California Lemon-Law Buyback Calculator and Formula

Traditional restitution under Civil Code section 1793.2(d)(2)(B) includes the actual price paid or payable, including transportation charges and manufacturer-installed options, subject to applicable law. It excludes nonmanufacturer items installed by a dealer or buyer from that actual-price component. Collateral charges and qualifying incidental damages are separately considered.

Do not begin and end with MSRP. Preserve the signed contract, itemization, window sticker, finance documents, payment history, registration, payoff, and receipts. Do not assume every line item, later ownership expense, protection product, modification, or service contract is reimbursable. The statutory category and factual relationship must be evaluated.

Section 1793.2 gives examples of collateral charges including sales or use tax, license fees, registration fees, and other official fees. Kirzhner explains that qualifying collateral charges are auxiliary to and accompanying the vehicle’s price. The initial registration charge can qualify.

Kirzhner also explains that later registration-renewal or nonoperation fees do not qualify as collateral charges merely because the consumer continued to own the vehicle. Such later fees may potentially qualify as incidental damages if the required causal relationship to the manufacturer’s statutory breach is established. Finance charges associated with vehicle financing can be part of the statutory calculation under the approved California authority.

For traditional section 1793.2(d)(2) restitution, the manufacturer may reduce restitution for use before the consumer first delivered the vehicle to the manufacturer, distributor, or authorized service-and-repair facility for correction of the problem giving rise to the nonconformity. The formula is actual price paid or payable multiplied by qualifying pre-repair miles, divided by 120,000.

The numerator is not automatically the mileage at any first service visit. The statutory language connects the delivery to correction of the problem giving rise to the nonconformity. Compare complaints and mileage across the record. Do not select the earliest oil change, unrelated concern, or convenient mileage without analyzing that connection.

ACTUAL PRICE PAID OR PAYABLE × QUALIFYING PRE-REPAIR MILES ÷ 120,000

Only for an action subject to section 871.20, section 871.27 provides specific calculation rules. The defendant receives an offset for specified optional equipment or products purchased from qualifying third parties, including listed accessories, theft-deterrent and surface-protection products, service contracts, extended warranties, debt-cancellation agreements, and GAP financing, subject to the statute.

The statute treats qualifying dealer additions supplied by the selling or leasing dealership or an authorized OEM retail facility differently: those additions are recoverable and do not receive that statutory offset. Section 871.27 also provides an offset for negative equity from prior vehicles, a specific noncash manufacturer down-payment-assistance rebate rule, and no responsibility for unpaid interest or financing costs that will not be owed or paid when the lien is paid off.

Niedermeier v. FCA US LLC held that in an action under section 1794, trade-in credit or sale proceeds did not reduce statutory restitution under section 1793.2(d)(2), at least where the consumer had been forced to trade or sell the defective vehicle because of the manufacturer’s failure to comply with the Act.

Do not convert that qualified holding into a broad rule for every voluntary disposition. This guide does not encourage a consumer to sell, trade, surrender, or alter possession without advice. Preserve the reasons, communications, transaction documents, proceeds, payoff, and timing if a disposition has occurred or is being considered.

Before signing a repair order, read the complaint line and ask that factual omissions or errors be corrected. State the exact warning, behavior, frequency, operating circumstances, and practical effect. Do not supply a technical diagnosis unless a qualified source made it, and do not adopt stronger wording merely because it sounds legally important. An accurate description that can be compared across visits is more useful than an exaggerated label that the underlying evidence does not support.

At pickup, compare the complaint, cause, correction, dates, and mileage. Preserve any original evidence given to the service adviser and the message showing when it was sent. Do not alter an issued invoice; retain a separate note of questions. If the condition returns, record the date, mileage, circumstances, and whether the reported behavior is genuinely the same. This discipline helps counsel evaluate the complete history without treating a consumer allegation, dealer notation, or repair choice as conclusive by itself.

First identify the vehicle, acquisition, delivery date, sale year, written warranty, and the manufacturer-authorized facilities involved. Next identify the precise nonconformity or transaction item addressed by the guide. Then place each presentation, response, unavailable period, notice, and recurrence in chronological order. Only after those facts are organized should the reviewer select the traditional Song-Beverly framework or determine whether a manufacturer election makes Code of Civil Procedure sections 871.20–871.30 applicable to the action.

That order prevents a conclusion from driving the evidence. A consumer should not choose a mileage because it produces a preferred offset, merge complaints because it produces a preferred visit count, or assign days to a legal category before identifying which rule is being considered. The same discipline applies to favorable and unfavorable documents. Include repairs that appeared successful, periods of ordinary operation, manufacturer responses, and records that do not use the consumer’s preferred language. Completeness allows the approved rules to be applied rather than presumed.