Buying a car without a title !
 

Gentleman whats your thoughts on buying a car that the seller doesn’t have any paperwork on? He claims the person he bought it from 20 years ago never gave him the title. Car has supposedly been off the road since 1974ish. He wants nothing to do with trying to obtain a title for the car but wants top money for the car. I’m struggling with this because its a very special car that i would love to have however its alot of money to gamble with ! Thanks

Grab the VIN and see if you can possibly do a title search yourself.? Can't be more than $20 bucks I would imagine.?

Call Bruce Shaw. He’s a sponsor on this site. Very knowledgeable and helpful. Reasonable charge too :-)

Bruce Shaw is a good recommendation. Texas has bonded titles that allow someone to make claim to the car for two years. I’d think no title would reduce the value of the car considerably

Place a deposit, and do a simple sale contract contingent upon getting a clean title.







Some caution is needed:

What state do you intend to title the car in?

I have bought a few cars with out titles and went thru the bonding process. Mind you these are just average collectible cars at best... The problem I face is when trying to sell them is the stigma of a "bonded" title (they might as well have been branded salvage) even though there is no recourse to the buyer. The minute they hear that half the buyers leave the room. The ones left only want to pay salvage prices, so with this in mind I make my initial offers accordingly. Its a constant battle trying to educate people and most guys wont listen to a seller but will take title advise from the face tatted 7-11 store clerk...

Im in Michigan!

Does anyone know how to get ahold of Bruce Shaw ?

Never noticed his ad on the site?

Bruce Shaw
215.657.2377

http://shawlaws.com/

While strictly my opinion.......I don't know how anyone can reason top dollar for a car (based on what you shared) and not be able to convey any sort of transfer of ownership.

As mentioned, a bonded title has most the same effect as a salvage title.

Bruce Shaw Esq
 

Bruce in not only an astute lawyer but has owned, raced and sponsored race teams, owned machine shop & speedshop. Very knowledgeable when it comes to collector cars or anything automobile related. He has put on quite a few seminars at MCACN. Can't recommend him enough!!!

Since the seller has no interest in attempting to secure a title, I would assume he has already tried and failed, or knows it's not possible. Getting a person to research it deep enough to determine if you can get one is the best thing to do. Asking top dollar for a car with no title is conflict of interest. As already said many times, the price needs to reflect the situation.

Before you do anything I recommend you see if the car was stolen. Just enter the VIN on this site:

https://www.bumper.com/?g_network=g&...hoC7LIQAvD_BwE

Haven’t read the whole thread yet but, Connecticut has no titles on older cars . So every car you buy out of CT would be this way . You use a bill of sale and or the old registration.

A good number of states do not have titles for older cars and sales are normally via bill of sale and transferrable registration. Of course with a 6 figure car, would feel better with a paper title. Years ago it was pretty easy to get a paper title though a couple of companies like Broadway title. Not sure if that process has tightened up at this point.

As others have mentioned, its pretty easy to run a check and see if it is on the databases as a stolen car.

In NY we only have registrations for historical cars, not titles. The registrations can be transferable (to new owner) or non transferable depending on if money is owed on the loan or not.

I maybe in the minority here but having bought a ‘62 Corvette without any ownership paperwork, it’s changed my perception of this process. As long as you have a supplemental document like a bill of sale or sales agreement with the title terms agreed to and signed off on, I don’t see a problem. I did this with my old Vette and not only did DMV accept all docs, I even asked the seller for a second round of signatures on official forms which he was totally cool with too.

In short, document all steps of the process with signatures and photos. I doubt you’ll have an issue unless your seller is not trustworthy.

Dan

Thanks gents! So im gonna teach out to Mr Shaw and get his opinion. In Michigan we use to be able to green sheet a car with no title which means a police offier would come out run the vin and if it came back clean fill out a little work then i would take it to the Secretary of State and they would build me a title. Well since the car is 4 hour’s away kinda tough to do as the officer doesn’t always show up. If this becomes my last resort im gonna reach out to the owner of the cars and explain to him whats going on. Thanks gentlemen for your input

The Newest Supply Chain Issue Is...Title Paper?

https://www.roadandtrack.com/news/a4...w-title-paper/

Been waiting for an Oklahoma title from a seller for 9 months now. :rolleyes2:

what is the excuse for the hold up?

He had no title, the truck came out of a personal "collection",(junk yard) and the seller USED to be able to apply for an abandoned vehicle thru his business for a clean title. First, the state told him they had worker shortages from covid, then it seems the rules had changed for getting a title thru the program he used along with the, now, shortage of supplies to make the titles. I talked with him again last week and he assures me I WILL get a clean title, but he has no idea when and won't make any predictions anymore...:smirk:

It is a '67 C10 roller and I haven't done anything with it, yet, but hope to have it on the road next summer. Guess I have another 6 months, now, to see what materializes.

When I bought my new 2021 Tahoe in the fall of 2020, I kept waiting for a paper title to show up in the mail. Finally called the MVD and they told me they no longer issue paper titles unless you specifically request one (and obviously the Chevy dealership does not request them for their customers), otherwise you get an electronic title. Subsequently requested and got a paper title when we opened a Trust and titled our vehicles in the name of the Trust.

he is telling the truth to all of those. its crazy about them saying they have ran out of the paper for titles, i bought a new truck and titled it a couple of weeks ago and had my new title back to me in less than a week. however the paper did seem different than what it did earlier in the year. they have changed the laws to getting a title. used to file a "title 42" paperwork and could have one in a bit over 30 days. laws have changed and i know guys who have been waiting over 6 months for it to go thru and also they have changed the rules on what you can file one for.