Corona Lemon Law

Corona residents file in the Superior Court of California, County of Riverside. Civil unlimited cases are heard at the Historic Courthouse at 4050 Main Street in downtown Riverside, the county's main civil filing location. Song-Beverly venue rules also allow filing in any other California county where the manufacturer does business — often San Bernardino, Orange, or Los Angeles — depending on the manufacturer's California operations and your attorney's strategic choice based on judicial assignment patterns.

Daily stop-and-go on the CA-91 between Corona and Orange County puts well-documented stress on transmissions, and California courts recognize that transmission shudder, harsh shifting, or torque-converter lockup faults substantially impair use, value, and safety. If your dealer has performed multiple TSB reflashes, valve-body replacements, or torque-converter swaps without lasting fix, the four-attempt Tanner Act presumption may apply within the first 18 months / 18,000 miles. Save every repair order and a personal log of each shudder event.

Sometimes. Cal. Civ. Code 1795.5 extends Song-Beverly to used vehicles sold by a distributor or retailer with a written warranty — usually certified pre-owned cars with a manufacturer-backed CPO warranty or vehicles still within the unexpired balance of the original manufacturer's express warranty. Used cars sold 'as-is' with no written warranty are generally not covered under Song-Beverly, though you may have separate claims under the CLRA or for fraud if defects were concealed at sale.

Under Cal. Civ. Code 1793.22(b), a reasonable number of repair attempts is presumed if, within 18 months of delivery or 18,000 miles (whichever is first), (1) the same nonconformity has been subject to repair four or more times, OR (2) the same nonconformity has been subject to repair two or more times and is likely to cause death or serious bodily injury, OR (3) the vehicle has been out of service for repair for a cumulative total of more than 30 calendar days. The presumption is rebuttable but shifts the burden to the manufacturer.

Yes — in fact, a case is generally easier to win while the warranty is still in force, because there is no question that the manufacturer's repair-or-replace duty applies. Song-Beverly does not require you to wait until the warranty expires. The four-attempt or 30-day Tanner Act presumption can be met well within the first year of ownership. Contact a lemon-law attorney as soon as a third or fourth repair attempt is approaching to preserve evidence and timing.

Cal. Civ. Code 1793.2(d) requires the manufacturer to refund the full purchase price (including sales tax, license fees, registration, and finance charges) less a use offset under 1793.2(d)(2)(C). Cal. Civ. Code 1794 also allows recovery of incidental and consequential damages (rental cars, towing, repair-attempt mileage), plus up to 2x civil penalties under 1794(c) for willful violations, plus reasonable attorneys' fees and costs under 1794(d). Total exposure for a willful violation is effectively three times actual damages.

The Song-Beverly statute of limitations is four years from the date of breach under Cal. Com. Code 2725, with the breach typically occurring when the manufacturer fails to repair within a reasonable number of attempts. AB 1755, effective 2025, added an outer-limit deadline: actions must be filed within one year of express warranty expiration and no later than six years from original delivery. If your warranty has recently expired, contact a lemon-law attorney immediately to preserve the claim.