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The biggest purchase you're likely to make is a home. And while a complicated project such as building or adding on to a home rarely goes smoothly, there are plenty of precautions you can take to make sure your good faith, investment, hopes and dreams are not crushed.

Sadly, this is not the case with another major purchase — your car, which carries the precious lives of your passengers and can be a danger to those traveling nearby.

While there are multitudinous agencies engaged with new and used car dealerships in Arizona, there is no single, simple clearinghouse to which you can turn for reliable, complete information on a dealer's integrity and track record. Construction model

For construction work, the state's registrar of contractors will, according to its Web site (www.azroc.gov), allow you to "see how long the person or business has had a contractor's license, and see if there are any open/closed complaints filed against the contractor. Of course, you can't tell if an open complaint is justified or not."

And it's not only the big guys, it's workers handling any project — that can be anything from moving, to demolishing to building — costing $1,000 or more. "Contractor" has breadth and includes anyone who says they have the ability to supervise or manage a construction project.

No such luck for the customers of Wildcat Mitsubishi, the local new-car dealership whose misdeeds were chronicled last Sunday by the Star's Shelley Shelton and Carol Ann Alaimo.

Wildcat, 5200 E. Speedway, has been under state scrutiny since the Army banned local soldiers from buying cars there and at Wildcat's sister dealership, Ideal Automotive Group, 645 S. Highway 92 in Sierra Vista. The May ban followed complaints that soldiers were threatened, cheated or misled. The dealerships also were accused of selling unroadworthy cars, mis-stating VIN numbers, financing loans without a license and more.

Tucson lawyer Timothy Remick, who represents owners Richard and Pat Johnston of Hereford, saidthe problems were due to oversights, mistakes or ignorance of the law.

There is no single oversight agency for car dealers in Arizona. Cydney DeModica, spokesman for the state Department of Transportation's Motor Vehicle Division, told us she regards the Better Business Bureau as the "gold standard." It lists Wildcat Mitsubishi as "unsatisfactory."

Andrea Esquer, spokeswoman for of the Attorney General's Office, also urged prospective car buyers to check out the BBB ratings before making a choice.

But as the BBB itself notes on its Web site, "Because we are not a government or law enforcement agency, we cannot force a reply from a business; nor can we administer sanctions." Nor can the BBB "force a solution on parties to a dispute."

"We should change the state motto from Ditat Deus (God Enriches) to Caveat Emptor (Buyer Beware)," Tom Collier, president of the Better Business Bureau of Southern Arizona told Shelton last week.

That's not a bad suggestion, given the current state of affairs in Arizona: It's your job to make a wise purchase and to protect your rights.

The many agencies that take an interest in aspects of car sales often are prevented by privacy rules from saying whether a business is even under investigation, Shelton reported on Thursday. In many cases, their areas of interest do not overlap. State reacts to fraud

For instance, the Attorney General's Office doesn't regulate businesses but waits to see if a fraud is committed before taking action. Attorney General Terry Goddard told Shelton his office can charge up to $10,000 per violation against the Consumer Fraud Act.

The Arizona Department of Financial Institutions similarly said it can't divulge when a business is under investigation.

The Motor Vehicle Division also is limited in what it can disclose about businesses under investigation, DeModica said.

Jim Moors, director of franchising and state law for the Virginia-based National Automobile Dealers Association, said car buyers are better informed and have access to more information than ever before.

"There are ratings of dealerships, car models, safety, reliability — all this information has improved remarkably over the past few years and if consumers take some time to look for it, it's out there," Moors said.

He also noted that carmakers have strict "dealer recruitment policies."

Still, that leaves the investigating in the consumer's lap.

We disdain overregulation, but we recognize that a fundamental purposes of state government is to protect its citizens. Large consumer expenditures such as homes and automobiles certainly should fall into this zone.

Arizona must move to provide the sort of comprehensive protections to car buyers that it offers to those building or remodeling a home.

State leaders need to identify ways for agencies to talk candidly through confidentiality barriers so that relevant agencies have access to complaints and can follow through with investigations and penalties. There must come a time — certainly at least at the point of a "conviction" — when the public must also be informed.

Editor's note: Ideal Automotive Group of Sierra Vista, which is under investigation, has no connection to a Tucson business with a similar name, I-Deal Auto Sales, 2307 N. Stone Ave.