Daly City Lemon Law

Daly City is in San Mateo County, so Song-Beverly cases are filed in the Superior Court of California, County of San Mateo. The main civil courthouse is the Hall of Justice at 400 County Center in Redwood City. Venue is proper in San Mateo County if you live there, if you bought or leased the vehicle there, or if the manufacturer does business there. Because all major manufacturers do business throughout California, San Mateo is almost always a valid venue for a Daly City resident.

Coastal conditions often produce the defects but do not change your legal rights. Song-Beverly covers any nonconformity that substantially impairs use, value, or safety, regardless of cause, as long as it arises during the express warranty period and the manufacturer cannot fix it after a reasonable number of attempts. Repeated ABS-sensor failures, electrical gremlins, corroded ground straps, or brake-line issues that recur after dealer repairs are covered nonconformities. Save every invoice, including 'unable to duplicate' visits, because those still count toward the Tanner Act presumption.

Colma is in San Mateo County and South San Francisco is also in San Mateo County, so a purchase from either keeps your case in San Mateo Superior Court. If you bought across the line in San Francisco County (anywhere north of the Daly City/SF boundary on Mission Street or Geneva Avenue), you may have a choice between San Francisco and San Mateo as proper venues. Manufacturer defendants like Toyota, Honda, GM, and Tesla do business in every California county, so a resident can usually file at home.

Yes. Song-Beverly applies to any new or used motor vehicle sold or leased in California with a written manufacturer's express warranty, including battery electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles. High-voltage battery degradation beyond the warranted state-of-health, persistent infotainment crashes, phantom braking, charge-port failures, drive-unit replacements, hybrid inverter issues, and HV battery thermal management defects are all covered nonconformities if they substantially impair use, value, or safety and cannot be repaired after a reasonable number of attempts.

California treats lessees as 'buyers' for Song-Beverly purposes under Cal. Civ. Code 1791(g). On a lease repurchase, the manufacturer typically terminates the lease and refunds the cap-cost reduction, all monthly payments paid to date, official fees (registration, sales tax on payments), and incidental damages like tow and rental costs, then pays off the residual to the leasing bank. A use offset is subtracted, calculated as (negotiated cap cost x miles before the first repair attempt for the defect) / 120,000. You walk away free and clear of the lease obligation.

A 'no problem found' or 'unable to duplicate' repair order still counts as a repair attempt under California law. Bring the car back the moment the defect recurs. Take dated phone-camera videos of warning lights, dash messages, noises, and behaviors so the dealer cannot brush them off. Ask the service advisor to document your complaint verbatim, not their conclusion. If the defect substantially impairs use, value, or safety and the dealer cannot fix it after a reasonable number of attempts, the manufacturer (not the dealer) is on the hook under Cal. Civ. Code 1793.2(d).