MCALLEN – A Rio Grande Valley man says he had never heard of contaminated gas until he pumped it in his new dream car.

Armando Pizano said his dream car is a 2014 Nissan 370z. He said after saving money for an entire year,  he was finally able to purchase it on Dec. 9th.

Pizano explained the next evening he stopped at the stripes located on the corner of Hackberry and Bicentennial avenues. He said he pumped $15 of 93 Octane gasoline in the car.

“I woke up the next morning and got ready for work. I drove my car maybe 30 seconds and then it started shaking, the RPM started not going up and luckily I got to pull off to the side of the DMV,” he recalled.

Pizano explained he had the car towed to a Nissan dealership. There, mechanics examined the vehicle. He said he was shocked to learn the cause of the problems.

“They told me that it is not covered under the warranty. I have because it’s bad gas, which I mean, I didn’t even know was a thing, to be honest,” he said. “I was very like, ‘OK, are they making this up?” Pizano said.

He said the mechanics told him the gas was contaminated with water and some sort of sediment.

They gave him a sample of normal 93 octane gasoline and a sample of the contaminated 93 octane gasoline from his car. He said the difference was clear.

Pizano said the repairs on his car won’t be cheap.

“It’s going to be $962 for everything. They say they may have to replace the fuel pump, they were going to clean the injectors, they were going to take out the exhaust of my car,” he explained.

The car owner said he rushed back to the Stripes store and found a sign on the gas pump he used to pump fuel. The note explained that 93 octane was no longer available.

He said he also discovered several other customers filing a complaint about the same issue.

Pizano told CHANNEL 5 NEWS he filled the complaint a week ago but still hasn’t heard any word from the company on whether or not they would pay for the repairs.

“I am very frustrated. I mean, I am frustrated because I would think that they would get back to you sooner knowing that it’s a means of transportation to get to work,” he said.

We reached out to Stripes to get those answers. A company representative, Alyson Gomez, sent the following statement, which reads in part:

"Due to a construction project, we did experience an issue at this one store located at the corner of Bicentennial and Hackberry in McAllen.

We are investigating fully and the super-premium fuel at this location will remain out of service until we are able to confirm, via quality testing, that our super-premium product exceeds our quality standards."

The company also told CHANNEL 5 NEWS that their regional manager and insurance company are working to find a resolution for customers affected by the contaminated gas.

Pizano said he hopes that resolution comes sooner than later.

We recently spoke to Pizano. He said after we called Stripes, one of their representatives called him and informed him that the company will be paying for the repairs to his vehicle in full.