to Send the Manufacturer First

Yes: Florida's lemon law covers a new or demonstrator car bought or leased in Florida when you first reported the defect to the dealer within 24 months of delivery, the window Florida calls the Lemon Law rights period. Once the same problem has been through three repairs, or the car has spent 15 days in the shop, the first thing you send is the Attorney General's Motor Vehicle Defect Notification form, mailed to the manufacturer by registered or express mail. The manufacturer gets one final repair; if it fails, you file for free arbitration for a refund or replacement, due 60 days after the 24 months end.

Cars and defects the law covers

The car. New or demonstrator, sold in Florida, or leased here for a year or more with you responsible for repairs. Motorcycles, mopeds, off-road vehicles, trucks over 10,000 pounds gross vehicle weight and motor home living quarters are excluded.
You. You use it mainly for personal, family or household purposes. Someone who takes it over during the rights period for the same use is covered too.
The defect. It substantially impairs the car's use, value or safety. Damage from an accident, abuse, neglect, or changes by anyone other than the manufacturer or its dealers falls outside the law.
Late repairs. A defect first reported inside the rights period must still be repaired after the period ends, free while the warranty lasts.

The two counts that trigger the notice

Count visits to the manufacturer's authorized dealers and repair shops within the rights period.

Three repairs of the same defect. A repair attempt is a replaced part or an adjustment. A visit where the shop only examined the car can count if later work shows the repair was justified, so keep the "could not duplicate" orders.
15 days in the shop. Add every calendar day, weekends and holidays included, from drop-off to the day the work was finished, for one defect or several. Routine maintenance and minor-defect repairs stay out.

After the notice:

After three repairs, the manufacturer has 10 days from receiving your notice to contact you and name a reasonably accessible repair shop, then 10 days from drop-off to fix the car. A phone call counts as its response. If the defect survives, Florida presumes the manufacturer has had its fair chance, and it owes you a refund or replacement.
After 15 days, the manufacturer or its dealer gets at least one chance to inspect or repair the car. Once total shop time within the rights period reaches 30 days, the same presumption applies, even if the defect is gone by then.

What to do today

Mark your deadline. Find the delivery date on your contract. The rights period ends 24 months after it, and your arbitration request must be filed within 60 days after that.
Gather the repair orders. The dealer owes you an itemized repair order at every warranty visit, showing the problem, the work, the drop-off date and mileage, and the completion date. Request missing copies from the service desk.
Find the address. Your warranty booklet or owner's manual lists the manufacturer's Florida zone, district or regional office. The notice goes there, never to the dealer.
Fill in the form. Download the Motor Vehicle Defect Notification form, check one box or both, describe each remaining defect, and attach the cover letter below.
Mail it by registered mail with a return receipt, or by express mail with tracking. Keep a copy and the receipt: the arbitration form asks for both.
Log the response. Note who calls for the manufacturer and when, take the car where they direct, and get a repair order from that visit even if no work is done.

When repairs fail: filing for arbitration

Before you can sue, you take the claim to arbitration, and neither forum below charges a fee. The Lemon Law Hotline, 1-800-321-5366 (850-414-3500 from outside Florida), tells you which one your brand uses.

Owners of brands with a state-certified program file there first, when the warranty papers explained how. BBB Auto Line handles Ford, General Motors, Hyundai and Genesis, Kia, Mazda, Nissan and Infiniti, Volkswagen and Audi, and Bentley. NCDS handles Toyota and Lexus, plus Honda, Acura and Tesla vehicles bought on or after November 1, 2022. CAP Motors handles Porsche.
If the program has not decided within 40 days, or you reject its decision, go to the state board within 30 days of its final action or by your step 1 deadline, whichever is later.
Every other brand goes straight to the Florida New Motor Vehicle Arbitration Board, even one pushing its own uncertified program, which can cost you time. Mail the Request for Arbitration form, with copies of the documents its checklist names, to the Office of the Attorney General, Lemon Law Arbitration Screening, PL-01, The Capitol, Tallahassee, FL 32399-1050, or email it as PDFs of up to 8 MB to [email protected]. It counts as filed the day the office date-stamps it.

