Burbank is small but it moves a lot of cars. If your Burbank-purchased or Burbank-serviced vehicle has been back at the dealer over and over for the same issue, you may have a Song-Beverly claim for a buyback, replacement, or cash settlement. No fee unless we win.
Burbank is a city of about a hundred and seven thousand people, wedged between Glendale and the Hollywood Hills and anchored by the Hollywood Burbank Airport, Warner Bros., Disney, and NBCUniversal. The working population here is disproportionately crew-based: camera operators, editors, sound mixers, production designers, studio teamsters, and thousands of Disney, Warner, and NBC employees. They drive. A lot. Days start early on a set in Valencia, wrap in Culver City, and get followed by pickups in Hollywood. A Burbank car does more daily miles than a car in almost any other LA-area city.
The dealer footprint in Burbank is concentrated along Victory Boulevard and North Hollywood Way near the airport. Bob Smith Toyota on Riverside Drive is one of the highest-volume Toyota stores in Southern California. Burbank BMW, Star Ford, and Community Honda handle BMW, Ford, and Honda buyers respectively. Crevier BMW and Burbank Kia serve additional volume. There is no single "Burbank Auto Mall" in name, but functionally the stretch of Victory and Hollywood Way between the 5 and the 134 is exactly that.
Our office is in Lincoln Heights, a fifteen minute drive east on the 134 and down the 5 from the Burbank dealer strip. We represent drivers across the whole city and the adjacent Studio City, North Hollywood, and Toluca Lake neighborhoods.
California's Song-Beverly Consumer Warranty Act gives the buyer or lessee of a new vehicle under express warranty the right to a buyback or replacement if the authorized dealer cannot fix a recurring defect after a reasonable number of attempts. The statutory presumption triggers at two attempts for a serious safety defect, four attempts for a general defect, or thirty cumulative days out of service.
Leased vehicles are fully covered. A surprising number of the buyers we talk to assume Song-Beverly only protects purchased cars; it does not. If you took delivery on a three-year lease at Burbank BMW and the car has been back in for the same transmission issue four times, you have the same claim as a cash buyer. The remedy in a lease case typically involves manufacturer repurchase with lease termination.
Song-Beverly also covers small-business vehicles under 10,000 pounds GVWR registered to a business with five or fewer such vehicles, which matters for the independent-contractor entertainment-industry drivers who register their vehicles to a loan-out corporation.
If your case reaches litigation, it will be filed in LA County Superior Court. Limited civil matters (claims under $35,000) can be filed at the Burbank Courthouse at 300 East Olive Avenue. Unlimited civil cases, which is nearly all repurchase actions, are typically filed at the Stanley Mosk Courthouse downtown. In some circumstances, the case can be filed at Chatsworth or Van Nuys, but downtown is the default unlimited-civil venue for Burbank-related cases.
Most cases settle without ever reaching a courtroom. The manufacturer's own repurchase protocols handle the straightforward files. The hard cases, where the manufacturer is stalling or refusing a documented lemon, are where litigation comes in, and those are the ones where the manufacturer-pays-fees rule and civil penalties really bite.
Long-haul commuter issues: shuddering, shift flare, stalling, oil consumption, turbo faults.
BMW iDrive failures, Toyota sensor resets, Honda infotainment freezes, backup camera outages.
Safety defects the Burbank dealer documented but never fixed.
Dead A/C during Valley summers. Common on German and domestic products after three or four seasons.
Tesla, Rivian, Ford Lightning, Toyota hybrid battery and drive-unit failures.
CPO and balance-of-warranty vehicles from any Burbank dealer.
Every successful Song-Beverly case ends in one of these remedies, with attorney fees paid on top.
Burbank drivers put serious mileage on their vehicles, and that changes the math on lemon law cases. A Bob Smith Toyota buyer who commutes daily from Burbank to a Valencia set can rack up thirty thousand miles in a year. When the defect first appeared at twelve thousand, the statutory offset stays anchored to that earlier mileage. That means a well-documented defect discovered early can still drive a favorable buyback even after the car has rolled past forty thousand miles.
Valley heat is the second recurring factor. Burbank sits in the heat sink of the southern San Fernando Valley. Summer highs routinely hit triple digits, and A/C defects surface fast. Mercedes, BMW, and late-model Ford A/C compressor and cabin-blower issues are a running pattern on Burbank-bought cars. So are sunroof drainage defects that only become apparent during the first real rain of the year, often months after purchase.
The entertainment-industry employment pattern produces an unusual sub-pattern too: vehicles leased by loan-out corporations and used for commuting between sets. Those leases are still covered under Song-Beverly's small-business vehicle extension when the corporation has five or fewer vehicles. If that is you and the car has been through the dealer three or four times, give us a call.
Free consultation for Burbank drivers and entertainment-industry loan-out owners. No fee unless we win.
Most cases are filed in LA County Superior Court. Limited jurisdiction cases can be filed at the Burbank Courthouse on Olive Avenue, and unlimited civil cases generally go to the Stanley Mosk Courthouse downtown.
No. California's Song-Beverly Act applies identically regardless of which Burbank dealer sold the car. The statute runs against the manufacturer, not the dealer. Your remedy does not depend on which store wrote the deal.
Yes. California lemon law fully covers leased vehicles. You are the consumer under the lease and entitled to the same repurchase, replacement, and cash-and-keep remedies as a cash buyer.
Generally yes. Song-Beverly extends to small-business vehicles under 10,000 pounds GVWR registered to a business with five or fewer such vehicles. Most single-person loan-outs qualify. We look at the registration and ownership structure to confirm.
Files that settle with the manufacturer's repurchase protocol typically resolve in three to six months from engagement. Cases that require filed litigation generally take twelve to eighteen months. Good documentation accelerates everything.
Yes. Continue driving normally. Keep a log of every defect reappearance with dates and miles. Save every repair order. Parking the car does not help the case and can hurt it because it makes it look like you were not relying on the warranty.
That is a very common pattern and often the basis for the strongest cases. Document everything: your observations, dates the dealer released the car, and when the problem returned. Return to the dealer and open another repair order. Every repeat trip tightens the case.