The first question most owners ask about a Florida lemon claim is the practical one: if the manufacturer has to buy this vehicle back, what does that actually mean in dollars? The statute answers with a formula, and the formula is worth understanding before any settlement conversation starts.
This guide walks through each piece of the repurchase calculation, including the one deduction the law allows.
The three things a refund includes
When a manufacturer repurchases a vehicle under section 681.104 of the Florida Statutes, the refund has three components.
The purchase price. The full price paid for the vehicle, including any trade-in allowance you received as part of the deal.
Collateral charges. The charges that rode along with the purchase: sales tax, license and registration fees, title fees, dealer-installed options on the vehicle as delivered, and similar costs the consumer would not have paid but for the purchase.
Finance charges. The interest the consumer actually paid on the loan or lease up to the repurchase. Owners who have been fighting a defect for a year often forget this piece, and it is real money.
For leased vehicles, the refund concept translates into the lease payments and charges the lessee has borne, and the lease is terminated without penalty.
The one deduction: the reasonable offset for use
The statute lets the manufacturer subtract a single amount, called the reasonable offset for use. The idea is that the consumer did get some use out of the vehicle before it revealed itself as a lemon, and the manufacturer does not have to pay for those miles.
The formula is set by statute. For most vehicles:
| Input | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Purchase price | The price used in the refund calculation |
| Miles | Miles attributable to the consumer up to the first repair attempt for the defect |
| Divisor | 120,000 for most vehicles, 90,000 for recreational vehicles |
The offset equals the purchase price, times the miles, divided by the divisor.
Worked examples
Example one. A $40,000 sedan had 6,000 miles on it when it first went in for the stalling problem. The offset is $40,000 x 6,000 / 120,000, which is $2,000. If the owner also paid $2,800 in tax and fees and $1,400 in finance charges so far, the refund is $40,000 + $2,800 + $1,400 - $2,000 = $42,200.
Example two. A $90,000 motorhome chassis claim with 9,000 miles at the first repair attempt uses the recreational vehicle divisor: $90,000 x 9,000 / 90,000 = $9,000 offset.
Two features of the formula favor consumers. The mileage freezes at the first repair attempt for the defect, so the miles you drove afterward, while the dealer kept trying and failing, do not increase the offset. And the 120,000 divisor is generous; it implicitly treats a vehicle as delivering value across 120,000 miles, which keeps the offset small for problems that appear early.