Frost Freeman had green ideals and high hopes when she bought an electric car nearly 2 years ago to deliver the mail around Marrowstone Island.

"It was perfect for doing the mail because it's narrow enough. I could sit there and reach out the right side for a lot of things," said Freeman. She figured she'd save money on gas and be a moving advertisement for alternative fuel sources.

Her mail customers along her 28-mile route near Port Townsend were also thrilled.

"I thought it was cute and I liked the idea. I'm a zoologist and a biologist and an ecologist, so I've watched these things," said island resident Lois Twelves.

"Everybody was so excited. We had dreams of being able to tell other post offices that this was a wonderful way to go," said Freeman.

The reality has been anything but wonderful.

Freeman believes her car, a Dynasty IT, is an electric lemon.

"Every door, including the hatchback, has been broken. There were melted wires on top of the front batteries. No one knows why. There was a busted brake cable underneath. The steering wheel actually came unglued," said Freeman. "It's possible that it's just a lemon, you know? All car companies have lemons. The rest may be good and one may be just terrible."

And it's not just the repairs. Freeman says her car has never been able to go the 40 miles on one charge she says the salesman promised.

"It had a 30-mile range. We felt that was cutting it too close. For an extra $2,000 you can get a C-drive that can take you up to 35 or 40 miles, so I got that," said Freeman. "After several weeks it got up to about 30 miles. 'Hurray,' we thought. And then it slowly went back to about a 16-mile range and no one knew why."

Freeman says nearly two-years later her car can't hold a charge long enough to deliver the mail, despite additional batteries and upgrades, and the car company still doesn't know why it's not charging.

So, she no longer uses the Dynasty IT on her route. Instead, she drives her old gas-powered vehicle while still paying for the electric car.

And she's been trying for months to recoup from the Dynasty company $20,000 she spent on the vehicle. "I asked for my money back. I said, 'This is not at all what the car was presented as being. It's not working out at all the way you said that it would, everything's breaking.' You don't expect the doors to break. You don't expect the steering wheel to break off," said Freeman.

Steve Mayeda of MC Electric Vehicles in Seattle is the man who sold Freeman the car.

He says he tried to talk Freeman into buying a different electric vehicle, a Zenn, like one that was purchased by a mail carrier in Sequim, who says she's had no problems.

But Mayeda claims Freeman insisted on getting the Dynasty because it could carry more mail, and that extra load, plus the constant stop-and-go of mail delivery, is most likely why the car is not performing as Freeman had hoped.

"If maybe she wasn't using it for what she's doing now, it would be fine. That it's not stop-and-go as a mail carrier. I mean, she carries like 900 pounds of mail. That's quite a bit. If it was just two people driving the car, I'm sure it would be fine," said Mayeda.

Freeman says Mayeda never recommended the Zenn, and that the stop-and-go of the mail route was one of her main concerns before buying the Dynasty.

"My understanding was the stop-and-go would not be as hard on an electric car as it would be on a gas car," said Freeman.

"Frost says she asked that question before she bought it and she was told the stop-and-go would not affect performance," said KIRO 7 Consumer Investigator Amy Clancy.

"Well, stop-and-go is going to affect performance. I think she's wrong, because it does," said Mayeda.

Despite Freeman's disappointment, there are success stories where Dynasty ITs are being driven on-the-job.

A Seattle roaster has used one to deliver coffee beans for four years.

And John T. John, president of Graham and Dunn law firm, loves his.

"It's a plus. It's a positive, it's not a negative," said John.

Employees from the firm have been driving their IT for four years to and from their Seattle waterfront location.

"We use it for what I think it was intended for -- short trips. Lawyers take the car if they want to take a client to lunch down at the Edgewater, or down on the waterfront. We go to the post office, we go to the bank and short little trips," said John. "I definitely think with the rising gas prices, there's a role for a car like this. It's something that has a very specific and focused purpose and if you use it for that purpose, I think you get the benefit of it."

But Freeman says she's received no benefits, no reimbursements.

She's filed a complaint with the Washington State Attorney General's Office requesting arbitration under the state's Lemon Law.

Freeman still owes $10,000 on a car she rarely drives.

"It makes me mad. It's very unfair," said Freeman.

"I personally, think they should give her the money back, all of it, not just some of it. All of it. Because it didn't stand up to any kind of work, you know? And I feel they should replace it with something much better and give her the money back," said Marrowstone Island Postmaster Leslie Nace.

The Dynasty Company says it's not giving any money back because it believes the vehicle was "oversold."

Meanwhile, Freeman wants to sell her Dynasty.

Dynasty's general manager told Clancy the company is providing free replacement parts for the vehicle for as long as Freeman owns the car.

And MC Electric says it's been working for two years to make Freeman happy, giving her new parts and repairs.

Both say this is not the case of a lemon, but of a type of car that just could not deliver, in this particular situation.