My First Car: an Endless String of Temp Tags

The first car I ever bought myself was a 1991 Hyundai Scoupe.  I paid $900 cash, and I was overjoyed.  Teenage me had fallen in love with the rear spoiler, the sunroof, and the 5-speed manual transmission - enough to overlook the massive mileage, tiny engine, and most importantly the fact that the mechanic who sold it took forever to get me a title.  Temporary registration (the sticker you see hanging in the rear window of newly-bought cars) is valid for 30 days in New Jersey where I grew up, and I had to go back to the mechanic four times to get new temporary registration stickers.

I don’t want to know what that mechanic did to get his hands on a title in his name.  All I know is that I successfully took the title to the DMV and transferred it into my name.  This was all over 20 years ago, so there is no harm in saying out loud that something was probably up with that vehicle’s title and chain of ownership.  I was young, dumb, and lucky as only a teenage boy who wants wheels can be.  Read on for details of what I should have done differently when buying the car and for specific information about the danger of buying a vehicle with a bad or nonexistent title.

Some Basic Definitions and Warning Signs

A title is a state-issued document that contains official information about a vehicle.  Title contents vary a bit from state to state but usually include:

• The VIN → Vehicle Identification Number

• Make and model of vehicle

• Year of vehicle manufacture

• Any liens (loans taken out relating to vehicle)

• Name of immediate previous owner

• Date of previous sale of vehicle

• Vehicle mileage on date of last sale / transfer of ownership

This basic information brings us to our first warning sign: if your vehicle’s title doesn’t have this basic information, or if something about this information looks wrong, you should figure out why.  Google your state and the phrase “vehicle title” to be sure; an image search might be super helpful here.  It’s an unfortunate reality, but plenty of people end up with fake titles, and there are real dangers to driving around in a vehicle with a false chain of title.  Don’t worry!  Dirt Legal has helped plenty of folks solve this problem with our vehicle titling service.

Costly information your title could be missing

If you bought a car with a bad title, it might be because the car has skeletons in its closet that would have altered its sale price.  For example, your car might have had a “salvage title” at some point.

Cars receive a salvage title when they sustain damage that makes them unsafe to drive - they need major repairs in this case!  A salvage title also causes a sharp drop in a vehicle’s value.  Sometimes bad actors take a car or truck with a salvage title from one state to another, and then they have a non-salvage title issued in the new state.  This can happen when one state has more lax regulations than another, and it’s called title washing.

Click here to read some previous coverage on this blog about the dangers of title washing.

After title washing, sometimes information about a lien is removed from a title.  When someone owes money on a vehicle to a bank, dealership, etc, the information about that loan is attached to the title until the debt is paid off.  (I owned a car with a lien from the dealer and the debt information was literally stapled to the title.)  The debt does not magically disappear when information about the lien is removed from the title.  In fact, the current owner of the vehicle is responsible for the debt owed on the vehicle, and if you have a washed or bad title for a vehicle with a lien, then you are liable for the debt - even if you didn’t know it was there!

Messing with the mileage

As we said above, vehicle titles contain information about the mileage on the odometer at the time of last sale.  Sometimes car sellers or dealers manually lower the odometer mileage to increase the sale price of a vehicle.  (Play around with a tool like Consumer Reports’ Vehicle Value Estimator to see just how much mileage factors in the sale or trade-in value of a car or truck.)  Unfortunately this creates an incentive to fake a low vehicle mileage.  If the odometer in a vehicle is hard to read, has crooked numbers or weird gaps between the numbers, then there’s a chance that the odometer has been tampered with.  If a seller or dealer isn’t willing to produce a current title for a vehicle, the reason could be that a title would show higher mileage than the odometer.  Common sense is helpful here too: if you are purchasing a significantly old used vehicle, and the low mileage seems too good to be true, then you might want to beware!

Curious about a vehicle’s history?  Check out our cheap, quick, and easy VIN check service!

Title Jumping and Curbstoning

Vehicle titles contain the name of the immediate previous owner.  When a person or dealer takes possession of a vehicle without transferring the title into their name, it’s an illegal practice called title jumping.  If you are considering buying a vehicle, compare the seller’s or dealer’s name with the name on the title.  Sometimes dealers have LLC’s or corporate names that don’t match the name on the sign hanging above the door, but any reputable dealer will be able to produce documentation that links a name on a title to their business name.  If someone doesn’t have title in their name to a vehicle, they don’t own the vehicle.  Make no mistake: if they don’t own the vehicle, they can’t legally sell it to you; but that might not stop them from trying to take your money anyway.   Sometimes people don’t put a title in their name because they don’t want to be traced afterwards.  No good can come from that!

Sometimes car dealers sell a vehicle directly to a buyer so that they don’t have to pay dealership-related fees, or so that the sale doesn’t count against the limitations on how many vehicles the dealership can sell in a year.  This process (illegal in some places) is called curbstoning, and someone might do it because they can’t pass the criminal background check required to get licensed as an official car dealer.  A vehicle for sale that catches your eye on the internet or the side of the road might not be coming from a private seller but really an off-the-books dealership.  The title is a good way to tell.  If the seller’s ID doesn’t match the title, or the title lists a dealership as the current owner, walk away!

Possible curbstoning is another situation where our VIN report service is a great way to equip yourself with accurate information about a vehicle.

Summing up

By now hopefully you understand:

• The information a proper vehicle title should contain

• The dangers of title washing

• Ways that bad actors can manipulate vehicle mileage 

• The dangers of title jumping

If you are thinking of buying a vehicle, take your time and ask lots of questions about the title!  The seller should clearly identify themself and give you plenty of time to review the title and the VIN.  (Remember that we can help you check the VIN with our cheap, quick, and easy VIN check service!)

If you’ve already purchased a vehicle and you have concerns about the title, you might want to talk to a local attorney (we aren’t attorneys - just helpful fellow car, truck, and bike lovers!)  Depending on your state, you may have legal recourse against the buyers.  Here’s how serious this is: if a seller made false claims about a vehicle to you using a phone or the internet, they may have committed wire fraud!

If you just want to get a missing title as quickly and easily as possible, Dirt Legal is the answer!  Our Vehicle Titling Service will get you a new title in your name, and you don’t have to go to the DMV or get any kind of inspections or tests.  Then you can go ahead and get registered at the DMV, or we can do that for you too!  Our vehicle registration service can help you get documents and license plates without leaving home.  We can register your boat or OHV too!

There's no telling what kind of trouble teenage me might have been in if my old Hyundai Scoupe had something seriously wrong with its title.  Even though I had a seemingly good title in my hand, any number of nefarious things could have happened in the background, and I would have had no way of knowing. Dirt Legal has helped thousands of people fix their title issues and uncover the truth behind the VIN, and we’d love to help you.  Follow the steps on our website or give us a call!