7 On Your Side: Where's my car title?

NEWARK, NJ (WABC) -- When you buy a car, you sometimes have to wait weeks for permanent tags and the title transfer. But for one Newark woman, that wait stretched into nearly half a year.

She was stuck in a car she couldn't legally drive until she got 7 On Her Side.

Samantha Faison saved up for the designer car of her dreams, but months later, it would be towed out from under her nose.

We paid a visit to a dealership in Queens, where the sales manager greeted us with a warm handshake. But just seconds later, we were given the cold shoulder and shown the door. That's the same type of dismissal Faison says she got from the Linden-based dealer from whom she bought her Audi Q5 last July.

"It was my dream car," she said. "They turned it into a nightmare."

Nearly six months after buying it from the Kings Auto Show in Linden, she still didn't have permanent plates, registration or even the title.

"I don't think they should've sold it to me without the clear title," she said.

She says the dealership kept issuing her temporary plates, and then, after her fifth temp expired, police towed and impounded her car.

"I ran outside and said 'Why are you towing the car?'" she said. "And they said because the temp was expired."

To get it out of impound, she had to pay $234 and go to court. There, she learned the car she paid $27,000 for was still registered to someone else.

"The VIN (vehicle identification number) was coming up Connecticut," she said.

But when she went back to her dealer, Kings Auto Show in Linden, it was closed. Fortunately, she tracked down her salesman at another dealership in Richmond Hill, Queens, who used to own the now-defunct Linden dealership.

So we paid a visit to the Queens Auto Mall, and after getting tossed out, the dealership's general manager apologized and fast-tracked her, finally getting her a clear title and permanent tags. He also refunded her tow charge.

"Thank you 7 On Your Side," she said. "Thanks Nina!"

The Queens Auto Mall GM said he took care of Samantha's title as soon as we made him aware of it, even though it was the other dealership's sale. He acknowledged both dealerships were either owned or co-owned by the same man.

The big takeaway is that car buying experts at CarFax say you should insist on seeing the title before you close the deal on a used car.

You should also look for alterations on the title. For example, any WhiteOut or cross outs usually signal a potential problem.

Lastly, if the dealer doesn't have the title in hand, simply put the deal on hold until the dealer gets it.