need help/info on california titles, lost, last registered years ago Options

[rhodyguy]

i have a line on a car way cheap. the owner can't find the ca title, he now lives in wa. last registered in 88' and never changed over to wa. in wa if 2 people are on a title, or want to be on the title, both parties must be present to change it over. he says he can't find the title and that ca no longer has records of the car. after a period of time does ca drop the info from the dmv records?

kevin

[TonyAKAVW]

I have a roller that has no title and no information associated with it, except the usual VINs. I talked to an agent at AAA and they looked up the VINs and there was no record of it in the system. This means that either the car has never been registered in CA or not for the last 8 years (though I've heard four as well).

So what they said is that a new title must be made and that a bill of sale must exist. The bill of sale is really a joke though because with no history there's no way of validating who owned the car ever. So if you want your neighbor to be the seller, or maybe your uncle Nein Fourtiner to make a bill of sale, you can. Then you have to get the vehicle inspected. Now from what I understand, this is not an inspection to ensure that the vehicle complies with regulations. Rather this is an inspection to make sure that the VINs are authentic. Essentially you can call the CHP and arrange to have an officer come out to your house (if the vehicle doesn't run) and sign off the paperwork. I don't have the numbers of the forms, but you can find this information on the CA DMV website http://www.dmv.ca.gov

So thats what I know so far, but then again I haven't actually gotten an inspection yet. But nowhere on the form for the CHP is there a spot for anything other than VINs.