01
Substantial Defect
One that impairs the use, value or safety of the vehicle. Stalling, brake failure, steering and persistent electrical faults qualify. A rattle generally does not.
By Manufacturer
FORD LEMON LAW.
A Ford that goes back to the dealership again and again for the same defect is not a run of bad luck. Where the manufacturer was given a reasonable number of attempts and the fault is still there, the law puts the vehicle back on them.
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EXPLORE ↓What Decides It
Four facts, in this order.
Lemon Law does not ask which manufacturer built the vehicle. It asks these four questions about yours, and the repair orders answer all of them.
02
Repair Attempts
Florida looks for three attempts at the same defect. New York looks for four. Recall work and visits that found nothing both count.
03
Days Out of Service
Thirty cumulative days in Florida and in New York. Cumulative, not consecutive, and the days count whether or not anything was fixed.
04
Coverage Window
The defect has to be reported while the vehicle is inside the warranty or rights period. When it was reported matters more than today's date.
What changes from one manufacturer to the next is the defect pattern, the warranty terms and how hard the company fights a claim. Those affect the argument and the timeline. They do not affect the right.
The repair orders carry the case. Every visit for the fault, including the ones where the dealership found nothing and the recall work that was done at no charge, is a documented attempt. Owners routinely throw away the paperwork that would have completed their own count.
The two thresholds are presumptions, not hard gates. A defect serious enough to be dangerous can qualify with fewer attempts, and a vehicle that misses both can still be a claim under federal warranty law.
Jonathan D. Schwartz has +25 years of experience handling Lemon Law and warranty matters against manufacturers selling in Florida and New York. Bad Vehicle offers a free case evaluation, direct access to the attorney handling the claim, and no upfront legal fee to begin pursuing an eligible case.
Recall or Claim
A recall says the manufacturer knows. A claim says they were given the chance to fix it.
A recall is the manufacturer acknowledging that a defect exists across a population of vehicles and offering a remedy. It is a public admission of the fault pattern, which makes it useful evidence. What it is not is a Lemon Law claim.
The claim arises from what happened to your vehicle: the defect was reported, the dealership was given a reasonable number of attempts to repair it, and it is still there. A recall notice or technical service bulletin covering the fault on your model proves the manufacturer already knew, and it undercuts any argument that the problem is somehow misuse.
That evidence is public and costs nothing to obtain. NHTSA runs a free VIN lookup, and most manufacturers run one of their own.
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Worth knowing
Recall repairs that did not fix the fault still count as repair attempts.
Three visits for one fault is not normal wear.
Check My Case ↗Recurring Ford Faults
WHAT KEEPS COMING BACK.
These are the categories that generate the most Lemon Law and warranty claims. A vehicle showing one of these is not automatically a claim. A vehicle showing one of these repeatedly and unrepaired usually is.
Engine and Drivetrain
Stalling, loss of power, excessive oil consumption and failures that leave the vehicle undriveable. These are the defects least likely to be argued away as normal characteristics of the model.
Transmission Behaviour
Harsh shifting, shuddering, hesitation and unexpected downshift. Frequently answered with a software reflash that does not hold, which is exactly how the attempt count builds.
Electrical and Electronics
Warning lights that return after being cleared, dead accessories, charging faults and modules replaced more than once for the same symptom.
Software and Driver Assistance
Intermittent by nature, which is why they take several visits. A fault the dealership cannot replicate is still a reported fault, and the visit still counts.
Safety Systems
Airbags, seat belts, braking and the rearview camera. A persistent failure in a federally mandated safety system is materially different from a cosmetic complaint.
Time Out of Service
Days accumulate whether or not anything was repaired. Thirty cumulative days is a threshold in its own right in both Florida and New York, independent of the repair count.
Where It Ends Up
Four ways a Ford claim resolves.
Which one applies depends on the state, the facts and what gets negotiated. All four start with the same free case review.
What the law asks for
FORDTHREE REPAIRS. THIRTY DAYS. ONE UNFIXED DEFECT.
01 / FLORIDA
3 or 30
Attempts, or days out of service — Florida's presumption arises after three repair attempts for the same defect, or thirty or more cumulative days out of service inside the rights period. Written notice to the manufacturer is triggered earlier, at fifteen days.
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02 / NEW YORK
4 or 30
Attempts, or days out of service — New York generally looks for four attempts at the same defect or thirty or more days out of service within two years or 18,000 miles.
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03 / FEDERAL
No limit
Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act — Federal warranty law reaches vehicles that state Lemon Law does not, including many used and out-of-period vehicles still covered by a warranty.
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04 / THE COST
$0
To find out where you stand — Lemon Law statutes generally shift attorney fees to the manufacturer where the claim succeeds. The case review carries no charge and no obligation.