The office screens your request within 20 days and gives you 30 days to fill any gaps. After approval, the board hears the case within 40 days and decides within 60. A three-member panel runs the hearing, usually in two to four hours, and usually announces the result at the end. A lawyer is optional. A manufacturer that loses has 40 days from receiving the written decision to pay or deliver the replacement.

What the buyback pays

What you paid: your down payment, the net trade-in allowance, and the loan payments you made, interest included.
Collateral charges: sales tax, title charges, and items the manufacturer or dealer added, such as window tint or an extended warranty.
Incidental charges: towing, rental cars, repair bills, postage and other costs the defect caused.
Minus the offset for use: the base price on your invoice, without taxes, government fees and dealer fees (for a lease, the agreed-upon value), times your miles up to the settlement or hearing, whichever comes first, divided by 120,000. Delivery miles, repair test drives and trips to and from the shop come off your count. A $36,000 car driven 9,000 miles costs you $2,700.

On top of that, the manufacturer pays off your loan balance. A lease ends with no early-termination penalty, and you get back your deposit and payments, minus the offset. You pick refund or replacement, and a replacement's sticker price can run up to 105 percent of your car's. To check an offer, use the lemon law buyback calculation guide or the manufacturer buyback guide.

Where your case can turn

If the manufacturer misses either final-repair deadline, you owe it no further repair attempt; file for arbitration.
If the Attorney General's office rejects your request, you can file a lemon law suit within 1 year of the rejection.
If you are tempted to trade the car in, hold on to it: only a consumer who still owns or possesses the car gets a hearing. Keep making loan or lease payments while the claim runs.
If the board rules against you, you have 30 days from receiving its written decision to file in circuit court, where the case is tried from the start.

Pressure points on the manufacturer

Your lawyer's fees. A consumer who wins a lemon law suit recovers the loss, litigation costs and reasonable attorney's fees.
A losing appeal costs more. If the manufacturer appeals your award and the court upholds it, you also collect attorney's fees and $25 for each day past its compliance deadline. A bad-faith appeal doubles the total award, and the court can triple it.
State fines. If the manufacturer neither complies nor appeals, the Attorney General can ask a court to fine it up to $1,000 a day, until the fine reaches twice the purchase price.
Settlement offers. Any agreement that waives your lemon law rights or keeps the terms secret is void, and your board administrator can compare an offer with what the board might award.

Bring in a lemon law attorney if the manufacturer appeals your award, blames you or aftermarket parts, or calls the defect minor.

Cover letter to send with the form

[Your name, address, phone]

[Date]

Registered mail, return receipt requested [or: Express mail, tracking number]

To: [Manufacturer], [Florida office address from the warranty booklet]

Re: Florida Lemon Law notice, Chapter 681, Florida Statutes, [year, make, model], VIN [number]

I [bought / leased] this vehicle new from [dealer, city] on [delivery date]. The enclosed Motor Vehicle Defect Notification form gives notice that [the same defect has been repaired three or more times] [the vehicle has been out of service for repair [number] days in total].

The defect: [what happens and when]. Repair visits:

[Date in] to [date out], [mileage in], repair order [number]: [problem reported, work done]
[One line per visit]

The defect continues and substantially impairs the vehicle's [use / value / safety]. Please call me at [phone] to arrange your final repair attempt at a reasonably accessible repair facility. If the defect remains after that repair, I will request arbitration for a [refund / replacement vehicle].

[Signature]

Enclosures: Motor Vehicle Defect Notification form, copies of repair orders, purchase or lease contract

Today

Count your repair visits and shop days from the repair orders.
Mail the form and cover letter to the manufacturer's Florida office.
Put your arbitration deadline on the calendar.

Next comes the return receipt, then the manufacturer's call naming a shop for the final repair. If the defect survives that visit, send your certified-program claim or Request for Arbitration that week.