Two years ago, an arbitrator ordered a car dealership in Queens, NY to refund a customer’s money under the “lemon law.” You’d think that would be the end of the story, but no… it’s the beginning. Jessica Harrison says she returned the “lemon” 2004 BMW to “Planet Auto Mall” but the dealer claims that they don’t know what happened to the vehicle. Now Jessica has to keep making payments on the missing BMW.

Fox 5 in New York did one of their notorious “Shame, Shame, Shame” segments about the debacle, confronting the dealer with pictures of the car being accepted and the $1700 in parking tickets that racked up as they left it out on the street for several months.

The whole story began when Jessica bought the BMW from Planet Auto Mall in Queens for around $45,000. Soon after she bought the car, it began shaking when she drove it. Planet Auto Mall’s mechanics tried to fix the car — but couldn’t. When she took it to a BMW specialist they found that there were so many things wrong with the vehicle that it wasn’t even safe to drive. Jessica filed a “lemon law” claim against the dealership and won — but that’s when her real problems started.

The auto dealer filed a legal challenge to the arbitrator’s decision — based on the fact that Jessica had not returned the car. So she did. And she took pictures. And now the dealer says they never got the car. Even though it was sitting outside their dealership for months:

Fox 5: “There were like, 17 or more tickets that were issued to the car… right on the street around here.”

Dealership Manager: “Sure. Somebody can say ‘OK, you know what? Hey. Here is… I’m bringing the car and I’m parking it over there.'”

Fox 5: “So you’re saying she might have…”

Dealership Manager: “She might have. I’m not sure.”

Fox 5: “She might have put the car on the street.”

Dealership Manager: “She might have put the car wherever she wants to put it.”

The dealership lost their case in May, but have still not paid up because they’ve filed an appeal. Fox 5 stormed in with their cameras and demanded answers of the dealership’s owner, but, of course, got none.

Jessica’s next payment is still due on the 14th.

Planet Auto Mall [MyFoxNY]

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