State officials track complaints about cars that fall under Hawai'i's Lemon Law, which give consumers a recourse when they buy or lease new cars or trucks and then have repeated problems getting the vehicles repaired under the manufacturer's warranty.

Last year, the Lemon Law — officially titled the State Certified Arbitration Program — helped consumers obtain replacement vehicles and refunds totaling more than $490,000 in 66 cases.

The program provides an arbitration process to resolve a Lemon Law dispute with a manufacturer. To see if you qualify for Lemon Law relief and to find out how to request and prepare for arbitration, you can read a 13-page handbook online at hawaii.gov/dcca.

State consumer spokeswoman Christine Hirasa said the Web site provides details of the law, forms to file complaints and the history of a decade's worth of claims. But she also noted the law does not apply to cars purchased from private owners. "There is no recourse for someone who doesn't purchase a car from a car dealer," Hirasa said.

You can find the list of cases settled as well as which which car companies turn up most in the complaints on the Web site.

The number of cases varies from a low of 49 cases in 2001 to a high of 85 in 1999. In 2006, the amount refunded to customers peaked at more than $1 million. 2001 had the fewest cases, at $407,068.

The most recent annual data, from 2007, showed both Toyota and Honda had low numbers of lemon-law complaints compared to their market shares.

Toyota had a market share of 30 percent and received only 5 complaints, or 7.6 percent of all complaints received.

Honda had a market share of 14.5 percent and received only 5 complaints or 7.6 percent of all complaints received.

Sometimes the complaint history varies year to year among manufacturers. For example, Nissan had 14 complaints in 2006 and nine in 2007.

Among manufacturers with significantly higher percentages of complaints as compared to their market share are Ford and General Motors. Ford had a market share of 8.9 percent and received 12 complaints, or 18.2 percent of all complaints received. General Motors had a market share of 8.8 percent and also received 12 complaints.

Reach Robbie Dingeman at rdingeman@honoluluadvertiser.com or 535-2429.