There isn’t a standalone “lemon law” just for NSW; your rights come from the Australian Consumer Law, which gives you consumer guarantees on cars.
If a fault is a major failure—unsafe, unfixable, or something that would’ve stopped a reasonable buyer—you can reject the car and choose a refund or replacement; minor faults get a repair first.
For dealer-sold used cars in NSW, a statutory warranty typically applies if the vehicle is under 10 years old and has less than 160,000 km at sale, lasting 3 months or 5,000 km (whichever comes first).
Keep everything in writing, give the dealer a fair chance to fix it, then escalate to NSW Fair Trading or NCAT if they play possum.
Private sales are trickier—fewer warranties—but the ACL can still bite if the car was misrepresented.
Short version: you don’t have to babysit a dud; you just need clear evidence and the patience of a saint.
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