Good bargain now dealer title issues
 

Hi there! I’m the new guy. Long time lurker and life long VW guy. I also owned a nice 911SC about 25 years ago. Anyways.. on to my issue.

I had been looking for a SC or 3.2 for about 3 years. It just didn’t seem like there would ever be what I want in my price range. Then finally about a month and a half ago I found an awesome very original higher mileage 87 coupe that was priced extremely well and best of all it was less than a 2 hour drive from my house. It popped up on eBay one evening and ran down to look. Carfax looked good. The exotic car dealership has a good reputation and the car looked and drove great. For the price there was no time to wait. I purchased the car on the spot. For the price even if it needed a rebuild I would probably still be OK. You snooze you loose..

The story on the car was it was owned by a Dr who drove it through college and then parked it. It sit for over 20 years. The Dr brought it in to the selling dealership and had them go through the car and get it road ready and prep for sale. They went though and did tons of work and sold the car on consignment. When I got the car it still had the remnants of his med school and fraternity stickers on the back window as as well as a corded cell phone and a cb radio. Quite a time capsule.

Fast forward a month and a half and I’m having trouble getting the title. They say the owner has been out of town etc.. Im still in contact with them and they are supposed to be working on it but I don’t get the warm and fuzzies. I got the feeling since they specialize in late model exotics that they may not have initially known the value of the car and after the overwhelming interest after I had already locked in they realized. Just concerned that they might try to try to “give me a refund” and take the car back. After the title miraculously shows up they could sell it for much more.

Am I being paranoid? Any suggestions on actins I should take? How long before getting a lawyer involved? I have been looking so forward to going through the car little by little and making things right. In fact I had fixed several things already with the help of these forums.

Thanks I’m advance for your help!

Name the dealer, and we can tell you if you need to be worried or not.

"The exotic car dealer had a good reputation..."

Obviously, you're no car newbie. You're a long time VW owner so I assume you've bought and sold a few cars in your life.

How exactly are you defining "that you purchased the car on the spot"? I hope you don't mean you gave them money and they gave you the car? I can't imagine that's all that happened. No paperwork? No Bill of Sale? No record of the transaction?

No car dealer in their right mind (and no buyer either) would do a transaction with tens of thousands of dollars at stake without some paperwork. That's just silly. What about a registration? Is there on of those?

Holy mackerel.

What state are you in? That might help with the laws. Plus as Matt says, name names.

Purchasing a car on the spot means obtaining the title “on the spot.”

No title, no car when it’s a cash buy…

Yes! Of course I have ALL the normal sales paperwork. I also have a temporary registration that expired a week ago. I absolutely have all the proof I need to prove I purchased it. I was just wondering what would happen if they cant get the title.

When I say they had a good reputation I mean they had good reviews on google etc.. I saw nothing in my research that looked shady. They had an unbelievable inventory of Lambos Ferraris, Porsches, and Maclarens. I got a good feeling about them at the time.

I live in Virginia but the dealer and the car were located in North Carolina. I don’t want to call the dealer out just yet. It could very well be they are working on it and things will work out. Believe me if it doesn’t I will let you know.

Maybe I posted a bit pre-mature.. I’m sure hoping it works out

Understood. I should add that I did finance a small portion with my bank to avoid draining to much out of my account. So the title was not expected at the time as it would be held by my bank until I pay it off in a few months.

Since you have a lot of information on the previous owner, go directly to him and get the title.
I would also go to the general manager of the dealership and ask him if it’s time to call the police and local news stations. Let him realize you are serious about getting the title.

Based on what you’re saying, I suspect it’s fine. The title should be sent straight to your lender, and not to you. Sometimes these things do take time.

A few years back I sold a dealer a car. I had to call them every week for a month to get them to send the check to my bank to pay off the car.

First thing you should do is spend $12 on a VIN search to see where/when the car was last titled. Easy to do online; takes 15 minutes.

If there's no title, the dealer will have to supply one. If they can't (well, they're not much of a dealer, are they?), you will have to make a decision about how far down the road you want to go for this car.

If the car is on your property and you have a bill of sale, you can go to the Va DMV and file a claim for an abandoned vehicle. The DMV will submit the VIN to a national database which allows anyone with a legal claim on the car to respond. If that comes back clean (90 days, I think), then they will issue you a title.

There are some risks to this process, so your priority should be to get the dealer to fix the issue. But be aware, there are some shifty dealers out there. Carvana is currently prohibited from selling cars in North Carolina because of titling issues.

OK, well, Carvana's NC ban has been lifted, but they're still sketchy as hell.

https://spectrumlocalnews.com/nc/charlotte/business/2022/01/27/carvana-allowed-to-sell-cars-again-in-raleigh--but-one-customer-is-still-wary

Thanks so much Mocker! That is excellent info and exactly what I was looking for. I’m hoping I won’t have to go to that extent but you never know.

We spoke to the dealer again yesterday and they are now supposedly applying for a duplicate title. I cautiously optimistic I got worried for nothing. Thanks again for everything and I will post an update when I know more.

Is the car on consignment with the dealer? That's the only reason I can see a dealer not having the title in hand.

That appears to be the case with his mention that the owner of the car being out of town was the hold up. I am guessing that now he is back in town, he doesn't know where the hell he put it. So he's getting a duplicate title for the dealer so that he can finish selling the car. If the dealer has any sense, they haven't paid him for the car yet, and won't until he delivers the title.

Duh! It was right there! This is what happens when you only get 6-7 hours of sleep! :D

I wouldn't get too excited about it just yet. Matt is most likely right about the Doc not knowing where the title is and needing to obtain a duplicate.

If it was on consignment with a dealer- you would think the dealer would want some proof of title before they listed it. I know I would- want to see that’s it’s not branded or has a lein on it.

I would call the NC DMV and ask them if there is a title being processed with that VIN.

---Adam

Thanks everyone! All great advice! I’m feeling a lot more confident now that I have gotten communication from the dealer and they are supposed to be getting a duplicate title from the NC DMV. I got home today and found they had overnighted a new 30 day registration and tag to me as well.

Also… Yes it was a consignment and it does make some sense that the original owner after all these years would have lost it.

I dunno.. I guess I was a little paranoid. You just never know these days though.

Also, post pics of the car and the price range, it would be interesting to see both.

---Adam

I had a similar problem with my Jag F type R.

I wonder if the Doc had the car registered in a different state and he is now trying to get a duplicate from there. There can be a lot of grief, getting the different states to talk to each other or send someone out of state a title. That’s where mine fell over.

It sounds like the dealer is doing the right thing by you, in sending you a new temporary license. I think they actually cost the dealership, so they seem pretty stand-up.

I wouldn’t be too worried yet. Now if in 8 months time, it still isn’t sorted (again like my car wasn’t - thanks Covid lockdown), I might get the bank involved, as they will want the security on their loan!

^You handled the title on the 914 perfectly, in our deal. I never got nervous with the wait. The govt is the govt, a pita.