Title Nightmare!

[melissab]

At least it wasnt a trailer title issue. We bought a car from a private seller yesterday and when we went to tranfer the title we were told the car cant be titled b/c it was traded in with the "Cash for Clunkers" Program and was suppose to be destroyed. Now this car is a 1999 Mercedes C43 AMG and only 1 of 1140 ever built and 1 of 500 built in 1999. The car is immaculate having 124K miles on it which is nothing for a well maintained Benz. There is no way this car would have qualified for that program. It gets 24 mpg average and that was just one of the criteria it wouldnt have met for age, condition, mpg etc. When we did the transaction with the seller he had a perfectly good title in his name which he signed over to us. He had bought it the year before from a dealer and then his wife got pregnant so they needed a minivan. He hadnt attempted to renew the plates/registration yet b/c they were just now expiring and he was selling the car. At this point we didnt know if we had been scammed or if the seller really didnt know about the title issue. Hubby called the seller and told him we are bringing the car back and we want our $7000 back in CASH now. The seller was floored. He and his wife/kids seemed great and we spent a couple of hours with them but good scammers present an honest face I'm sure. The seller immediately said no problem with bringing the car back and that he was contacting the dealer and will sue to get his $10,300 back he paid last year for a car he can no longer drive, register or sell etc. Long story short, after his phone calls to the Dealer and to Tallahassee (State DMV location) it turns out another 99 Mercedes had been traded in legitimately since it had been wrecked and the paperwork got mixed up. Our seller was able to register the car when he bought it b/c the Gov't had such a back log on processing the Cash for Clunkers paperwork being submitted that it was taking up to a year to be completed. In fact, this paperwork wasnt even completed until 4 months ago even though the car was sold back in 2009. Tallahassee called us directly today and said everything will be cleared up by Friday and we will be able to register the car so we do get to keep it. The vehicle history report will be expunged since it should have never had the Cash for Clunkers title attached to it. If that car ended up being destoyed b/c of a clerical error it would have been a sin, lol!
Moral of the story?? Even if you have a clean title in your hand issues can come up!! My biggest fear today was that the seller was going to say it's our problem now and we'd end up in a legal battle stuck with a car we couldnt drive yet had to pay for.
Now that Hubby has a good reliable vehicle again we are getting so close to our trailer, purchase, woo hoo!

What a stressful Day!

[kenbarls]

It has been going to be a real to me. Never expected with this.

[Ken C]

Thanks for taking the time to type this up and share here to keep everyone aware.

[floyd]

The "Cash for clunkers" Program was a travesty at best.It was also a slap in the face of the "working poor" in this country.
The cars turned in were required to be driveable and have current registration, also the persons turning in the cars were only those who could afford new cars.
The result was that the cars turned in were better cars (in general) than those concurrently being driven by the working poor, who could not afford to maintain or surrender their cars to the program.
To add insult to injury, these people had to watch the very source of their next car being crushed along with their hopes of improving their lives, and ultimately denying them the crucial need for safe transportation for work, school and groceries.
All of this with the pretext of stimulating the sales of new cars, while only discouraging those who would support themselves.(given the opportunity)

[Lizbeth]

Glad you got that straighten out!

[melissab]

Whew! We got a call from Tallahassee this morning saying everything was taken care of and the record was expunged so even if we sold the car tomorrow there will not be a trace of this mistake. I was happy to hear that since I was afraid they would just add a note in somewhere and every year when we register it we may have to go through the same thing. They are sending us documentation to keep with the car just in case. We got our title and tags today, YIPPEE!!! We spent an hour and a half driving the car down the coast with the sunroof open and windows down enjoying a beautiful day.

Floyd, I totally agree! The Cash for Clunkers program took some good cars off the road. We'd see them on the "C for C" lot and think wow, cant believe they are going to destroy that! Last year my best friend was in a serious car accident that totalled her van and she had to buy a piece of crap because used car prices had risen so much b/c the inventory had been reduced so nothing in her price range was available but garbage. Did you also hear on the news where something like 20% of cars bought with the "C for C" program are being repossed b/c the buyers couldnt really afford them? Crazy!

Today was a good day!