Michigan woman's lawsuit says SUV smells like corpse


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NEW BALTIMORE, Mich. (AP) ? A Detroit-area woman is suing an auto dealership, claiming her new SUV smells bad because it once contained a corpse.

The Detroit News and CBS Detroit reported Monday that Margarita Salais (suh-LAZE') sued Suburban Ford of Sterling Heights in Oakland County Circuit Court. The suit claims the dealership failed to disclose that the car had been stolen three times and once held a body.

The lawsuit says Suburban Ford told Salais that the bad smell in the 2006 Ford Expedition came from a dead animal. A letter in her suit says a hazardous materials company determined it was a human odor.

Dealership general sales manager Jim Elder says the smell wasn't there when Salais bought the car :huh: and that the dealership "would love to get to the bottom of it."

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shouldn't you HAVE to disclose if the vehicle had been in any accidents or police incidents when selling a vehicle? are there consumer protection laws for auto buyers? like anti lemon laws and the like

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It sounds like she was sold the car on the basis of "as new", but the condition was clearly used, and must have fallen foul of some consumer laws (if they even exist in America) like not being of a merchantable quality, or violate health and safety laws. They clearly knew that a corpse has been in it otherwise why would they say that a dead animal has been in it. They should have written off the vehicle and claimed it on their insurance in the first place.

But asks the question of how the new owner didn't pick this problem up before delivery of if she was told that there had been a "dead animal" prior to purchase... Maybe she got it cheap because of the car's history, but still, she should still be told correctly that the car still contained human odor, not animal.

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