Dowagiac's mayor is facing a legal battle over a car that went for nearly $3 million at an auction.

Mayor Don Lyons is one of 10 defendants in a complicated civil lawsuit.

Lyons is an avid car collector, and he says he agreed to bid $1 million for a 1929 Duisenberg car owned by William Randolph Hearst at an auction.

At that auction, another bidder kept going higher and ended up bidding $2.9 million for the car.

The issue is that no matter what happened, Lyons would have only paid $1 million for the car, even as the bidding went higher.

But a man named James Scott bid $2.9 million for the car, so through an agreement with the company that owns the car's title, Lyons made a profit on someone else out-bidding him.

Scott is alleging Mayor Lyons was involved in a scheme to bid up the price of the car, though the museum tells us Mayor Lyons didn't do anything illegal.

We're also told the company that was supposed to transfer the title of the car to Scott did not because the car is tied up in another loan.

Lyons says he is innocent and the case is proceeding in a Fort Wayne district court.