What if your leased car turns out to be a lemon?

Yes. Every state's lemon law covers leased cars the same as bought ones — you're the person driving it, so you get the same protection even though the leasing company owns it on paper. If the same serious problem keeps coming back and the dealer can't fix it after a fair number of tries, you can push to give the car back and be made whole. The exact rules vary by state, so it's worth a quick look at yours, but the short version is: leasing doesn't sign away your right to a car that actually works.

Not you, in almost every case. A new leased car comes with the full factory warranty, and because a lease usually runs about the same length as that warranty, the repairs on a covered fault are free the whole time you have the car. You take it to the dealer, they fix it under warranty, and you owe nothing. That's a quiet advantage of leasing new: you're rarely on the hook for a big repair bill, so a car that acts up costs you time, not money.

You can, but that's the last resort, not the first move. Start by giving the dealer a real chance to fix it and keeping every repair order — the paper trail is what proves your case. If the same serious defect still isn't fixed after those attempts, that's when lemon-law or the leasing company's own process lets you hand the car back or swap it. Reach for that only for a genuinely unfixable car; for a one-off repair, the warranty handling it for free is the whole point.

No — if anything it's a reason to keep more cash, not less. A stretch of dealer visits is a hassle, and it's a lot easier to ride out when your money is in your pocket instead of sunk into a down payment on a car that's sitting in the shop. Keep little to nothing down, hold on to your cash, and you stay flexible: the warranty pays for the fixes, lemon law backs you if it can't be fixed, and your savings are right there the whole time.