California just had its quietest first half for lemon law lawsuits in years. According to a review reported in the Daily Journal last week, lemon law filings in California fell about 31% in the first six months of 2026 compared with 2025, which was a record year.
A headline like that is easy to misread. Some people will say the lemon law “lawsuit machine” is finally slowing down. Others will assume cars have gotten better. As someone who represents consumers with defective vehicles, I don’t think either reading is right. Fewer lawsuits isn’t the same as fewer defective cars. The more important question is what happens to the people who used to file those cases.
Why filings are down
Commentators point to three main reasons.
1. New procedural rules. In 2024, California passed AB 1755, which rewrote how lemon law cases work. A follow-up bill, SB 26, made those procedures optional: each manufacturer chooses whether to opt in. For manufacturers that did, the new rules include:
- A pre-suit notice. Before seeking civil penalties, the consumer must send the manufacturer written notice with the vehicle information and repair history and ask for a repurchase or replacement. The manufacturer then has a set window to respond.
- Early exchange of records. Soon after a case is filed, both sides must hand over repair orders, warranty documents and pre-suit communications without waiting for formal discovery.
- Mandatory early mediation. Most discovery is paused until the parties go through mediation.
- Short, limited depositions early in the case.
- A tighter filing deadline. A case generally must be filed within one year after the express warranty expires, and no later than six years after the vehicle was delivered.
The whole design pushes disputes toward resolution before a lawsuit is filed, or very early in one. By that measure, it seems to be working.
2. More settlements before anyone files. Commentators report that more disputes are resolving at the pre-suit stage. When a manufacturer gets a detailed notice and knows it faces civil penalties if it ignores a valid claim, it has a reason to make an offer early.
3. Changes at high-volume plaintiffs’ firms. A small number of firms file a large share of California lemon law cases. When those firms change their practices, merge, slow down or shift strategy, the statewide numbers move with them.
Which manufacturers opted in
This part matters more than most people realize, because your process depends on who made your car.
According to published reports, the manufacturers that opted into the new procedures include Ford, General Motors, Stellantis (Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep and Ram), Hyundai, Kia, Genesis, Nissan, Infiniti, Mercedes-Benz, Mitsubishi, Subaru and Jaguar Land Rover, among others. Some major manufacturers, including Toyota and Volkswagen, reportedly chose to stay with the older rules. The California Department of Consumer Affairs keeps the official list.
So two people with nearly identical problems can face different procedures depending only on the badge on the car.
Why I’m concerned
I support resolving valid claims faster. Nobody benefits when a family waits two years for a buyback on a car that stalls on the freeway. Faster resolution is good, if it’s fair resolution.
What worries me is what the drop in filings may hide.
Early offers aren’t always fair offers. Pre-suit settlements happen privately, and most consumers negotiate them without knowing what their claim is worth. A manufacturer that offers a partial refund, a small “goodwill” payment or an extended warranty may look generous to someone who doesn’t know they could be entitled to a full repurchase, incidental costs and, in some cases, civil penalties. Fewer lawsuits could simply mean more consumers accepting less than the law provides.
The deadlines are shorter and less forgiving. The new filing deadline ties the clock to when your warranty expires. People often keep driving a problem car for months, hoping the next repair will fix it. Under the new rules, that patience can cost you your claim.
Procedure can wear people down. Mandatory notices, response windows, required disclosures and mediation before discovery are manageable for an experienced lawyer. For a consumer handling it alone, each step is another place to make a mistake or give up.
The defects haven’t gone away. Recall volume remains high, vehicles are more software-dependent than ever, and many of the problems I see are the intermittent electrical and software issues that are hardest to diagnose and fix. A 31% drop in lawsuits doesn’t mean a 31% drop in lemons.
A note on what the data doesn’t show
The filing numbers count lawsuits, not outcomes. They don’t tell us how many consumers got full repurchases before suit, how many accepted lowball offers, or how many simply gave up. Until we know that, it’s too early to call the reforms a success for consumers. They may be a success for court calendars.
What this means if you have a problem car in California
If you think your vehicle might be a lemon, here’s what I’d suggest now.
