California's lemon law requires a car to be in service for at least 30 days in the first 18 months if the problem does not affect the drivetrain.

At this point, I'd ask them to give it back to you just so you can have it in your driveway "in service" for 16 days and then file a lemon complaint.

I think the "in service" days in both posts above are the number of days the car is in the shop, not days it is being used.

I thought so too, but then I thought "well, then it qualifies, so why's he saying it would have to be 30 days before he could...".

Open to correction, though.

Just for maximum clarity, I'm fairly sure what they're saying is the car was in the shop for only 14 total days so far but it needs to be in the shop for 30 total days for the lemon law to apply.

By "in service" I meant "being serviced" - in the shop.

It has to be in the shop for 30 days and I'm currently at 14.