MISSION - A Rio Grande Valley woman claimed she bought a car but still hasn’t received the title.

Mission resident Crystella Zamora said lately her children have needed many dentist and doctor appointments so she decided to buy a new car.

“My brother helped me find this online and I thought it was a good deal. But as they say it’s never too good to be true,” she said.

The single mother of five said she bought the vehicle from a dealership called RDKAR on March 10.

Zamora said she met the owner, Ruben Gutierrez, at his home to purchase the car and paid $2,700 in cash.

She was told she’d have to wait for the title.

“I gave him the cash. He did tell me that he didn’t have the title and that he was going to call me to sign the title within the next week or so,” she said. “So, when I contacted him that’s when the story changed a bit. He wanted me to pay him for the plates. He wanted to charge me an extra $300, but I only paid $280 and that was the agreement we came to.”

Zamora said she’s unable to drive her car without the plates. Although Gutierrez told her he switched the title to her name, she said she has not received them yet.

“He said two to three days. That was on Thursday last week,” she said.

CHANNEL 5 NEWS reached out to Gutierrez. He refused to meet with us for an on-camera interview, but said Zamora didn’t pay in full.

It’s the reason he hadn’t switched the title to her name or given her the plates. But after getting $200 plus an $88 fee, Gutierrez said she could pick up the documents.

We later caught up with Zamora who told us she had received what she paid for.

Hidalgo County Tax Assessor-Collector Pablo Villarreal Jr. oversees all vehicle title transactions in the county.

He said registered auto-dealers are required to transfer vehicle titles in a timely fashion.

“When you do a title transfer from a dealer, normally if you pay upfront with cash, it takes about 10 days for that title to come back to your house,” he said.

Villarreal recommended anyone looking to buy a new vehicle visit the Texas Department of Motor Vehicles’ website to look up the dealership and make sure they are authorized dealers.