Please, I hope someone in this community can help me. I know this story is long but if you know anything about car loans, please read it! Bless you!

I bought a car in July from a local dealer in Glen Burnie, Md. I don’t have a lot of cash and my credit isn’t great. It is a saturn station wagon that had over 100,000 miles on it at purchase. The car broke down in a parkinglot one week after I purchased it. The dealer cleaned the battery and put me back on the road. The car would cut out at red lights, would turn off when idling. I took it to them time and again and was told they would help me, that it would be fixed. The repairs came out of pocket for me, plus the agreed monthly payments. The mechanic they sent me to replaced the waterpump stating that it was not sending the coolant to the engine and thats what was happening. The problem persisted, so the dealer turned up the idle. Each month I would take it back, over and over, being told that they would take me to court for the full amount of the loan if I backed out of this. The problems got worst, sure it wasn’t idling at redlights now. What it was doing though was cutting out while in motion. It broke down before christmas and i had to pay to have it tow. They said it was a bad starter and replaced it, I didn’t have the money for the repair and the tow – so they tacked the price onto my total due. I got the car back the day before new years and it cut out while in motion again. I left it at the dealer and the mechanic replaced a TPI sensor. This did not fix it. They said it was a bad sensor and replaced that, once again – did not fix it.

I gave them the car and the keys back. This is after desperately asking them to place me in a new car, transfer my loan, anything. I have dropped everything I have into this – and I have nothing. After giving the car back to them, after it broke down in the middle of the highway, in the rain, causing me to be pulled over by the police, they still would do nothing.

Days later they told me that they would take the car to auction and tack the money it brought against the money left on the total amount I owe. (1,900). They said they would place me into a car on their lot, I got a huge runaround and finally the owner tells me he will place me in a van and I can make payments on that. I am still responsible for the 1,900 minus whatever the saturn brings in at auction. I’m told to come back the next day and test drive it. I come by and am told he’s with another customer, after waiting for an hour I leave. I try to reach him the next day to no avail. I call him again today, the third day and he tells me he needs a couple hours but he has something worked out for me and to come by after work.

Then when I get there he tells me that he can’t transfer me to another vehicle because I don’t have any money down. He also says he won’t enter into a loan on another vehicle with me because he doesn’t know if the business would be there long enough for me to pay off the loan. He tells me that it is a mapping sensor now that they have to replace, and that he is going to drive the car around for a few days to see if it happens again. Then he stated if that didn’t fix it, he would see what he could do to try and help me get into something else.

I don’t know what to do. I’m so lost and upset right now. I’m on a fixed income, I have a child to think about, I don’t have the money for this but I work in Annapolis which is a good 30 minutes from my house. I’m not covered by the lemon law or by the implied warranty law. I’m stuck, and I’m scared to get behind the wheel of that car. It almost killed me once. Please help me.