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The lemon laws of Iowa can be found in the Iowa Lemon Law Section 322G.1-15. These laws safeguard the rights of a buyer who ends up buying a new vehicle with inherent manufacturing defects. The lemon laws may be invoked when a vehicle is under the manufacturer’s warranty period and the defects of the cars cannot be repaired even after repeated attempts.

The warranty on new vehicles in Iowa is - during the term of any manufacturer warranties or during the period of 2 year from the date of original delivery of the motor vehicle- whichever is the earlier date.

A vehicle may qualify under the Lemon Law if it meets one or more of the following conditions:

The vehicle has been in the shop 3 or more times for the same problem, and the problem still exists;

The vehicle has been in the shop one time by reason of a defect likely to cause death or substantial bodily injury, and the problem still exists; or

The vehicle has been out of service for any number of problems for a period of 20 days or more, and the defect(s) still exists.

To qualify under the lemon law, it is important that the defect is inherent and persistent in nature because of which the vehicle is not meeting the standards proposed by the manufacture at the time of delivery. The limitation period under which any proceedings must be initiated is two years after the date of the original delivery of a motor vehicle, or the first 24,000 miles whichever occurs first.

In order to support his claim the buyer must, keep copies of all repair orders for each time the vehicle has been in the repaired. He should also be aware of the date and the odometer reading, when the motor vehicle was submitted for examination or repair, and also the date when the repair or examination was completed.

If the buyer satisfies the above mentioned conditions, then he is advised to inform the dealer via notification by return receipt service that a last chance to repair the vehicle is being given to him. The manufacturer should then contact him within 10 days with the name and address of a repair facility that is accessible to the buyer where a final attempt is to be made to repair his vehicle. If the repair facility does not contact him within 10 days, then the buyer need not give the manufacturer another chance to fix the vehicle.

If the manufacturer fails to respond within 10 days, or the repair facility chosen by the manufacturer is unable to fix the problem during the final repair attempt, then the manufacturer would have to provide the purchaser a new vehicle which is acceptable to the consumer or refund him the full purchase price -which shall be inclusive of all collateral charges- after deducting a nominal allowance for the consumer's private use of such vehicle.

If the defect still persists or reoccurs within the manufacturer’s warranty period then the buyer may initiate arbitration or legal proceedings. If after taking these steps the buyer claim remains unsatisfied, he may file a lawsuit against the manufacturer under the Lemon Law. However, if the manufacturer has a certified dispute program, he must proceed through the program before filing suit. If the manufacturer's program is not certified, he may still choose to submit your claim to the program and, possibly, avoid costly litigation. The decision so arrived will not be a binding on the buyer but if he chooses to accept the decision then the manufacturer would be bound by the decision.

The limitation period for any action to be brought in under the provisions of lemon law of (IA) shall commence within, one year following the first 24,000 miles or 2 year from the date of delivery of the vehicle whichever occurs first.

The US federal law governing lemons is officially called The Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act, however, most American states each have their own lemon law.


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