Joey, Valerie and 2-year-old Jacob Arnold stand in front of their home Tuesday with a seat for a car they don’t have.(Jon Giffin The Vicksburg Post)

[8/11/04]A Warren County couple trying to trade their old car for a newer, bigger car now say they have no car after being caught up in the legal wranglings of a Vicksburg dealership.

Joey and Valerie Arnold, 102 Michael Lane, said they test drove a 2002 Ford Escape from River City Mitsubishi Hyundai, leaving their own 1996 Mitsubishi Eclipse on the lot.

When they returned, however, the dealership was closed and nearly all of the cars on the lot were gone including theirs. “I still haven’t figured out how they can take something that’s not theirs,” said Joey Arnold, a trucker.

Nearly all of the cars on the lot at 4075 Pemberton Square Blvd., were seized two weeks ago on a Warren County Circuit Court order of replevin.

The lawsuit was filed by American Finance Corporation and claims that the dealership has a balance of $1 million on two loans that totaled $2 million. The defendant in the suit is listed as Thames Autoplex Inc., Vicksburg Motor Company, River City Mitsubishi Hyundai and River Autoplex Inc.

The lawyer for AFC, Oxford attorney Brad Golman, declined comment.

As of Tuesday, the Arnolds are left without the car that they own and no vehicle because the Ford Escape they were test driving was towed from their home. Their car is impounded at Stevens Service Center.

The couple has three children and are wondering how they’ll get their 5-year-old kindergartner to school.

“My boss told me he’d work with me,” Arnold said. “So I guess we’ll be driving an 18-wheeler around town.”

John Thames Jr., listed as a principle of the dealership in the lawsuit, has said he sold the complex last year and purchased it again in July. He said the Arnolds’ problem is not something the dealership created.

“They can go retrieve their vehicle at their own expense,” Thames said. “But all of that happened under the old regime.”

He also said the dealership would be fully stocked again soon.

“We have 150 new cars on the way in,” he said. “We’re buying vehicles, and we should be fully dressed by the middle of next week. We’re getting them in every day.”