GASTONIA, N.C. — Carla Zabal thought she knew what she was getting when she bought her 2005 Mercedes-Benz convertible from a Gaston County dealer last August.
However, the old car turned out to be a lemon. Months later, Zabal received a letter from the North Carolina Division of Motor Vehicles that retitled her used car purchase as a lemon.
Zabal said it all started when she and her husband started talking about buying a car they could cruise around in.
"Let's just get a fun car," Zabal told WCNC Charlotte's Jane Monreal. "You know, like to go to the beach on weekends or something like that."
The couple found a 2005 Mercedes-Benz roadster online. Her husband reached out and drove to L & M Auto Import in Gastonia to find out more. The car appeared to be in pretty good shape.
"He test drove it, everything seemed to be fine," she said. "It's really cute. I loved it."
After thinking about it, they decided to buy the car.
"I was home working. And so they came, he went with his friend, brought the paperwork home for me to sign, I sign the paperwork and they brought it back," Zabal recalled. "And when they got back to the dealer, he said the paperwork was done wrong. They needed to redo it, and he was like, 'No I have to go all the way back to Matthews.
"And he's like, 'No, no you don't have to do that. Just sign her name and everything will be good. ' And he didn't really want to do it."
After driving the car for just 400 miles, Zabal said something was wrong.
"We're just driving it around on the weekends and stuff, and then it kept glitching every now and again," she said. "The mechanic said it's got a sensor and you need to fix the sensor before we can figure out what's going on, but it seems to be a transmission issue. And until the sensor issue gets fixed, we won't really know."
In the meantime, she got a notice from the DMV saying the car was being rebranded as a lemon and the couple had to turn in their title.
"We were just dumbfounded," Zabal said. "So having now purchased the car, I've learned that it has been bought and sold 13 times over the course of its life."
She called L & M. They weren't helpful.
"He didn't want to hear anything about it," she said. "He basically laughed in our face."
The disclaimer her husband signed as his wife was an "As is" that lets the dealer off the hook. However, a Carfax history report showed it was listed as a lemon back in 2007.
"If we were told that it was a lemon, I would have never bought it," Zabal said. "We would have never bought it in a million years."
Since dealers are legally required to disclose a car's lemon status, WCNC Charlotte called L & M and learned the salesperson who sold the car no longer works there. We eventually dropped by the site and were connected by phone to the ex-employee, who said he didn't recall disclosing it was a lemon.
Another employee, who didn't want to go on camera, said he remembers the day Zabal's husband came in and said the dealership disclosed it was a lemon. The worker also said the business was sold last month and no longer operates under the name L & M.
Either way, Zabal said her experience serves as a cautionary tale to do your research before signing the dotted line.
"If I would have just known that it had a lemon remanufactured title, that's the thing," she said. "You just really, really, really need to do your homework. And if you don't have any recourse, you're going to lose."
The Zabals filed a lawsuit in Gaston County, but no one from L & M showed up on their scheduled court date. The judge ended up dismissing the case.
Carla, and others, did file complaints with the Better Business Bureau and North Carolina Attorney General's Office.
Contact Jane Monreal at jmonreal@wcnc.com and follow her on Facebook, X and Instagram.
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