When a Valley college student thought she got a sweet deal on a set of new wheels, she got a huge surprise.

A lot of people contact us regarding an issue with a car they just bought and usually it has something to do with the fine print. Not so in this case.

"This is my new Nissan Altima 2004," Tina Stinson said. "It's supposed to be under warranty. It's clean. It looks nice."

Stinson is thrilled with her new car.

"I kind of want to baby it because it's my first nice car," she said.

Stinson stayed away from dealerships and wound up buying the Nissan from a private party. But first she checked out the car's history thoroughly.

"I ran the VIN number through Carfax," Stinson said. "Everything came out clean. There was not one ounce of doubt that there's anything wrong with the car or anything."

That is until Stinson tried to purchase an extended warranty from Nissan for her Altima.

That's when she says Nissan told her not only would they not sell her an extended warranty, but the small amount of the original warranty that was remaining was void.

"Everything should be fine," Stinson said. "It should be under warranty. They should be able to sell me an extended warranty, which they should want to do!"

But they don't because, according to Nissan, Stinson's car is branded as "salvage."

When 3 On Your Side had Stinson call Nissan, they wouldn't give any more details.

"It just says one word on the top of the screen, 'branded title,'" a Nissan representative said on the phone.

A branded title can mean a number of things. It could mean the vehicle was dismantled, flooded, rebuilt, severely wrecked, totaled or stolen. This last one is important.

But when Stinson got her title, it said none of that.

3 On Your Side wanted to get to the bottom of things, so we took the salvage title claims to Detective Tom Brice with the Inspector General's Office, which is part of the Motor Vehicle Division and investigates title problems.

"This vehicle was stolen at one time and the insurance company paid off the insured, therefore, they wrote the vehicle off and it got a salvage title," Brice said.

But because the Nissan was recovered in perfect condition, the car was reissued a "clean" title. But for some reason, Nissan still thinks it's a "salvage" vehicle, meaning the car is worth a fraction of what it should be.

In an e-mail statement to 3 On Your Side, Nissan wrote: "We have been in contact with the state of Arizona to determine the status of the vehicle's title. The state has not responded and it must provide the final documentation needed to lift all brands. We have also attempted to reach out to a third party to expedite a reply from the state. We are working as diligently as we can to resolve this matter."

But until Nissan recognizes that Stinson's car is not salvage, they won't touch it.