Help Claire Montague Get Back on the Road

My only niece, Claire Kelly Montague, is in a bit of a bind. She’s been in Arizona for the last 4 years, attending University of Arizona on a scholarship. On May 17, she graduated Summa Cum laude with a BS in Public Health with a Global Health emphasis and a minor in Health and Wellness. Her future plans include more schooling to be a physician’s assistant. Her goal is to go out in the world and do good things. We are SO proud of her.

If you didn't already know, it's been a rough year for our family. The untimely, unexpected loss of my brother/Claire's Dad - Monty Jr. (aka Burke) was devastating for us. There was only a small life insurance policy that named Claire as the beneficiary.

With Claire getting prepared to graduate and travel back to Montana, she decided that the best course of action would be to sell her Subaru that was having problems and use the sale proceeds and the life insurance to purchase a new (to her) car that would be capable of towing a trailer filled with her life’s possessions back to Montana and would last her for a few years during her pursuit of that PA/MPA graduate degree.

Claire located a 2018 Ford Escape at a used car lot and it was in her price range. She did everything right. She ran a Carfax that didn’t show any wrecks or issues and she took the car to a trusted mechanic who spent several days going through the car, looking for any issues. The mechanic had the car for a few days and put 100+ miles on the car. They actively looked for signs of any problems and went through the engine with a fine toothed comb – even telling Claire that this particular model was apparently notorious for failed engines – so that’s what they were looking for. After their examination of the car, they told Clair that they couldn’t find any problems and that it appeared to be a good car. She purchased it with that assurance.

She did go to a car lot/dealer for the purchase. When it came time to complete the sale paperwork, the salesperson said they were doing her a favor by writing the sale up as a private sale – it would save her money and avoid sales tax on the transaction. They even handed her the emissions certificate for the car and told her she didn’t need to run it through emissions. As a struggling college student and first time car buyer, she though that not paying sales tax was a nice favor, and she wasn’t worried about emissions because they’d be titling the car in Montana and it wasn’t necessary.

Within a week of the purchase, the car started running rough. She took it back to the dealer. They took the car into their shop and put new spark plugs in it at no cost to her, and that seemed to resolve the problem. A few days later, the car started running rough again. She took it back a second time and they replaced the spark plug wires and again, it seemed to resolve the issue. When the car started running rough for the third time, Claire took it to the Ford Dealership.

The Ford Dealership hooked the car up to their computer and reported that every single fault code in the computer had been cleared. They did diagnostics on the car and found that there was coolant leaking into the cylinders and the engine would need to be replaced. They told Claire that the engine in the vehicle was the second engine (the VIN numbers to the engine and car apparently didn’t match). The dealership discovered that the seller of the car had added a product called K-Seal to the radiator. That product temporarily plugs coolant leaks and works for a while but does not resolve the overall issue. The product apparently isn’t easily detected until it starts to degrade – which is around 500 miles. The dealership informed her that the car engine could seize after 10 miles or 2500 miles, it wasn’t a matter of IF it would seize, but WHEN. The bottom line was that the car needs a new engine & coolant system (because the K-seal fouled the cooling system).

Because the salesperson did Claire a “favor” by writing it up as a private sale, the Arizona Lemon Laws do not apply. The car was titled from a used car lot in Arizona, the salesperson represented them, but because the sale was not completed as a dealership purchase, Claire had little recourse. She did contact the salesperson and reported what Ford had told her and requested that they unwind the deal and return her money. The salesperson laughed at her and told her it wasn’t his problem.

Claire contacted legal aid at the University and got connected with an attorney who reviewed her case and told her that there was a good chance they could recover for her. Their basis for recovery was that the dealership purposefully concealed a material defect in the engine AND committed fraud by writing it up as a private sale. The attorney had Claire gather and submit all her information. We were all optimistic that Claire would be able recover her money with the help of an attorney.

Last week, the attorney called Claire to say that they could not take the case. They did a bit of research and found out that the salesperson had filed bankruptcy three days after he sold the car to Claire. The cost to prove a connection between the dealership named on the title and the salesperson and prove the intentional concealment of a material defect would be too high. In essence, the salesperson was “judgement proof” – because you can’t get blood out of a turnip and it’s not legal to unwillingly harvest someone’s organs to pay a debt.

With one week before her scheduled departure to Montana, Claire was forced to pivot with her plans for moving. The Ford Escape was supposed to be the vehicle that was going to get her home and provide transportation for the next few years while she finished her graduate degree. Not only is she out the cost of the car, but she had to incur additional expenses to rent a U-Haul truck to get home.

The car is currently parked in a safe place awaiting it’s final disposition. She couldn’t chance driving it home with a trailer on it and have the engine seize in the middle of nowhere. Once she gets to Montana, she’ll need a vehicle. We have arranged temporary transportation for her until we can reach a resolution with the Escape, but that’s temporary.

I’ve started this Go Fund Me in hopes that we can raise enough money to make Claire whole again. I’ve obtained “salvage” bids on the car, the highest of which is $2000. That still leaves her $6700 short of the price of the car, and doesn’t get her basic, reliable transportation.

The goal of this fundraiser is to get at least $6700, then we can sell the vehicle to salvage and she’ll have recouped the cost of the car and can obtain reliable transportation that’ll get her through the next few years of grad school. The total cost of the car was $8700. If we reach the $8700 goal we will pay it forward and donate the car to a non-profit organization. Any funds in excess of the $8700 will be paid forward to a non-profit organization.

If you know me, you know it’s rare for me to ask for help. Over the years, I’ve been generous with my gifts to friends and their children. I’ve lost count of the weddings, gender reveals, baby showers, bridal showers, fund raisers, and high school & college graduations that I’ve contributed to. Typically, the gifting all “evens out” (you gift a friends kid $100 for graduation, then they gift your kid $100 for graduation)– but for me, it won’t ever be even – I don’t have children, so there won’t be bridal showers, weddings, gender reveals or baby showers. I haven’t ever peddled girl scout cookies, boy scout popcorn, gift wrapping or cookie dough. I've not done a semester abroad or been in the PTA, but I've contributed plenty to all of those things. Reciprocity is not expected or mandatory, but if you feel compelled to help, I sincerely thank you.

Kelly