Check My Case ↗Those are the Florida thresholds for the presumption. New York uses four attempts or thirty days. Fifteen days is a separate, earlier trigger in Florida — that is when written notice goes to the manufacturer. Neither threshold is a hard gate, and a vehicle that misses both can still carry a claim under federal warranty law.
Read the 15 Questions ↗Ford Lemon Law
15 questions Ford owners ask.
General information about Lemon Law and warranty claims, not legal advice. What applies to a particular vehicle depends on its records, its warranty and the state where it was bought.
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No. A recall is the manufacturer acknowledging that a defect exists across a population of vehicles and offering a remedy. A Lemon Law claim arises from what happened to your specific vehicle: a substantial defect, reported inside the coverage period, that the manufacturer was given a reasonable number of attempts to repair and did not. The recall is useful evidence within that claim, not a substitute for it.
Yes, where the recall remedy addressed the defect at issue and the fault persisted afterward. Owners frequently leave recall visits out of their own count because the work was free and manufacturer-initiated, which weakens the record unnecessarily. If the vehicle went in for the fault and came back with the fault, it was an attempt.
Florida's presumption generally arises after three repair attempts for the same defect, or after the vehicle has been out of service for 30 or more cumulative days during the Lemon Law rights period. A separate and earlier trigger applies at 15 cumulative days, when written notice goes to the manufacturer. It is a presumption rather than a fixed requirement — a defect serious enough to be dangerous can qualify with fewer attempts, and the presumption is one route to the remedy rather than the only one.
New York generally looks for four repair attempts for the same defect, or 30 or more days out of service, within the first two years or 18,000 miles. The framework is close to Florida's but the thresholds and the arbitration process differ, and a vehicle bought in one state and serviced in another needs the applicable law identified early.
One that impairs the use, value or safety of the vehicle. Stalling, brake failure, steering faults and persistent electrical problems clearly qualify. A rattle or a trim complaint generally does not. Between those extremes the answer depends on how the fault affects the vehicle in normal use, and on what the repair orders actually say about it.
State Lemon Law is primarily directed at qualifying new and demonstrator vehicles. A used Ford can still carry rights where a manufacturer or dealer warranty was active when the defect was reported, generally under federal warranty law including the Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act, which does not carry the same new-vehicle limitation.
A leased vehicle can be covered where it meets the same substantive requirements that apply to a purchase. The calculation of any refund is tied to the amounts actually paid into the lease rather than the full vehicle price, and the leasing company is dealt with as part of the resolution rather than left to be sorted out afterward.
That visit still counts as a repair attempt. Intermittent faults are extremely common in software, camera and electrical systems, and a growing share of manufacturer campaigns are software-related. A record of repeated visits where the fault was reported and not resolved is precisely the pattern the law addresses. Ask for the complaint to be written down in your words, and keep the copy that says it could not be verified.
Three, in practice. A repurchase, where the manufacturer buys the vehicle back and refunds what was paid, less a statutory offset for the miles driven before the first report of the defect. A replacement with a comparable vehicle. Or a cash settlement where the vehicle stays with you and the manufacturer pays for the diminished value. Which applies depends on the state, the facts and what is negotiated.
Broadly: the purchase price plus collateral and incidental charges, minus a mileage offset tied to the distance driven before the defect was first reported. Registration, taxes and finance charges are frequently recoverable. The offset is the part manufacturers most often calculate in their own favour, and it is worth checking line by line.
It depends on the state and on the program. Where a manufacturer operates a state-certified arbitration program, going through it may be a required step before other routes open. Where it does not, or where the program is not certified, the requirement may not apply. Entering arbitration unprepared is a common and expensive mistake, because the record you bring is the record the decision rests on.
NHTSA operates a free VIN lookup that reports open recalls on a specific vehicle, and most manufacturers run their own. Both are worth checking before the next dealership visit, because an open recall covering the fault you are experiencing changes the conversation at the service desk.
Florida's Lemon Law rights period generally runs 24 months from delivery; New York uses two years or 18,000 miles. Federal warranty claims run on different and often longer limits. What matters most is when the defect was first reported, not today's date — a fault raised inside the period and never repaired does not stop counting because time has passed.
Lemon Law statutes generally shift attorney fees to the manufacturer where the claim succeeds, which is why there is no upfront legal fee. The initial case evaluation at Bad Vehicle carries no charge and no obligation, and an honest assessment that the facts are thin is worth more than months spent on a claim that was never going to hold.
Gather every repair order you have, including the ones that found nothing. Write down the dates the vehicle was unavailable. Check the VIN for open recalls. Then ask, in writing, for the specific fault to be recorded in your words. Ten minutes of preparation changes what the paperwork says, and the paperwork is what decides the claim.
Other Manufacturers
The badge does not decide the claim.
The law applies the same way to every brand sold in the state. What differs is the defect pattern, the warranty terms and how hard the manufacturer fights.
Get in Touch
Is your Ford back at the dealership again?
Send the year, model and the repair history. The repair orders are what carry the claim.
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