So i live in california and am looking to purchase a car. The car owner used to live in michigan but now lives in california as well. I was trying tp purchase his car and he told me the bank had the title. I said okay ill get a cashiers check and we can meet at the bank and do all the neccesary paper work. Then today i get a call and he says oh he actually foudn the title at home??? If a car has a loan out on it dosent the bank usually keep the title? And so if i do give him the check and jsut sign the title and take it?? What should i do?

 

If he's still paying on the car, there is no way he has the title. I would ask which bank his loan is from and contact them to find out what exactly is going on. I would not give him a penny till you know what's going on with the title for sure.

 

He might have found some paperwork from the bank and is mistaken thinking its the title. I've met a few people that thought their car title was something completely different.

 

well i ran a carfax and the car comes up clean...

 

sounds like a scam

 

"You know what Toby, when the son of the deposed king of Nigeria emails you directly, asking for help, you help! His father ran the freaking country! Ok?"

 

i mean i actually talked to the guy and drove the car ... everything runs fine... had a mechanic check it out he said everything was good...

 

as 04impreza said, there is no way he can have the title if hes still making payments. get in touch with the lien holder (bank, loan shark etc) and get confirmation that they have it. dont give him the money until you get everything situated.

whatcha getting if i may ask? :]

 

While that is good news for the car, doesn't mean much for the title of the car. You could contact DMV and give them the VIN and you'll find out if the title is in the banks hands or his or just contact the bank. I would definitely do one or the other before handing him any form of payment.

 

Other thing to think about, is the car already registered in CA or if its still registered in MI? If the current owner hasn't registered it in CA, look into what it would take because its not always as easy as walking down with a registration form and your checkbook. Just another thing to think about.

 

Banks keep the title if there is a lien on the car...If he found the title sounds fishy...

 

Or he bought the car from someone, using a bank loan to pay for it. He went to the DMV with the signed over title and did the paperwork properly, listing the bank as lienholder. 14 days later a title comes in the mail, and the bank wasn't listed as the lien holder. The bank then gets pissy they arent on the title, even though he did the paperwork right, the DMV effed up. Dude has to go to the DMV again to get the title updated, or have the bank deal with it.

At least that's what happened to me, it's not ALWAYS someone pulling a scam.

 

so the guy confirmed that there is bank name on their with a lien next to it on the title.. But now he said he wants to keep the plates and told me to run his old ones.... plus how do i go about getting it smogged in ca?

 

I'm not sure how it works with the plates. As long as his old plates match up with the car your buying I don't believe there's a problem. Just make sure when you register the car its registered with the correct plates. Smog shouldn't be a problem either, depending if the car is modified or not. Pretty much the same ol' stuff for any car when smogging it in CA. If the car is still registered in MI, contact DMV if anything else is required to register the car in CA.

 

the plates stay with the car if they are CA, if they are Michigan he can keep em cuz you'll get CA plates when you register the car