Two kinds of warranty
A used car leaves your lot with an express warranty you wrote, with the implied warranties the law supplies, or with neither, because you sold it as is. The Song-Beverly Consumer Warranty Act, Civil Code 1790 and following, defines the first two. An express warranty is a written statement, made with the sale, that the seller will preserve or maintain the goods' utility or performance, or will compensate the buyer if they fail (1791.2(a)). No special words are needed, though "warrant" and "guarantee" always create one, and a statement of value, an opinion or praise does not (1791.2(b)).
Implied warranties come from the law, not from you. The implied warranty of merchantability means the car passes without objection in the trade under the contract description and is fit for the ordinary purposes a car serves (1791.1(a)). Civil Code 1792 attaches the implied warranty of merchantability to every retail sale of consumer goods unless it is disclaimed the way the chapter allows. The chapter defines consumer goods as new goods (1791(a)); a used car comes in through 1795.5, below, and only when you give an express warranty. The Commercial Code's implied warranty of merchantability still attaches to any merchant's sale of goods of its kind (Commercial Code 2314), so a used car sold with no written warranty and no as-is writing carries it; "as is" or "with all faults" excludes it (2316(3)(a)).
What as-is does, and what it cannot do
An as-is sale is the one way to sell without the implied warranties. Section 1792.3 bars any waiver of the implied warranty of merchantability except an as-is or with-all-faults sale that strictly follows the chapter, and 1792.4 sets the form: a conspicuous writing attached to the car that tells the buyer, before the sale, the three things the prior lesson listed, that the car is sold as is, that the risk as to its quality and performance is the buyer's, and that the buyer pays for any repair. Done that way, the sale waives the implied warranties (1792.5).
It does not undo an express warranty: once you write a promise, 1792.4 has nothing to say about it, and a car cannot be both as-is and warranted. It does not excuse any disclosure in this course. Known damage, the odometer, a salvage history and a lemon buyback, below, are owed to an as-is buyer by statutes with no as-is exception. And it bars the word "certified": Vehicle Code 11713.18(a)(7) and (a)(8) make it a violation to sell a used car as certified when it is sold as is or when you disclaim the warranty of merchantability.
What you take on with an express warranty
Write a warranty and you step into the manufacturer's shoes. Civil Code 1795.5 applies the chapter's manufacturer duties to a retail seller who gives an express warranty on used goods. You, not the car's maker, keep service and repair facilities in California sufficient to carry out the warranty (1795.5(a)). The implied warranty of merchantability runs as long as your express warranty, but never less than 30 days and never more than three months after the sale, and if your warranty states no duration the implied one runs the full three months (1795.5(c)). A seven-day warranty carries 30 days of implied warranty behind it.
The car is repaired to conform to the warranty within 30 days unless the buyer agrees in writing to longer (1793.2(b)). If after a reasonable number of attempts you cannot make the car conform, you replace it or refund the price, less the value of the buyer's use before the defect appeared (1793.2(d)(1)). While the car sits in your shop for a warranty repair the warranty clock stops, and the warranty cannot run out if your repair failed and the buyer told you so within 60 days; every warranty repair gets a work order or receipt showing the dates (1795.6).
The Lemon Law
The Lemon Law is the Act's refund-or-replace remedy for new motor vehicles, in 1793.2(d)(2), and the presumption that makes it usable, in 1793.22, the Tanner Consumer Protection Act. When a manufacturer cannot conform a new motor vehicle to its express warranty after a reasonable number of attempts, it must promptly replace the vehicle or make restitution, and the buyer chooses which. Restitution is the price paid, plus sales tax, license and registration fees, plus incidental damages such as towing and a rental car (1793.2(d)(2)(B)). The manufacturer may deduct the buyer's use: the price times the miles driven before the first repair visit for the defect, divided by 120,000 (1793.2(d)(2)(C)).
The presumption gives "reasonable number of attempts" a floor. Within 18 months of delivery or 18,000 miles, whichever comes first, the buyer is presumed to have given the manufacturer enough tries when any one of three things has happened: a nonconformity likely to cause death or serious bodily injury has been in for repair two or more times; the same nonconformity of any kind has been in four or more times; or the vehicle has been out of service for repairs more than 30 cumulative days (1793.22(b)). For the first two the buyer must also have notified the manufacturer directly, where the warranty or owner's manual says so. A nonconformity is a defect that substantially impairs the vehicle's use, value or safety (1793.22(e)(1)).
A used car's share of it
Most of that does not reach a used car. The remedy and the presumption attach to a "new motor vehicle," which 1793.22(e)(2) defines to include a dealer-owned vehicle and a demonstrator or other motor vehicle sold with a manufacturer's new car warranty. Dealers long read that last phrase, after Jensen v. BMW of North America (1995), to cover any used car still inside its factory warranty. On October 31, 2024 the California Supreme Court disapproved Jensen in Rodriguez v. FCA US, LLC, unanimously: a car bought with the unexpired balance of the manufacturer's new car warranty is not a new motor vehicle unless the new car warranty was issued with that sale. A three-year-old trade-in with two years of powertrain coverage left is out.
What the used buyer has instead is this. From the manufacturer, the repair promise in whatever factory warranty remains. From you, whatever express warranty you wrote, with the 1795.5 duties behind it but without the 120,000-mile formula or the 18-month presumption. And if you sold as is, nothing on condition from you. AB 1755 (2024) and SB 26 (2025) added court procedures for lemon claims against manufacturers that opt in, Code of Civil Procedure 871.20 and following; they change none of a dealer's duties.
