I am in LA and look into buying a 2008 model ($20k). Checked Carfax - everything clean. The loan got paid off last week (according to Carfax). The seller is not the owner in the title. He has the pink slip and the registration card (of course, car and all the keys). The pink slip has already been signed by the owner. After some of my inquiry, the seller told me that 1) the owners (the seller's neighbor and the countrymen) lost job, could not keep up with payments, 2) the seller paid off the lien (so now the title has no lien holder) and obtained the title 3) the owners left for a different state and will come back for a short while to pick up belongings - according to the seller..

It looks like everything makes sense. The title has already been signed by the owners for sale - so the seller does not need any power of attorney etc. The seller is really like a used car dealer, and tries to make some profit in the middle. The price is not bad.

Do you see any potential problem? Is this scammer's trick? The owners on the title cannot sign the bill of sale - but the bill of sale means nothing anyway. I saw the car in the seller's residence (nice part of Irvine, parked in the underground garage of the upscale condo complex), and took his license details. But yes, the address of the owner in the title is different from what the seller say.

Thanks,

ps: i am learning that this car may be 'curbstoner' - the car looks very nice and $1k trade-in value (smells fishy..).

 

You could always call the company that they had the lein with. My bill of sale and title price do not match due confusion about what was legal. It's always been on my mind, but when I called my tag office to make up the difference in taxes they told me not to worry about it as long as it was MY car. I think the bill of sale DOES mean something because once I bought a car from a dealer and he said that it had to match or he could get slammed with fraud.. I was sixteen and had no idea what was going on. This sounds legit as long as the OWNER signed the title. Bill of sale I think would be the owner's problem not yours. If you have his license and all that it seems legit. Also keep in mind carfax doesnt have everything listed..

 

For that money I would be going to the Motor Vehicle Dept & take the guy & all the paperwork & make damn sure everything is in order. Now if this guy is a licensed auto dealer in California then that is different he should be able to give you a dealer report of sale.