Michigan woman sues over smelly car

NEW BALTIMORE, Mich., Dec. 5 (UPI) -- A Michigan woman may not have expected that new-car smell when she bought a used vehicle but says she certainly didn't expect the odor of a dead body.

In a lawsuit filed in Oakland County Circuit Court, Margarita Salais of New Baltimore alleges the dealership's staff sold her a 2006 Ford Expedition last March without telling her it once held a dead body, The Detroit News reported Monday.

"They bought the car while it was still cold out in March," her attorney, Dani Liblang, told the News. "The warmer it got, the worse the smell got."

Salais said when she brought the car back to the dealership someone told her the smell came from a dead animal. She said she filed a claim with her insurance company, whose investigators determined odor was of human origin.

The insurance company later learned the car had been stolen three times, something Salais said the dealer also failed to tell her.

Her efforts to return the car were fruitless and she now seeks $25,000 plus court fees, the News said.