The Lemon Law in Illinois

Illinois's New Vehicle Buyer Protection Act covers new passenger cars, light trucks under 8,000 pounds and recreational vehicles bought or leased (for at least a year) mainly for personal, family or household use. The "statutory warranty period" is one year or 12,000 miles after delivery, whichever comes first. A reasonable number of repair attempts is presumed if, within that period, the same defect was repaired four or more times and still exists, or the vehicle was out of service for repairs 30 or more business days. If the defect cannot be fixed, the manufacturer must provide a comparable replacement vehicle or take it back and refund the full purchase price or lease cost, including collateral charges (not including taxes), minus a reasonable allowance for use.

1) Written notice: the presumption that the manufacturer had a reasonable number of repair attempts (4 or more repairs of the same problem, or 30 or more business days out of service, during the statutory warranty period) does not apply unless the manufacturer has received prior direct written notice from or on behalf of the consumer and has an opportunity to correct the defect. 2) Final repair attempt: no separate final-repair step is described beyond that opportunity to correct. 3) Arbitration: Illinois has no state-run lemon law arbitration program. If the manufacturer has an informal dispute program that substantially follows federal rules (16 C.F.R. Part 703), and the seller gave the consumer adequate written notice of it (for example, in the written warranty), the consumer must use it first before the refund/replacement remedy applies. A consumer dissatisfied with the decision may then sue; the decision is admissible in court, and the time the dispute was pending in the program is added to the deadline to sue. 4) Deadline: any action under the lemon law must be started within 18 months after the vehicle was originally delivered to the consumer.

When a licensed dealer (or a public auction company) sells a used vehicle to a consumer, it may not disclaim the implied warranty of merchantability until 15 days or 500 miles after delivery, whichever comes first; the vehicle must work for ordinary transportation and be substantially free of power train defects. The consumer must notify the seller within 2 business days after that period ends, give the seller a chance to repair, and pay half the cost of the first two repairs, up to $100 per repair. This does not apply to vehicles with over 150,000 miles, branded rebuilt or flood titles, vehicles of 8,000 pounds or more, antique or collector vehicles, or sales with an equal or better express warranty.