Jaxley

Hey guys!
Looking forward to joining the corvette community but I have some concerns about a possible purchase. First concern is that the seller has no title. This would mean doing a lot of leg work and Surety Bond stuff to make it ok to drive. (this would be after a transmission rebuild) Some feedback about the above issues would be welcomed. Is it worth it? It does happen to be a 1990 convertible. So it would be hard to pass up.

Thanks,
Jason

Cruisinfanatic

Against the rules asking for a carfax!
In my opinion it's up to the seller to get the title to sell a car, not the buyer.
RUN AWAY!

corgasm

Check your state DMV to see if title is required for cars over a certain age. In Maine, for example, (if I remember right) over 25 years you don't need title from previous owner.

BOOT77

If it's a steal of a deal! LOL

Bad pun's aside, only if you are positive you can title it, you never plan to sell it and it's really good deal.

Jaxley

negate the carfax request. I just needed to have some second opinions on the issue. Appreciate all the fast responses. I'll try and edit the original to take out the request. =D Looking forward to being on the forums officially.

-Jason

Kmcoldcars

I believe it is now OK to ask for a Carfax on the forum. A car with no title and needing a transmission would not be worth very much to me as there could be so many things that need fixing that you would never know about until you drove it.
How many miles on the car? What is the condition of the interior? How old are the tires according to their date codes? Do the brakes work? How long has it been sitting? Is the top in good condition? How is the weatherstripping? Does it overheat? What is the asking price?
There are too many unknowns for us to give you any intelligent opinion on if this is a good deal or not.

65Z01

It might be well worth signing up for the minimum duration with Carfax in your case.

I got a 3mo subscription a few years ago when searching for my current 35th Anni and feel it was well worth it, though I don't recall the fee.

Beau and Chows

Can companies manipulate the Carfax? I received one with my purchase and it passed their 60 point check and this was at a dealership. When I brought it to Canada it was found to be needing about 3K in repairs and they had only 1 quart of fluid in the 6 speed tranny. When I called the dealership their response was "it's a used car" and hung up.

Question - my A/C is intermittent....but blows ice cold. Is this a clutch issue?

lt4obsesses

I personally would never, ever, buy a car that didn't have a title. End of story. I don't think I would even buy a parts car w/o a title unless I knew the complete true ownership history.

Beau and Chows

I agree...and hope you didn't get hosed. No title....no cash. Too many unanswered questions

C4in mesa

Parts car

ps374

I have a Galant with no title. Reason being it was totalled. If a car was wrecked you can not get a title. They will only give you a salvage title. That could be why the owner is not showing you a title. He knows the car was totalled.

Jaxley

Quote: How many miles on the car? What is the condition of the interior? How old are the tires according to their date codes? Do the brakes work? How long has it been sitting? Is the top in good condition? How is the weatherstripping? Does it overheat? What is the asking price?

Owner says it has about 92k on it(the LCD display was a little wonky and when it did show up, it read 154k, so yeah...)
Interior wasn't "bad" but it was far from good. has been sitting for about 5 years and started periodically, but there were spider webs and what not inside and the plastic had that nasty scale stuff on it from moisture. Electronics other than that seemed to work...
Tires would need replaced. even if they were good, they are older and dry rotted. one tire was leaking air around the rim as i looked at it.
Brakes do work. 2nd gear does not. Brakes and tuneup was done about a year ago(according to seller)
Top wasnt in terrible shape, had some fading but looked relatively sound. The weather stripping in places was cracked and old looking. It just poured down rain the other day and i didnt see any signs that water had gotten in the car. But he had pulled it out for me to look at so it may have been under a tarp or shed somewhere.
I dont know if it over heats. I ran it for about 10 mins while i was looking at it and it seemed to be fine. without driving it, dont know if that would show a cooling problem.
He's asking 2400. 1990 convertible red with luggage rack

DanielRicany

I wouldn't buy a car without a title. You don't even know if the guy who is selling it to you actually owns the car or if it is stolen.

WVZR-1

This is a six speed car or an automatic? You mentioned 2nd gear doesn't work? Where are you located?

lt4obsesses

Don't let the idea of a $2,400 Corvette covertibile blind you. Often things we think are bargains wind up being far from it. It could realistically cost you another $5 to $10K just to get it on the road. Especially if you have to go through titling issues.

That said, I still say, "no title, no sale. Period"

Jaxley

i think i'm going to pass on it. It's an automatic. I'm in NC.

Kmcoldcars

Good decision. Take the $ 2400 it would have cost, add the $ 1000 for new tires, the $ 2000 or more for fixing the interior, the $ 2000 tranny rebuild, and the $ 500 for weatherstripping, and whatever a brake job will cost as there is rust in the system from sitting for 5 years, and whatever else will be wrong with it, and go buy a nice convertible with under 100,000 miles on it.

hcbph

Passing if there is no title is a smart move.

If the seller has had the car titled, it is not a hard task to request a duplicate title. Here, without a title, you won't get license plates.
I found that one after my MIL passed away. My wife is an only child and inherited the MIL's car when she passed. Until it went through probate (no will and titled in S.C.) and titled to the wife and subsequently titled in Mn., it was not possible to get it licensed here. In fact, I talked to my insurance company and was not even able to get insurance on it till the title transfer was completed.

Unless your state is very different, it really sounds fishy and you don't want to risk buying a car the seller is not the owner of.

Chuck Tribolet

Interesting. I'm the executor of my mom's estate, and her insurance
company (USAA) was quite happy to keep the insurance in effect. The
only restriction was that I could only drive it on estate business (which
was handy, because the estate was in Tucson and I'm in California, so
it saved the estate a bunch of car rental).

USAA had a whole department ("Survivor Relations") handling this sort
of stuff. So did AZ AAA.

Chuck