What does Texas require for a new vehicle to count as a lemon?
A defect or condition, covered by the manufacturer's express warranty, that creates a serious safety hazard or substantially impairs the vehicle's use or market value, and that the manufacturer has been unable to fix after a reasonable number of repair attempts (Tex. Occ. Code § 2301.604(a)). When that is shown, the state can order the manufacturer to repurchase or replace the vehicle and reimburse reasonable incidental costs from the loss of its use.
The statute sets a rebuttable presumption for what counts as a "reasonable number" of attempts, with three routes into it: four repair attempts for the same problem, two attempts where the problem is a serious safety hazard, or thirty cumulative days out of service. Each route has a time-and-mileage window; the details are below, quoted from the statute.
How many repair attempts does it take?
Section 2301.605(a) establishes a rebuttable presumption that a reasonable number of attempts have been undertaken. It is a presumption, not an automatic win: the manufacturer can contest it, and § 2301.606(b) gives it affirmative defenses (that the problem results from abuse, neglect, or unauthorized modification, or that it does not substantially impair use or market value). The three routes:
Repeated repair attempts
Four or more repair attempts for the same nonconformity, made before the earlier of the warranty's expiration or 24 months / 24,000 miles from original delivery. § 2301.605(a)(1)
Serious safety hazard
Two or more repair attempts where the same nonconformity creates a serious safety hazard, within the same window. § 2301.605(a)(2)
Days out of service
30 or more cumulative days out of service for repair, with the impairing defect still present, within the same window. Days you had a comparable loaner from the manufacturer or distributor do not count. § 2301.605(a)(3), (c)
the same nonconformity continues to exist after being subject to repair four or more times by the manufacturer, converter, or distributor or an authorized agent or franchised dealer of a manufacturer, converter, or distributor and the attempts were made before the earlier of: (A) the date the express warranty expires; or (B) 24 months or 24,000 miles, whichever occurs first, following the date of original delivery of the motor vehicle to the owner
What is a "serious safety hazard"?
The statute defines it, and the definition is narrower than everyday usage: it must be life-threatening.
'Serious safety hazard' means a life-threatening malfunction or nonconformity that: (A) substantially impedes a person's ability to control or operate a motor vehicle for ordinary use or intended purposes; or (B) creates a substantial risk of fire or explosion.
The bar is a serious safety hazard or a substantial impairment of use or market value. TxDMV's own guidance adds, in its words, that the law does not cover "defects that do not substantially impair the use or market value of the vehicle such as minor rattles, radio static, etc." Whether your specific problem clears the bar is a question about your case, and this site does not evaluate cases; take it to the agency or a licensed attorney.
Which vehicles and which owners?
The statute's duties attach to a new motor vehicle, which § 2301.002(24) defines as one "that has not been the subject of a retail sale regardless of the mileage of the vehicle". "Motor vehicle" itself (§ 2301.002(23)) covers self-propelled highway vehicles, certain titled off-highway vehicles, and towable recreational vehicles; TxDMV's plain-language list of covered types is "cars, trucks, vans, motorcycles, all-terrain vehicles, motor homes, towable recreational vehicles (TRVs), and neighborhood electric vehicles". Two exclusions to know: the chapter does not apply to an assembled vehicle or a hobbyist (§ 2301.0045, added 2019), and TxDMV states the law does not cover "repossessed vehicles, non-travel trailers, boats, or farm equipment".
Who can file is defined by § 2301.601(2)'s "Owner" definition: retail purchasers, lessors and lessees (but not sublessees), and, on conditions, people the vehicle was transferred to. Bought your vehicle used or secondhand? That has its own rules and its own page: used vehicles and the Texas lemon law.
What can the state actually order?
Three layers, all statutory. First, the baseline repair duty: § 2301.603(a) requires the manufacturer to "make repairs necessary to conform a new motor vehicle to an applicable ... express warranty", and that duty survives the warranty's expiration if you reported the problem during the term. Second, where conformance fails after a reasonable number of attempts, § 2301.604(a) requires the manufacturer to reimburse reasonable incidental costs from loss of use and either replace the vehicle with a comparable one or take it back and refund the full purchase price, less a reasonable allowance for your use of it. Third, in a lease, the order can terminate the lease and apportion the refund between lessee and lessor (§ 2301.608(c)).
(1) replace the motor vehicle with a comparable motor vehicle; or (2) accept return of the vehicle from the owner and refund to the owner the full purchase price, less a reasonable allowance for the owner's use of the vehicle, and any other allowances or refunds payable to the owner.
Two honest limits on what this page tells you. The statute does not say who chooses between replacement and refund; both of our independent readings looked for that assignment and it is not in the text, so we will not invent one. (TxDMV's guidance says a replacement must be "acceptable to the consumer", which is the agency's statement.) And the "reasonable allowance for use" deducted from a refund is defined in the statute (§ 2301.601(3)) but its calculation is not in the statute at all.
How the deduction for your use is calculated
That calculation is in TxDMV's hearing rules, which are published law rather than an internal worksheet, and they are worth reading if you want to understand what a buyback actually returns. The refund starts from the total purchase price, with interest, finance charges, and insurance premiums excluded and the lemon law complaint filing fee added back (the fees page has the fee and its statutory source). Against that, the rules apply a rebuttable presumption that a motor vehicle's useful life is 120,000 miles, and split your mileage at one event: the first report of the defect. Miles before that report count in full. Miles after it, through the hearing, count at half.
The split is the part worth noticing. It weights the time you drove the vehicle without complaining differently from the time you drove it while the problem was on the record, which is why the date of first report matters twice over: it is both a prerequisite to relief and an input to the money.
When a refund is ordered, the purchase price shall be the total purchase price of the motor vehicle, excluding the amount of any interest, finance charge, or insurance premiums. ... There is a rebuttable presumption that the expected useful life of a motor vehicle is 120,000 miles. ... 50% of the product obtained by multiplying the total purchase price by a fraction having as its denominator 120,000 and having as its numerator the number of miles that the motor vehicle traveled after the first report of the defect or condition forming the basis of the repurchase order through the date of the hearing.
A towable recreational vehicle is calculated on a different basis entirely, in days rather than miles; the RVs page has that rule. Leased vehicles have their own scheme in the same section, which this site has not yet verified and therefore does not summarise. And this page states the rule; it does not run it. No page here will compute your allowance, for the reasons in the note at the bottom.
What else gets reimbursed besides the price
The statute requires reimbursement of "reasonable incidental costs resulting from loss of use" but does not say what counts. The rules enumerate it: alternate transportation, towing, telephone and mail charges directly attributable to contacting the manufacturer, distributor, converter, or dealer, meals and lodging made necessary by the vehicle failing on an out-of-town trip, loss or damage to personal property, attorney fees in one narrow circumstance covered on the fees page, and items or accessories added to the vehicle less an allowance for their use. The list is expressly open-ended, and the costs have to be "reasonable and verifiable", which is the rule's way of saying keep receipts.
Incidental costs shall be included in the final refund amount required to be paid by a manufacturer, distributor, or converter to a prevailing complainant, or in the case of a motor vehicle replacement, shall be tendered to the complainant at the time of replacement.
How long do I have to file?
No later than six months after the earliest of: the express warranty term's expiration, or 24 months or 24,000 miles after the vehicle's original delivery (§ 2301.606(d)). The "earliest of" structure means a long warranty does not extend the clock past the 24-month / 24,000-mile mark. Deadlines are the most damaging thing to get wrong on a page like this, so they get their own page, which separates every clock and tells you plainly not to calculate your own last filing day from any website, including this one.