the.com/lemon law
The receipt says 'as is.' The law says 'as if.'
means A consumer protection law that forces manufacturers to refund or replace new vehicles that turn out to be persistently, irreparably defective.
from 'Lemon' has meant 'a defective or disappointing thing' in American slang since early-20th-century, likely from the fruit's association with sourness and unpleasant surprise — biting into something that looks fine but isn't. The term attached to bad cars by the mid-1900s. California passed the first state statute formally called a 'Lemon Law' in 1970, and other states followed, giving the old slang a legal backbone.
- origin
- named after cars, not citrus
- coverage
- usually new cars with repeated, unfixed defects
- remedy
- buyback or replacement, not just a refund tantrum
- scope creep
- some states now cover phones and appliances