Lemon buybacks come back to the lot
A car the manufacturer took back under the Lemon Law can be resold, and it comes back through dealers. The manufacturer must retitle the car in its own name, have the DMV inscribe the title "Lemon Law Buyback," and affix a decal (Civil Code 1793.23(c)). The decal goes on the left front doorframe, says the title carries that notation, and no one may knowingly remove or alter it (Vehicle Code 11713.12). And no one may sell, lease or transfer a car the manufacturer reacquired under 1793.2(d)(2) unless the original nonconformity is disclosed to the buyer, corrected, and warranted in writing by the manufacturer for one year (1793.22(f)).
Your duties at resale are two documents, both signed by the buyer before the sale. First, if you acquired the car knowing, or with reason to know, that the manufacturer took it back after the last owner asked for a refund or replacement, you deliver the notice 1793.24 prescribes and get the buyer's written acknowledgment (1793.23(e)). The manufacturer prepares it on an 8 1/2 by 11 sheet in 10-point type: year, make, model and VIN, whether the title is branded, each nonconformity the original owner reported and each repair attempted, with signature lines for the manufacturer, each dealer and the buyer (1793.24). Second, whenever the title itself reads "Lemon Law Buyback," you give the buyer a separate disclosure statement, signed by the buyer, saying in capitals that the vehicle was repurchased by its manufacturer due to a defect under consumer warranty laws and that its title is permanently branded (1793.23(f)). The two stack with every other disclosure (1793.23(g)), and a buyback can never be sold as certified (Vehicle Code 11713.18(a)(2) and (a)(3)). A car from a wholesale auction owes the same paper; the brand and the decal are notice.
Service contracts
A service contract, the service agreement of the DMV's outline and the extended warranty of the sales floor, is a promise sold for a separately stated price and a set term to repair, replace or maintain the vehicle, or to pay for it, when a part fails from a defect or normal wear (Insurance Code 12800(c); Civil Code 1791(o)). The price separates it from a warranty: a warranty comes with the car at no charge beyond the car's price, and a service contract costs extra (16 CFR 455.1(d)(5) and (d)(7)).
Only a seller may sell or offer a vehicle service contract in California, and a seller is a dealer or lessor-retailer licensed by the DMV selling them incidental to its vehicle business (Insurance Code 12810(a) and 12800(f)). No obligor may use your name as a front (12810(b)). The obligor needs a vehicle service contract provider license from the Department of Insurance unless the obligor is you (12815(a)), and it must either hold an approved policy from an admitted insurer rated B++ or better covering 100 percent of its obligations (12830(a)) or show a net worth of $100 million (12836). A dealer who stands behind its own contracts is excused from the license alone; the insurance backing still applies (12805(a)(2)).
The contract states its own purchase price conspicuously, with the obligor's name, address, phone and license number (12820(b)(3)); the conditional sale contract itemizes the amount charged for a service contract outside the cash price (Civil Code 2982(a)(1)). Under Civil Code 1794.41(a)(3), the contract may cover only items, costs and time periods the express warranty does not, overlapping a warranty only where it adds coverage or a remedy the warranty lacks. The buyer may inspect the contract before buying; the contract or a brochure describing its terms, exclusions and these cancellation rights is delivered at or before purchase, and the contract itself within 60 days (1794.41(a)(2)). Its text carries the disclosures 1794.4 requires: the term, the exclusions, the buyer's maintenance duties and the claims procedure. Exclusions and buyer duties print in boldface no smaller than the surrounding text, and an exclusion for preexisting conditions in 12-point type (Insurance Code 12820(b)(2) and (b)(4)).
The buyer can cancel. Within 60 days of receiving the contract, or 30 days for a used vehicle without a manufacturer's warranty, written notice brings a full refund if no claim was made and a pro rata refund if one was; after that window, a pro rata refund, from which the seller may keep a cancellation fee of 10 percent of the price or $25, whichever is less (Civil Code 1794.41(a)(4)). If the contract was financed, the refund may go to the buyer, the assignee or the lender. The obligor may cancel too: within 60 days of the sale by mailed notice stating the grounds, with a full refund within 30 days, or pro rata if it has paid a claim, and at any time for nonpayment or fraud (Insurance Code 12825).
Sources
- Civil Code 1791, 1791.1, 1791.2 and 1792, definitions and the implied warranties, read 2026-10-22.
- Civil Code 1792.3, 1792.4 and 1792.5, waiver of implied warranties by an as-is sale, read 2026-10-22.
- Civil Code 1793.2, 1793.22, 1793.23 and 1793.24, the refund-or-replace remedy, the Tanner Consumer Protection Act presumption and the lemon buyback title, decal and disclosures, read 2026-10-22.
- Civil Code 1794.4 and 1794.41, service contract disclosures and cancellation, read 2026-10-22.
- Civil Code 1795.5 and 1795.6, express warranties on used goods and tolling during repair, read 2026-10-22.
- Commercial Code 2314 and 2316, the merchant's implied warranty of merchantability and its exclusion by an as-is sale, read 2026-10-22.
- Civil Code 2982(a)(1), itemization of the service contract charge in a conditional sale contract, read 2026-10-22.
- Vehicle Code 11713.12, the Lemon Law Buyback decal; 11713.18, certified used vehicles, read 2026-10-22.
- Insurance Code 12800, 12805, 12810, 12815, 12820, 12825, 12830 and 12836, vehicle service contracts, read 2026-10-22.
- Rodriguez v. FCA US, LLC, S274625 (Cal. Supreme Court, Oct. 31, 2024), the opinion as published by the court, read 2026-10-22.
- Department of Consumer Affairs, Arbitration Certification Program, New Lemon Law Procedures (AB 1755 and SB 26), dca.ca.gov, read 2026-10-22.
- 16 CFR 455.1(d), definitions of warranty and service contract, read 2026-10-22.
- DMV, Lesson Plan Guidelines for Used Vehicle Dealer Education Programs, OL 2000 (rev. 12/2007), topic 20.