- Find out whether your manufacturer opted in. Your pre-suit steps and timeline depend on it.
- Keep every repair order. Make sure each one accurately describes your complaint in your own words. “Could not duplicate” still counts as a repair visit, but only if it’s documented.
- Watch your warranty expiration date. Put it on your calendar, and don’t let the one-year filing window slip by while you wait for one more repair.
- Don’t sign anything without understanding it. If the manufacturer contacts you with an offer, find out what you’d be giving up before you accept. A release usually ends your claim for good.
- Don’t assume a notice letter is a formality. Under the new rules, what goes into the pre-suit notice can affect whether civil penalties are available later.
- Talk to a lawyer early. California’s lemon law generally requires the manufacturer to pay the consumer’s attorney’s fees when the consumer prevails, so getting advice before you negotiate usually costs you nothing out of pocket.
The bottom line
California’s lemon law reforms were meant to move disputes faster, and the drop in filings suggests they’re doing that. But the goal of the lemon law was never fewer lawsuits. It was making sure people stuck with defective vehicles get their money back. If you’re driving a car that keeps going back to the shop, don’t read the headline as a sign your claim is weaker. Your rights under California law are still strong. The process has changed, and the deadlines are tighter.
Ginsburg Law Group can review your repair history and tell you where your claim stands.
This post is general information, not legal advice. Lemon law procedures differ by manufacturer and by state.
Post 2: Recent recalls
Title: Recalled VW, Audi, Range Rover or Rivian? When a Recall Can Turn Into a Lemon Law Claim
Suggested slug: vw-audi-range-rover-rivian-recall-lemon-law-september-2026
In a single week in late September 2026, federal regulators posted recalls covering hundreds of thousands of vehicles. Some are routine software fixes. Others involve losing steering or drive power while the car is moving.
If you own one of these vehicles, get the recall repair done. But if your car has also been in and out of the shop for the same problem, a recall notice may be more than an inconvenience. It can be evidence that the defect is real and that your vehicle may qualify under your state’s lemon law or federal warranty law.
The recalls
Here are the most significant recalls posted the week of September 21 to 25, 2026:
- Volkswagen Atlas, Volkswagen Tiguan and Audi Q3, model years 2018–2021 (about 209,000 vehicles). A steering rack mounting bolt can corrode and break, which can lead to loss of steering control. The fix is replacing the right-side steering rack bolt.
- 2025 Volkswagen Tiguan (about 50,000 vehicles). A software error can cause the body control module to reset, which can stall the engine and disable lights and the rearview camera. The fix is a software update at the dealer.
- Land Rover Range Rover and related models, model years 2019–2024 (about 24,000 vehicles). A DC-DC converter can fail, causing loss of drive power and exterior lighting. The fix is a software update.
- Rivian R1S, R1T and R2, model years 2022–2027 (about 99,000 vehicles). An on-screen notification can block the rearview camera image while reversing. The fix is an over-the-air software update.
Hyundai also recalled about 5,400 2026 Ioniq 9 vehicles because the second-row power seats may not detect a person, which creates a pinching risk.
You can check whether your vehicle is affected by entering your VIN at NHTSA.gov/recalls.
A recall isn’t automatically a lemon
Let’s be clear about this first. A recall on its own doesn’t make your car a lemon. Manufacturers issue recalls all the time, and a recall repair that fixes the problem the first time is the system working as designed. The law requires recall repairs to be done at no charge.
Lemon laws are about a manufacturer’s failure to fix a defect within a reasonable number of attempts, or a vehicle spending too long out of service. The question isn’t “was my car recalled?” It’s “has my car been repaired for this problem over and over, or been stuck in the shop for weeks, without a lasting fix?”
When a recall matters for a lemon law claim
In my practice, recalls come up in lemon law cases in a few common ways.
You reported the problem before the recall. Many owners bring their cars in for the very symptoms a recall later addresses: a clunk in the steering, a car that shuts off at a stoplight, a power loss warning. They get told “could not duplicate” or “operating as designed.” Those earlier visits can count as repair attempts, and the recall notice supports what you were saying all along.
