Car engine explodes on way home from dealership

Raymond S. Hughes

More than five weeks afterwards, consumer states she can’t get responses from her insurance policy enterprise or the dealership

TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) — Twenty-yr-old Emmalee Wyatt says she saved for many years to set down $8,000 on her aspiration car, a sporty 2013 Subaru BRZ. Less than an hour following she obtained the motor vehicle, even so, the motor caught on hearth although she drove house from the dealership.

“I acquired to come to feel the enjoyment of owning my quite very first aspiration vehicle for not even an hour ahead of it was just taken absent,” Wyatt stated. “It all actually blew up in my deal with.”

Wyatt’s financing files clearly show she purchased the car or truck – out the door – for $24,900 from Victory Automobile Mall in Tampa on April 30. She claims she was on her way household to Pasco County when the motor stalled and things went downhill promptly. She was on Point out Road 52, about just one mile west of Bellamy Brothers Boulevard.

“I began hearing like a sizzling audio and there was smoke,” she explained. “I mean, inside of a blink of an eye, the entire auto, it was loaded with so a great deal smoke I couldn’t see.”

She remembers the vehicle going haywire and the door locks sporadically locking and unlocking.

“I could not transfer,” she explained. “I was just sitting down there frozen, freaking out, couldn’t breathe, could not see anything,” Wyatt claimed. “My eyes felt like they had been on fire.”

She suggests a passersby stopped to assist her out of the car.

“I could have died,” she said.

Wyatt suggests she scrambled to get absent from the motor vehicle, just as the motor engulfed in flames.

“There was just a loud increase and the motor practically exploded,” Wyatt explained.

The Fire Marshal’s report displays the fireplace was “determined to have originated owing to a mechanical failure within just the motor compartment.”

Additional than 5 months later on, Wyatt turned to Improved Contact Behnken for aid, stating she wasn’t getting responses from the dealership or her insurance coverage firm, Geico. Even nevertheless she has whole coverage coverage, she was not presented a rental car, she states, and was not finding updates on her claim. She stated she was not even told if she was coated for this declare.

“I require assistance,” Wyatt reported. “I can’t get any answers.”

She explained she was forced to pay out about $50 for Uber to get to her position at a nursing dwelling given that she does not have a car. This, after having to pay $8,000 for a down payment and financing $16,900 for the harmony of the used motor vehicle she had for only an hour.

Investigator Shannon Behnken went to Victory Vehicle Mall for answers, but was explained to the basic supervisor was hectic and questioned to leave. By cellular phone, even so, the basic supervisor claimed the dealership feels for Wyatt but is not accountable and that what happened to the car “happens sometimes.”

When questioned if she could get a refund, he explained that was up to the proprietor, who wasn’t accessible and has not returned a simply call from Behnken.

Recurring phone calls more than two days to Geico Insurance Business have not been returned. Even so, shortly after phone calls from Improved Simply call Behnken, Wyatt says Geico termed her to say her declare is now going forward. It is still unclear what that signifies for Wyatt.

Subaru data exhibit Wyatt’s motor vehicle had a remember for engine stalling but that experienced been fixed, information show.

Improved Connect with Behnken will keep on to remain on this tale and assistance Wyatt navigate by means of this difficult procedure.

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