Car without title

4cylndrfury wrote: My Father in law has in his posession a 1984 Ranger with 1700 original miles on it. Still kinda smells new inside. Lived in a garage its whole life. Long story short, Wifes grandpa took possession of the truck somewhere near 1986, and "supposedly" had a handwritten bill of sale (theres hint of some sideways legality concerning how the previous owner went about selling this thing to grandpa...). Grandpa never titled the truck. He passed away a few years back, and the original owner of the truck is long gone. My FIL became executor of his estate, and basically is the owner of the truck, but no title. Its a real time capsule, and our family would love to do something with it, but the fear of the hassle surrounding getting a clear title is too daunting for my FIL to even begin. I would LOVE to be the guy who goes thru the hassle, but theres some family sentiment tied to this thing, so who knows...

This is a PRIME example of why a car with a no title is near worthless. There are a few things that make a car go from "viable daily transportation" to "scrap value (at best)". At the top of the list is the lack of title. After that, bad automatic transmissions and blown headgaskets are effective. A driver door that won't open, oddly, is also up there on the list.

Went to DMV, FL is picky and view it as technically the car is not his to sell.

Turn into a race car and they don't car so long as it goes on a trailer.

It's a running 1991 bmw 325i for $600... I should just get it right? Figure out the title thing later?

PM me the Vin and I will see about getting you the last person who it was titled too.

pimpm3 wrote: PM me the Vin and I will see about getting you the last person who it was titled too.

That would be helpful!

I miss my parents living in Georgia... last car (pre-87) I bought where the title had been misplaced was transferred to my Dad, licensed in GA, and then transferred back to me here in KY where they looked at the GA registration, looked up the VIN, and issued me a nice new KY title.

In reply to Ashyukun:

sweet deal... its almost not even worth titling the car but it would be nice to every once and a while drive it to an autocross nearby. Just for that reason it would be worth it.

jdbuilder wrote: Guy bought it, never transferred name, looses paper title, can't find original owner, guy decides to sell.

^^^^^ What you typed vvvv What I read

Guy stole it from another state, needs to dump it, needs to fabricate story, can't come up with original story, guy decides to use old story.

jdbuilder wrote: In reply to Ashyukun: sweet deal... its almost not even worth titling the car but it would be nice to every once and a while drive it to an autocross nearby. Just for that reason it would be worth it.

Cars without a title are hard to sell. Here, we can't even take it to the scrapper without a title (read post above about someone having to cut a car into 4 pieces to scrap...that's WORK).

The problem with a running driving car with no title is that "it's too nice to part out and scrap." Or even too nice to make into a race car (as you're seeing...you'd like to drive it on the street every now and then)...but that's all they're good for. No title means not road legal. That's what you have to work with.

^^^ What he said.

If there is no title or recent registration showing the previous owners name address etc. you will need a notarized Bill of Sale with a signature of the previous owners full contact information plus all of your information. You then have to take the vehicle to the DMV so someone there can verify the VIN. Some states have a form which allows the local, state police or shierf to come to your house to verifly the VIN.

You then need to fill out a form for a Lost Title and send it with of course the appropriate fee (money order) to your states Department of Revenue. Some states require a written affidavit fully notarized stating the circumstances of the lost title. The biggest problem is finding someone at the DMV that knows and can tell you what needs to be done. I would just call your states Department of Revenue.

The whole process becomes a lot more difficult if the car is homebuilt and has no VIN to start with. Then you need receipts for all magor components (notarized of course) affidavits (notarized of course) plus inspections etc.

Of course i was informed of a way to obtain the title, after the car was sold... Whomp whomp