Millions of wrecked cars with safety issues sold and on roads

PHOENIX - Is your car full of hidden dangers? Some Valley car buyers thought they were buying a safe used car, but years later, found it to be a death trap.

It happened to Teresa Eibner. She bought a $17,000 used truck. It's a lot of money, but Teresa has two children and thought she was buying something safe.

Two years after buying the truck, she was involved in a minor collision. It's that accident that exposed the danger hiding under the hood.

"You hope never to see a vehicle like this," said repairman Garry DeRungs, who works with New Image Paint and Body in Tempe.

DeRungs said the truck was involved in a serious previous accident. He said the truck was so badly repaired that it left Teresa and her family with virtually no safety features.

He pointed to new holes drilled for bolts that should not have been moved.

He showed tape and filler disguising problems in the engine compartment.

He said the frame was badly bent and the engine moved with a hook and chain.

DeRungs also showed wood screws holding up a radiator.

He then pointed to compromised hinges that would allow the hood of the truck to crash through the windshield, possibly decapitating someone.

"It's like giving someone a parachute you know isn't there and letting them jump out of a plane," he said.

Teresa bought the truck at Auto Action in Glendale. She said the company never disclosed that the truck had been in an accident and repaired.

Yet records obtained by the ABC15 Investigators show the truck was in a collision six months before Auto Action bought the truck. We took those concerns to Auto Action spokesperson Ray Molina.

He said while he hasn't seen the truck, he can't believe that a truck in the condition described would have passed their own inspection. He instead suggested that the truck may have been involved in a previous accident while Teresa owned it.

But records don't show that, Teresa denies it and now her lawsuit against Auto Action will have to settle it.

The suit claims the dealer knowingly sold a dangerous truck.

So would you know if your used car had a missing bolt or even tape holding parts together?

Tape over welds is something auto expert Richard Diklich said he sees when examining previously wrecked and repaired cars.

Diklich has inspected thousands of used cars involved in accidents and found many had previous safety issues.

He said the number approaches 20 percent, and those are just the vehicles he's seen.

So how many unsafe used vehicles have not been caught?

Diklich said there are millions of them because there are a lot of cars on America's roads.

He also said it doesn't matter if a small or large dealer is selling the vehicle because he's seen unsafe repairs from both.

Diklich points to two recent accident investigations where he examined the cars.

In Texas, an SUV blew a tire and rolled over.

The driver was belted in and experts said in many cases, she should have suffered just minor injuries.

Instead, she was partially paralyzed. A lawsuit now claims there was "catastrophic failure of the roof structure."

It was later discovered that the SUV was actually two halves of different cars welded together and sold as "safe" six years ago.

Another case in Santa Fe involved a car bought used four weeks prior to an accident. The driver in this accident died.

Diklich found the car had been totaled in a previous accident and repaired by someone he said didn't know what they were doing.

A lawsuit now blames the dealer for not "disclosing" the car's past. When inspectors examined Teresa's car, they found she had no working airbags either.

They had been deployed in that previous accident and only covered to appear they were still there.

Teresa said she was shocked to find the safety features she assumed she had and counted on for two years of driving her family around didn't even exist.

She wonders how many other Valley vehicles have the same issues.

In the attached video, watch DeRungs show you how to know what may really be hiding under the hood.