No used vehicles and vehicles sold without a warranty are NOT typically covered under the state lemon laws unfortunately. It is best not to make such a large investment without a warranty.

However, the implied warranty of merchantability could aid you if you did not waive it, or you could allege fraud if the seller made intentional misrepresentations to you about the condition of the vehicle.

First, you could file a complaint with the BBB in an attempt to resolve the matter. If the seller wishes to protect their reputation, they will reasonably attempt to resolve the situation through that process.

However, retaining a CA consumer protection attorney would likely resolve the matter faster since you are losing money the longer the situation remains unresolved.

Here is a link that explains the implied warranty of merchantability:

http://law.onecle.com/california/civil/1791.1.html

Since the vehcile does not run, the seller has arguably breached this warranty. However, they will argue that since it did run as intended for 5,500 miles, they did not breach this warranty.

However, if they intentionally misrepresented the condition of the vehicle, they could still be held liable based on a fraud theory of law.

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Tina

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