My friend baught a car from a dealership. Once she drove off with the car, it broke down. It turns out it was the transmission.

If the contract only said no warranty then there may be hope. However, if the contract said no warranty expressed or implied, and the the vehicle is being sold "As Is" then your friend is most likely out of luck. The "As Is" language is extremely important and must be prominently displayed on the contract. If you're going to buy a used car you should always have it inspected by a mechanic you trust.

If you buy a used vehicle "As Is" the time between you taking possession, and the time it breaks down does not matter. If there was no As Is language in the contract you may want to bring a small court claim against the seller. However, you will have to pay the filing fee and enforce the judgment yourself. It may be worth the couple hundred bucks and the time saved to just buy a new transmission.

Finally, I am not certain, but I think the lemon law only applies to new cars.

Kevin is right that “As Is” can be a hard thing to get around in a used car sale. But there are some laws that might help you. In most states, your legal rights in a used car sale are mostly determined by the paperwork that you sign. But even in an “as is” sale you might get some legal rights anyway. For instance, in many states an oral representation by the seller may over-ride a written disclaimer of warranties. Also in every sale there is a “warranty of description of the goods” which means that if the sales contract describes the vehicle then the vehicle you get must match the description. Also there’s a federal law that requires all car dealers to post on the window of all used cars they are selling a special “Buyer Guide” form (it’s often called a Used Car Window Sticker) that discloses your warranty rights. Many small lot car dealers don’t comply with the law. If they don’t, then you may end up with a warranty after all and you may even have the right to cancel the sale. The back side of the form has to be completely filled out and many car lots, big and small, fail to do that too and that can also trigger your right to cancel the deal. You can see what the Buyer Guide form looks like on this web site page: http://ohiolemonlaw.com/used-car-lemon-law.html . You need to talk to a local Consumer Law attorney who deals with this kind of case (it's called "autofraud" or car sales fraud). Call your local attorney's Bar Association and ask for a referral to a Consumer Law attorney near you, or you can go to this web site page for a Free Online Nation-wide List of Consumer Law Lawyers (http://www.ohiolemonlaw.com/ocll-site/ocll-locate_local.shtml) and find one near you (lawyers don’t pay to get listed here and most of them are members of the only national association for Consumer Law lawyers, NACA.net). But act now because for every legal right you have, there is only a limited amount of time to actually file a claim in court or your rights expire (it's called the statute of limitations), so don't waste your time getting to a Consumer Law attorney and finding out what your rights are. If this answer was helpful, please check the box below.