M.A. writes from Germany:
My husband and I purchased a 1996 Chevy Corsica and bought the extended warranty as well. At the time of purchase, we were not in the military and so noone disclosed any information to us about consequences of taking it overseas. Well, my husband reinlisted in the U.S.Army and we are stationed in Ansbach, Germany.

The car's transmission went out and we took it to AAFES to get it fixed. We told them we had a warranty and they told us that they didn't see a problem getting it honored. This all started in January. We get a call saying that the claim was denied because we are overseas and in our contract it states that the car must be in the states or Canada to have the warranty honored. Now, how were we supposed to know at the time of purchase that we would be in Germany? Then how were we supposed to know that it wouldn't get fixed if it was in Germany? Noone told us at the time we bought the car.

My husband has already been to Saudi Arabia and might be going to Kosovo or Turkey. He is here serving his country and making it safe for you people to live in and this is how we are treated. The car is a 1996, how could the transmission go out so fast? It only has 52,000 miles on the car. It is an automatic and so to blow the transmission seems highly unlikely.

I went to my Congressman and to the Federal Trade Commission and they both couldn't help me. We have also been to see our JAG office and they couldn't help us either. The cost of all this is $2,725.63 for the new transmission and labor. We don't have that kind of money lying around. Plus since January, we have had to rent a car for every month. This is April and I am returning the 3rd rental car back today. That has cost us $1,023.75.

This is just absurd to think that noone can help us or wants to help us. Can you or do you know of anyone who could help us with this. I have already reported them to the BBB so hopefully people will soon know how terrible GM really is. I will never buy another GM product as long as I live. Thank you for your time and any information you may have will greatly be accepted.

I have 2 small children who need to go to the doctors and need me to go get groceries. I can't unless I have a car. We don't make a lot of money and to come up with almost $3,000 makes it really tough when you have a family of 4. We live paycheck to paycheck as it is.

We are sending this complaint to several Members of Congress in the hope that some kind of protection can be granted to others in this situation, but whatever happens will probably be too late to help Ms. A. and the others who've written us with similar tales.