TROUBLESHOOTERS: Used car complaint

WILMINGTON, NC (WWAY) -- It's one of the most common complaints we hear in the newsroom: People who are upset with a used car purchase. Laticia Wallace called the Troubleshooters line about the Saturn Vue she bought at a Wilmington car lot. She started having problems with it two days after her purchase, and within three months, it stopped running all together.

"The car that I'm still paying for, I can't move it," Wallace said. "I can't drive it, but I still have to pay it off."

Wallace bought this 2003 Saturn Vue in February for $8,000. She had just gotten back from a deployment in Iraq, and needed some reliable transportation to get to and from her classes at UNCW, so she was pretty excited to find this SUV at Blue Water Motor Sports on Market Street in Wilmington.

"There was nothing he said was wrong with it," Wallace said. "It was a fairly good car, 2003, and it only had 80,000 miles on it."

Just to be safe, Wallace bought a $1,500 extended warranty on the car. But two days later, when the Saturn's battery died, she found out the battery wasn't covered under warranty. Over the next few weeks, she found out the rotors and the brakes also needed replacing, and when she got caught in a rain storm, she says she realized one of her headlights was out and her windshield wipers weren't working correctly either.

Not a single one of those problems were covered by her extended warranty, and out of frustration, Wallace canceled it. One week later, her transmission died.

"It's really not a good feeling," Wallace said. "I'm really upset that people can't be honest. If a transmission is that bad and goes out two months after I bought the car, somebody had to know something was wrong with it."

We called Blue Water Motor Sports for an explanation. They showed us a receipt saying they paid $70 to have the Saturn Vue inspected less than a month before Wallace bought it. According to the receipt from Coastal Carolina Tire and Auto, the Saturn passed inspection, and the wiper blades were replaced.

The owner of Blue Water Motor Sports initially declined our request to go on camera, and when he decided he did want to do an interview, our deadline had already passed. He said because Wallace canceled her extended warranty, he can't do anything for her. He said it's nothing personal; it's just business.

We want to emphasize that the owner didn't do anything wrong here, but this is such a common problem for people buying used cars in general, it's worth a buyer beware every once in a while. Consumers need to know what extended warranties do and do not cover. As Wallace found out the hard way, wear and tear items are usually not covered. And just because a car has passed a state inspection, there's no guarantee it's going to be reliable after you buy it. Before you buy a car, ask to have it inspected by an independent mechanic, and if the dealer won't let you, that should be a red flag.

One of the reasons we don't do stories about used cars and car repair problems more often is it's practically impossible to know who's to blame for a car's problems. Is a dealership selling lemons to the public, or did the car's owner fail to take proper care of the vehicle? And then there's the simple wear and tear that's expected when a car has a lot of miles on it.

If you truly feel you've been ripped off by a local dealership, the state Division of Motor Vehicles does investigate complaints. You can local investigators at (910) 350-2009. The office takes phone calls from the public Monday-Friday, 8-10 a.m.