California Lemon Law Buyback Calculator: Song-Beverly Refund Formula (2026)

If your vehicle qualifies as a lemon under California’s Song-Beverly Consumer Warranty Act, you have a statutory right to a buyback — a refund calculated by a specific formula. The calculator above runs that formula on your numbers in real time. Below, the full breakdown of every component, including the items manufacturers commonly leave out of their offers.

The buyback formula in plain English

Buyback = (purchase price − mileage offset) + finance charges + incidental damages.

That’s the actual-damages number under §1794(b). Each component below has its own rules, exclusions, and common manufacturer errors.

Component 1 — Purchase price

What you actually paid out the door, with specific inclusions and exclusions per §1793.2(d)(2)(C):

Counts toward purchase price:

• Vehicle sale price
• Manufacturer-installed options (factory navigation, factory sunroof, etc.)
• Transportation/delivery charges
• Sales tax actually paid
• License and registration fees
• Smog certification fees

Doesn’t count:

• Extended warranties (separate consumer products)
• GAP insurance (separate)
• Service contracts (separate)
• Aftermarket items installed by the dealer or you (wheels, ceramic coating, paint protection)
• Documentation/dealer prep fees (excluded under California consumer protection rules)

What dealers and manufacturers don’t tell you: offers frequently use the bare vehicle price as “purchase price” in their math, leaving thousands on the table. Always cross-check against your full out-the-door payment, line by line.

Component 2 — Mileage offset

The deduction that makes earlier reporting matter. The formula:

offset = (miles at first repair attempt ÷ 120,000) × purchase price

The 120,000 denominator is fixed by statute, not negotiable. The numerator — the odometer reading the day you first delivered the vehicle for the defect — directly controls how big the offset is.

See the mileage offset pillar for the deep-dive on what counts as “first repair attempt” and why manufacturers try to push that date later than it should be.

Component 3 — Finance charges

Every dollar of interest you actually paid on the auto loan, from purchase through the buyback. Pull your loan statements:

• If you paid cash, this is zero.
• If you financed at standard rates over a few years, this is often $2,000-$5,000.
• If you refinanced, pull statements from every lender — the original plus any refinance lenders.

This is one of the most commonly omitted components in initial manufacturer offers. The statute requires it; you’re owed it.

Component 4 — Incidental damages

Out-of-pocket costs caused by the defect:

• Rental car costs while the vehicle was in the shop
• Towing fees
• Registration on a replacement vehicle (if you got one)
• Smog certification on a replacement vehicle
• Other reasonably foreseeable costs

Receipts matter. Without them, this becomes a negotiation; with them, it’s a collection.

Refund or replacement: your statutory choice

§1793.2(d)(2)(B) gives you the right to elect either:

• A refund (run through the formula above), or
• A replacement vehicle of substantially identical value

Most consumers choose the refund. Why?

• Same model line, same defect. Many lemon defects are model-line problems. A “replacement” of the same model often comes with the same underlying issue.
• Definitional disputes. What counts as “substantially identical”? Same model year? Current model year? Same trim? Same options? Manufacturers and consumers often disagree.
• The refund is cleaner. The math runs the formula above and you walk away.

The replacement is sometimes the right call when the underlying vehicle is otherwise great and the defect is genuinely rare in the model line. For most cases, the refund is more predictable.

Common errors in manufacturer’s buyback offers

Watch for these — they’re the most frequent ways manufacturers underpay:

1. Using just “vehicle price” instead of total out-the-door payment
2. Excluding sales tax
3. Excluding license/registration fees
4. Using the wrong “first repair attempt” mileage (later than it should be)
5. Forgetting finance charges entirely
6. Refusing to include incidental damages without itemized receipts
7. Substituting a different denominator for the 120,000 in the offset formula
8. Excluding manufacturer-installed options from purchase price

If your offer has any of the above, the math may be off by thousands. Run the calculator at the top of this page on your numbers and compare to what the manufacturer is offering. Material differences are negotiation leverage.

Beyond the buyback — what else stacks

Two more components can add to the total recovery:

Civil penalty up to 2× actual damages when the manufacturer’s violation is willful (§1794(c)). For the right case, this multiplies recovery by 3×.

Manufacturer-paid attorney fees when you prevail (§1794(d)). One-way fee shifting — your attorney is paid by the manufacturer, not out of your buyback. This is what makes Song-Beverly cases economically rational for the consumer to pursue, even on relatively modest vehicle values.

The calculator above shows the buyback (actual damages) plus the maximum civil penalty exposure for context. The actual penalty awarded depends on willfulness facts.

When to talk to a Lemon Law attorney

The calculator gives you the math. The hard part is making the manufacturer use the right numbers. If you’ve been offered a buyback and the math doesn’t match the formula above — or you’re being told you’re entitled to less than what your facts support — a free case review will tell you whether you should push back, and whether the civil penalty applies on top.

A free consultation costs nothing. The buyback math is calculable; the leverage to actually collect the right number is what representation provides.