If your new or used vehicle bought at the Irvine Auto Center or leased from Irvine BMW, Lexus, or Mercedes has been back at the dealer over and over for the same problem, California's Song-Beverly Act may entitle you to a buyback, replacement, or cash settlement. No fee unless we win.
Irvine is the third-largest city in Orange County with a population approaching three hundred and twenty thousand. It sits on the master-planned pattern laid out by the Irvine Company over the second half of the twentieth century: gridded streets, village-sized neighborhoods, and some of the highest household incomes in Southern California. The city is wrapped by the 5, the 405, the 133, and the 73 toll road, with the 241 skirting its east edge. Commuters stream in daily from Riverside County and out to Newport Beach and Costa Mesa.
The Irvine Auto Center sits off the 405 along Auto Center Drive. It hosts high-volume stores for BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Lexus, Infiniti, Acura, Audi, Volkswagen, Porsche, Honda, Toyota, Hyundai, Kia, Mazda, and Subaru, among others. Irvine is Orange County's luxury retail engine, and the Irvine Auto Center is the centerpiece of that economy. Beyond the Center itself, Rivian's Laguna Niguel store and Tesla's Costa Mesa and Buena Park locations are the EV-adjacent volume for Irvine buyers.
Our firm is based in Los Angeles in Los Angeles. For Irvine clients, we are forty-five to sixty minutes north via the 5 or the 405 depending on traffic. Most Irvine cases are handled without the client ever coming to us; repair orders, purchase documents, and communications all exchange electronically.
California's Song-Beverly Consumer Warranty Act is the lemon law statute that controls Irvine cases. The rule is simple: if a manufacturer or its authorized repair facility cannot repair a warrantied defect to conform to the written warranty after a reasonable number of attempts, the manufacturer must repurchase or replace the vehicle. Two attempts for a serious safety defect, four attempts for a general defect, or thirty cumulative days out of service are the common presumption triggers under Section 1793.22.
Leased vehicles are fully covered. A large share of Irvine's luxury-car ownership is on three-year leases from BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Lexus, and Audi. Those leases are Song-Beverly-covered on exactly the same terms as cash purchases. The remedy in a lease case involves manufacturer repurchase with termination of the lease and refund of your payments and down payment, minus a statutory offset.
Irvine is in Orange County. Litigated Irvine lemon law cases are filed in Orange County Superior Court, almost always at the Central Justice Center at 700 Civic Center Drive West in downtown Santa Ana. That courthouse sees a steady Song-Beverly docket, and its judges are familiar with the standard repurchase analysis.
In practice, most Irvine cases settle through the manufacturer's repurchase program before formal litigation. The cases that do proceed to filed litigation are typically cases where the manufacturer has denied a clearly-documented repurchase request, and those are the cases that produce the statute's mandatory-fee-shift and civil-penalty remedies.
BMW iDrive, Mercedes MBUX, Audi MMI, Porsche PCM and ADAS defects that cannot be resolved.
ZF 8HP shuddering, Mercedes 9G-Tronic harsh shifts, Audi S tronic faults on Irvine Auto Center vehicles.
Air suspension, adaptive dampers, braking-system defects documented at Irvine dealers and not resolved.
Tesla, Rivian, Lucid, Porsche Taycan, Audi e-tron, Mercedes EQ battery and drive-unit defects.
A/C compressor failures in the Orange County inland summer. Common on German and luxury products.
CPO warranty claims on Irvine Auto Center vehicles and balance-of-warranty cases.
Irvine cases skew heavily luxury and heavily lease. The Irvine Auto Center moves thousands of BMW, Mercedes, Lexus, Audi, and Porsche leases each year, and when a lease-start vehicle turns out to be a lemon, the math of the Song-Beverly remedy is different than a cash purchase. The buyback refund includes your down payment and every monthly lease payment made, plus incidental costs, minus a mileage offset. Well-documented cases produce clean exits from a bad lease.
Software-related defects are the second pattern. Modern luxury vehicles have more electronic control modules than they have wheels, and software defects account for a growing share of repeat-repair files. A BMW with a ghost ADAS warning, a Mercedes with a recurring driver-assistance malfunction, an Audi with an MMI that reboots on its own, a Porsche with a charging controller that refuses to initialize: these are all Song-Beverly defects when the dealer cannot resolve them.
Third pattern: high-end EV battery cases. Irvine has one of the highest Tesla, Rivian, and Taycan ownership densities in the country. Battery degradation outside manufacturer specifications, drive-unit failures requiring replacement the manufacturer refuses to do under warranty, and charging-system faults that keep returning are all real Song-Beverly files. These cases often involve complex warranty language and manufacturer-specific protocols, and we work them accordingly.
Free consultation for Irvine drivers and luxury lessees. No fee unless we win.
Irvine cases are filed in Orange County Superior Court, typically at the Central Justice Center at 700 Civic Center Drive West in downtown Santa Ana. That is the primary civil trial court for all of Orange County.
Yes. The Irvine Auto Center off the 405 at Auto Center Drive is one of the largest multi-brand dealer clusters in Orange County. Every new vehicle sold there carries California's Song-Beverly Act coverage.
Yes. California lemon law covers leased vehicles on the same terms as purchased vehicles. Remedies in a lease case include lease termination, refund of your monthly payments and down payment, and manufacturer-paid attorney fees.
Yes. Rivian vehicles sold or leased in California are covered by Song-Beverly. EV battery, drive-unit, charging-system, and software defects are regular claim categories, including for Rivian.
Occasional rideshare use generally does not convert a personal vehicle to a commercial vehicle under Song-Beverly. What matters is the primary use. If the car is primarily for personal and family transportation, it is covered regardless of weekend rideshare.
All of them. Every repair order involving the defective system matters, including visits where the dealer reported "no problem found." We review them and identify the pattern.
Nothing out of pocket. California law requires the manufacturer to pay your attorney fees and costs when you prevail. We take Irvine cases on contingency. No recovery, no fee.