Car title value.

3

39topless

Well-known member
Just noticed a listing for a car for sale that will sell for 1/2 the price if purchased without the title. Always thought the title went with the car? I may be naïve, but how can a title, alone, have any value to this seller without the car? This is a pre-war vehicle. I bet some of us have old titles sitting around and maybe we can cash in on them.
 
Maybe the car doesn't have a title and the seller doesn't want to go through the trouble to provide one without substantial reimbursement.
 
'Cause he knows where you live and is planning on reclaiming the car after you restore it. No joke.
 
39topless said:
Just noticed a listing for a car for sale that will sell for 1/2 the price if purchased without the title. Always thought the title went with the car? I may be naïve, but how can a title, alone, have any value to this seller without the car? This is a pre-war vehicle. I bet some of us have old titles sitting around and maybe we can cash in on them.
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Just maybe, the guy selling the car possibly obtained it in a "questionable" manner. So he advertises it for sale, hoping that someone like you that doesn't realize all of the connivery that can possibly surround creative car titling, might be interested in purchasing the vehicle for a reduced price, because he "misplaced" the title (wink, wink).........oh yeah, cash ONLY, please. DD
 
You've been offered some great advice. I'd take it to heart.
Legally, the guy that owns the title, also owns the car. And, it does not matter how many times the car may have been sold.
A title DOES go with the car. Titles are not "owned" by anyone but the state that issued them.
 
Odds are the title is not from that car. I remember my grandfather would buy old titles. And restamp frames. No one cared anything about it then. As long as they got their money for your tags. Some things are questionable now days. But some people are just looking to make another buck. I was talking to a guy about a model a pickup last week. He kept telling me the engine was rebuilt. Then he tells me that he got the motor unstuck and hoaned the cylinders and got it running. He thought the work he did added two thousand to it. When it comes down to it. There are just some a holes out there.
 
I still have my title to a truck that was stolen twenty years ago. I keep this title just in case some day the truck is found and returned.
 
Titling laws vary from state to state. Some states do not require a title after a car becomes old enough to be considered an antique. Apparently a bill of sale is all that is necessary. My home state does not operate that way so I wonder how that works out for the buyer and seller in other states. To my way of thinking a car should have a title regardless of age.
 
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A person that even offers a vehicle in this manner should be considered shady. After all, just what does he plan to do with a legal document to a motor vehicle he no longer owns? Is he planning on building another one and use the same title? It he going to sell the document to some other unsuspecting builder that needs a legal document?

I would even question whether that document even matches the vehicle for sale. More than a few folks like this have ended up in court over "fiddling" with legal documents. Boyd Coddington got into serious troubles when getting involved with "cloning" of Cobra sports cars.
 
I'm not sure the seller here was looking to keep title and sell the car without it. If the seller has no title and has to get one, it's gonna cost him time and money. If you take the car "as-is" (maybe as a parts car), then the price is less. Simple.

As far as selling titles, that's shady in my book.
 
Here is a scenario I can imagine. Lets say you have 2 early cars that are the same make, model, etc. One is way better then the other but has no title, one is a "parts car" with a title. You sell or scrap the bad one and keep the title and re stamp the frame of the better vehicle grind the numbers off the "parts car frame". Not necessarily shady. I admit I have a set of Ford frame stamps.
 
Mike51Merc said:
I'm not sure the seller here was looking to keep title and sell the car without it. If the seller has no title and has to get one, it's gonna cost him time and money. If you take the car "as-is" (maybe as a parts car), then the price is less. Simple.

As far as selling titles, that's shady in my book.
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Selling titles is beyond "shady", it is actually illegal. To reiterate an earlier post of mine: You can't OWN a title. It is issued by the State and remains property of the State. You, as a "consumer" are allowed to "use" the title as a means to identify ownership of the vehicle.
Most states, perhaps all, require titles of vehicles that are scrapped be returned to the State.
 
I think the thing to ask in this situation would be "why" to the seller, as many have brought up, it could just be that the seller does not have a title and knows what effort it will take to get one, or as mentioned he has a title in hand and is just selling as a parts car and plans to use the title elsewhere..which is not good...but basing assumptions without asking the seller a few questions, is not the way to go about it.

Personally if I came across that ad (even without interest in the car), I'd ask the seller "why?".
 
39topless said:
Great advice. I would not buy a sack of rocks from this guy.
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I would't buy a sack of rocks from any guy. :eek::eek:

Well, maybe if the rocks are at least 1 carat, and priced right. :D









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The problem comes with repro bodies. If you buy a repro body, it is easy to register with a title. So you keep the old title, and use it on your new or old frame and sell the body as parts. Nothing illegal there.
 
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