TUCSON, Ariz. (13 News) – Buying a used car can be a challenging process with potential pitfalls.
It’s not uncommon to encounter undisclosed accident damage, mechanical problems, or a fake title.
13 News looked into claims that a Tucson dealership sold a vehicle with a lien against it from the previous owner, without disclosing it to the buyer.
In Arizona, it’s considered fraud to sell a vehicle without informing the new owner that there is a lien. That goes for private sellers and dealerships because it usually means the car’s owner still owes money.
A Wisconsin woman claims she was deceived when she bought an SUV from Quebedeaux Buick-GMC of Tucson.
“I shopped for this car for six months, for a long time,” said Sarah Schiltz, calling it her dream car.
She purchased a 2020 Yukon Denali.
“It’s just I’ve never had a vehicle this nice,” she said. “So, to be able to work hard and save and be able to purchase it felt like a great accomplishment.”
Schiltz did the deal over the phone and was careful to protect herself.
She got a car history report, a vehicle maintenance report, and hired a mechanic to inspect it. Everything came back clean.
But Schiltz said the dealership never transferred the title over to her, which means someone else had a claim to the vehicle.
“Tell me you’re going to have a title in one to four days, now it’s been another three weeks. It’s been 113 days as of today. I still have nothing,” Schiltz said.
She contacted 13 News from her home in Wisconsin, after months of silence from Quebedeaux.
“I was flipped around from person to person to person,” she said. “I can’t tell you how many times I called them, hundreds of times.”
On July 3, 13 News called Quebedeaux and asked for Cisco Gonzalez, the manager Schiltz spoke with previously.
Gonzalez told us he couldn’t recall Schiltz or any issues surrounding the SUV she purchased.
But just two days earlier, on July 1, a letter with Gonzalez’s name and signature acknowledging the issue was addressed to the Arizona Attorney General’s office and obtained by 13 News.
It’s a response to the complaint Schiltz filed against the dealership.
In it, Gonzalez apologized, saying, “Unfortunately, there was a breakdown in communication during the lien payoff and title processing, and we acknowledge the impact this had on her confidence in our dealership.”
The letter goes on to say, “In response to this situation, we have strengthened our internal processes to ensure that we never provide inaccurate information regarding title or registration timeline to our customers.”
The AG’s office would not confirm or deny its investigation with 13 News, and Gonzalez never called us back.
But in the letter, Gonzalez confirmed the dealership received a lien release on June 16, allowing Schiltz and her lender to finally be added to the title July 1.
That’s nearly four months after Schiltz paid $39,000 for the vehicle and shipped it to Wisconsin.
“I feel that they don’t truly care. They addressed it with the attorney general only to satisfy them. But they haven’t come back to me to satisfy anything,” said Schiltz. “I feel like that whole dealership didn’t handle me as a customer in a professional manner at all.”
For Schiltz, contacting authorities and 13 News helped her get the paperwork she needed to register the Yukon in Wisconsin.
It’s her first new used car in 11 years.
“I do still love my car, but it’s been a thing,” she said.
In addition to the attorney general, Schiltz filed a complaint with the Arizona Department of Transportation fraud hotline.
A source tells us, ADOT has launched an investigation into Quebedeaux’s processes to ensure compliance going forward.
There appears to be no prior violations, so a cease-and-desist order will likely be issued to the dealer.
If it happens again, a citation is issued for non-compliance.
We’ll let you know if we hear back from anyone at Quebedeaux.
So, what can buyers do to prevent something like this from happening in the first place?
The Arizona Motor Vehicle Division says:
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