Built by an attorney who reads the fine print for a living
My name is Dan Swenson. I am a data nerd who is also a Minnesota workers' compensation attorney and a city council member. Public information should not be hard to use, so I build this network of sites as a hobby: I pull scattered public records out of PDFs and government databases and turn them into tools regular people can actually use. I do not use these sites to find legal clients, except for MN Comp Buddy which is my actual day job. The tools are free. The sites pay for their own hosting through clearly disclosed referral links and a few optional paid guides.
When a car keeps going back to the shop, two public records answer the two questions that matter. NHTSA's complaint database shows whether other owners of the same make, model, and year report the same failure. And Minnesota Statutes section 325F.665 sets out, in numbers, when a manufacturer owes a refund or replacement. Neither should require an account, a fee, or a sales call to check. So this site pulls NHTSA's own files and walks the statute in plain English, with the section cited so you can check my work.
Every factual statement traces to a source you can open yourself. Complaint and recall figures come from NHTSA's published flat files, the same data behind the government's own lookup at nhtsa.gov, refreshed weekly with the last-verified date shown next to the numbers. Where the data has limits, and it does (complaints are unverified self-reports; popular models rack up more complaints simply because more are on the road), the site says so next to the number, not in fine print.
Where the data comes from
- Complaints: the NHTSA Office of Defects Investigation complaints file, the public record of every vehicle complaint owners file with the federal government. We aggregate by make, model, year, and component; we never republish names or narratives.
- Recalls:NHTSA's safety recall campaign file, covering every recall manufacturers report under federal law, including do-not-drive and park-outside warnings.
- The law:Minnesota Statutes section 325F.665, read and summarized by me, then re-read the way a manufacturer's counsel would read it. The checkup's questions track the statute's actual numbers.
What this site is not
MN Lemon Buddy is not a law firm and I'm not your lawyer: reading this site does not create an attorney-client relationship, and the guides and checkup results are education, not legal advice about your vehicle or your claim. The site is not affiliated with NHTSA, any manufacturer, or the State of Minnesota. The complaint and recall figures shown are the federal government's published records; your vehicle's own repair orders control your claim.
The site is free and always will be. If you ask to be connected with an attorney, your inquiry may be sent to a participating Minnesota attorney who handles lemon law claims, and participating attorneys may pay to receive inquiries; that is disclosed on the form, in the privacy policy, and here. What we will never do: sell your lookup history (we don't keep it), shade a verdict to make a form convert better, or pretend complaint counts prove more than they do.
Spotted an error?
If a number, date, or statute cite on this site does not match the official source, I want to know: dan@mnbuddynetwork.com. Corrections ship fast here.
The Buddy family
MN Lemon Buddy is one of a family of free Minnesota public-data tools I build and maintain, with the same approach on every one: official data, plain-English explanations, honest framing about what the data can and cannot prove, and no charge to the people using them.
MN Hail Buddy
Every hail event over your address since 2011, from NOAA radar, plus claim deadlines and contractor license checks.
MN Rebate Buddy
Minnesota energy rebates for your address: utility, state, and federal programs we track, with live/coming/expired status.
MN Comp Buddy
Minnesota workers' compensation calculators and plain-English benefit guides. Nothing you enter leaves your computer.
MN Property Tax Buddy
What the county thinks your home is worth, whether that jumped, and how the appeal deadlines work.