I just bought a 2000 honda oddessy van from a dealer ship a week ago and the car is not driveable do to transmission problems

Rhode Island has a used car lemon law. Depending on the warranty you received and how it interplays with the law there, you may well have some rights. Best to look up the Rhode Island lemon law online for a primer AND get in touch with a local consumer protection attorney to see what, if anything, can be done to help you in this situation. Best of luck with it.

Rhode Island, like a few other states, has some special laws that govern used car sales. They also have a good used car lemon law. The RI used car lemon law only applies to vehicles bought from dealers - no private sales are covered - and it only covers major components of your car and there are some limitations in the law. Only used cars bought or leased from a car dealer and costing at least $1,500 and which have less than 100,000 miles on them are covered. But some used vehicles that are not covered by the Rhode Island Used Car Lemon Law may still be covered by the federal Lemon Law (the Magnuson Moss Warranty Act) as long as the dealer gave the buyer a written warranty of any length at all. The law requires car dealers to give the buyer a written warranty but the length of it depends on the car’s mileage. The more mileage on the car, the shorter the warranty length. Up to 36,000 miles on your car? 60 days or 3,000 mile warranty. 36,000 to 100,000 miles? 30 days or 1,000 mile warranty. The dealer can give a longer warranty if they want, but they can’t give a shorter one. The dealer must repair any problem with the engine, transmission, drive axle, brakes, steering, or ignition system. If one or more of the following circumstances occurs during the warranty period, then the dealer is automatically presumed to have made a reasonable number of attempts to repair the vehicle, and you've got a lemon used car. A used car lemon in Rhode Island is one where: the same defect has been worked on 3 times and did not get fixed by the end of the third attempt, or it's been out of service for a total of 15 days during the warranty period because of repairs, although the dealer can have up to 45 days total to get needed parts and finish the repair. You can read more about the Rhode Island Used Car Lemon Law at the link below. For consumers outside of Rhode Island, whether your vehicle’s defects make it a lemon depends on your particular state’s laws and the facts of your case. There is also a federal lemon law that covers almost all consumer purchases and it can help your used vehicle purchase rights too; it's called the Magnuson Moss Warranty Act. Most of your rights when you buy a used vehicle are determined by the paperwork you sign but when you bought it can matter too. If you bought it very recently, then you may have more legal rights (again, depending on your paperwork and what representations were made to you when you bought it). But that’s still not the end of it. If the vehicle has hidden damage the dealer knew about and didn’t tell you then that could be fraud too. There’s also 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 whether or not a warranty comes with the car. 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 at the link below. There’s only way to know for sure what your legal rights are - talk to a local Consumer Law attorney who deals with this kind of case (it's called "autofraud" or car sales fraud). Go to the link below to find a Free Online 50 State National List of Consumer Law Lawyers 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 quickly because for every legal right you have, there is only a limited amount of time to actually file a lawsuit in court or your rights expire. If this answer was helpful please give it a "Vote UP" review below. Thanks and good luck.