The gist of it is, when I visit the junkyard car dealer with a working fuel cell controller and more than enough caps, the only option I have is "I have another fuel cell for you".
After choosing that option, he immediately takes my caps, the cell, and gives me another cockroach, the first car I bought in the game.
I even took 500k caps as a test, because the wiki says the prices are always changing and still he just takes the caps and the cell and gives me a cockroach.