newest project issues already

ok guys here goes. anyone who can help please do!. i went and tried to register my newest mav and they tell me i can't. there is a typo on the title that differs from the vin by a single digit. in the 5th space they typed in a 1 instead of a t. fla says south carolina has to fix this before they will do anything. so i call south carolina and they say the person whos name is on the title has to fix it. well i bought this car from a salvage yard and not the person whos name is on the title.
day 2. i look up all the people in this car owners town with her last name and start calling. after the 11th call i find someone who isn't her but knows her. she is an old black lady (appx 80) that lives down the street with no phone or computer. the odds of her fixing this are slim to none. so i called the guy i bought it from. explained this to him and the only solution he had was to tow the car back to him in south carolina and he would refund my purchase price. now i am out 2 trips to with fuel cost, lodgeing, and food just to get my money back. all of a sudden i am out over $500 in cost for no car. anyone have any other ideas?

 

I would look into getting a mechanics lean on the car with the correct VIN. Check with your BMV to see if you can go that route.

 

Have you tried explaining to them that the 5th digit only indicates what engine was installed in the car. The numbers following it are the cars unit number. There are some options like Broadway Title and some other less than ethical methods that could be done.

 

that or buy a bucket with a clean title and swap 'em around

 

don't you have to be a certified mechanic to file a lein like that? i don't know any who would do it.
i tried explaining it to them until i was blue in the face. all they would say is "if the title and vin don't match exactly then they can't do anything-next".

 

I would not recommend this as it is VIN tampering.

 

I am sure it varies from state to state. I have done it here in Indiana...and I am not a mechanic.

 

how do you do it? go to the courthouse or the dmv or what?

 

You didn't hear this from me .... but buy the rustiest cheap POS mav close in year that still has a title to what you have and swap VINs and part out the other car.

Not completely on the up and up, but you rescue what you obviously feel is a salvageable car, you gain value out of one that would have been crushed anyway after you remove every last nice part off of it, and no one is really harmed here.

If a salvage yard won't take the rusty one without VINs, a scrap metal dealer will after you cut it up into little pieces with a Sawsall.

evilsmileevilsmileevilsmile

The laws are in place to keep dishonesty in check. This is a case where the laws are getting in the way of something that is all good. ( At which point I say we need to skirt them ... ).

 

Damn ... in the amount of time it took me to type all that out, a whole conversation took place.



Jmillers original post was the only thing here when I replied. And I thought I typed pretty fast ...

 

Why can't you just loose the title and get a duplicate it because the DMV records are wrong? Don't they have some procedure inplace for soem kind of certification can you get somehting form Frod stating that VIN number never existed, and therefore prove it is one in the same car?

 

the title i have is a duplicate of the original so probably the original is wrong too. florida dmv is not the most helpful organization you can deal with. i also could not order a duplicate title because my name is not on it. the original owner would have to order it and there are no gaurantees it would be correct.

 

Go to the DMV (or BMV). Courts have nothing to do with it here in Indiana.

 

I would advise against doing that. It is highly illegal and you CAN do jail time for it. People have done time for it here in Indiana.

 

Craig,

Probably good advice ...

I heard from someone that you can get a title for any car in some states. Alabama comes to mind. (This is not a slam on Alabama, OK?) Trying to help here.