The recall repair doesn’t fix it. Software updates in particular don’t always solve the problem. If your 2025 Tiguan still stalls after the update, or your Range Rover still loses power, you’re back at the dealer for the same defect. That adds up.
The fix is delayed. When a recall covers hundreds of thousands of vehicles, parts can be back-ordered for weeks or months. In many states, days out of service count toward lemon law thresholds. A car that sits at the dealer waiting for parts may reach those thresholds faster than you think.
The recall is one more problem among many. A vehicle with repeated repairs for several unrelated defects can also qualify in some states, depending on the facts.
Why safety defects matter more
Several of these recalls involve serious safety risks. Losing steering control, the engine stalling, or losing drive power at speed aren’t cosmetic problems.
Many state lemon laws treat defects that create a serious safety hazard differently, often requiring fewer repair attempts before a vehicle qualifies. Texas, for example, has a separate, shorter path for defects that create a serious safety hazard. If your vehicle has one of these safety defects and has been repaired for it even twice, it’s worth getting your repair history reviewed.
Timing depends on your state and your car
The lemon law rules differ significantly from state to state.
- California’s Song-Beverly Act generally covers vehicles with repeated repairs during the manufacturer’s warranty. Under recent reforms, a claim generally must be filed within one year after the express warranty expires and no later than six years after delivery. Some manufacturers have also opted into newer pre-suit procedures, so the process depends on who made your car.
- Texas lemon law has specific repair-attempt and time-in-shop tests tied to the early part of ownership, and strict deadlines for filing a complaint.
- Pennsylvania’s lemon law applies to new vehicles that have problems within the first year or 12,000 miles, whichever comes first, and uses repair-attempt and days-out-of-service tests.
Older vehicles, like the 2018–2021 Atlas, Tiguan and Q3, may be outside some states’ lemon law windows. That doesn’t necessarily end the analysis. The federal Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act can apply when a manufacturer fails to honor its written warranty, and it covers used vehicles still under warranty and vehicles outside state lemon law periods. Extended warranties, certified pre-owned coverage and state warranty laws can come into play too.
An open question: over-the-air updates
Three of these recalls are fixed by software, and one (Rivian’s) is delivered over the air without a dealer visit. That raises a question the law hasn’t fully answered: does an over-the-air update count as a repair attempt?
Lemon laws were written for a world where every repair meant a trip to the dealer and a repair order. Now manufacturers can push fixes to your car overnight, with no paperwork you’d normally see. I think repeated failed software fixes should count as repeated repair attempts, but the law is still catching up. If your vehicle gets OTA updates for a problem that keeps coming back, keep your own records, because the manufacturer’s may be hard to get later.
What you should do if your vehicle is on this list
- Check your VIN at NHTSA.gov/recalls and schedule the recall repair.
- Get and keep every repair order, including for the recall. Check that each one describes the problem accurately and shows the dates the car was dropped off and picked up.
- Describe your symptoms in detail every time you bring the car in. “Car shut off while driving at 40 mph” is far more useful than “check engine light.”
- Save records of software updates. Take screenshots of OTA update notices and release notes, and write down when they were installed.
- Track days out of service, including days spent waiting for parts.
- Don’t wait if the problem comes back. Lemon law deadlines are strict, and you can’t get the time back.
- Talk to a lawyer before accepting a “goodwill” offer. Manufacturers sometimes offer extended warranties or small payments. Find out what you’d be giving up first.
The bottom line
A recall is the manufacturer admitting that a defect exists. If you’ve been dealing with that defect, especially one that affects steering, stalling or drive power, and repairs haven’t solved it, you may have rights beyond a free fix.
Ginsburg Law Group reviews repair histories for owners in California, Texas, Pennsylvania and nationwide. If your vehicle is on this list and keeps going back to the shop, send us your repair orders. Our Lemon Law Research Suite also lets you look up recalls and common problems for your vehicle.
This post is general information, not legal advice. Recall details come from NHTSA filings as reported in trade press. Lemon law rules differ by state and depend on your vehicle’s specific repair history.
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