kronikroller

About 3 months ago i bought a fd from a man in arizona and had it shipped to my house in NY. The agreed price wqas 13k and it has 52k miles and a rebuilt engine(wich leaks oil i found out). After its arival Ifelt this man had missrepresented the car becuase it had been in an accident and has arounnd 4k body damage (rear qp is bondo poorly done) among other stuff (sucks). and in the written agreement it stated the car had not previously been in an accident and had no oil leaks. I soon found out while attempting to get the title that this man was not the real owner. I spoke to the real owner and he didnt want to go down on the price being that i felt the car was horribly missrepresented, he said he would call me back later that day and its 2 months later and i still havent been able to get ahold of him. In that time I filed a claim with the credit card company and got all my money back. I have had the car for over 3 months and got my money back just over a month ago and stil have not been able to talk to this person, no calls from him, nothing. I dont even know the real owners number because he called me just once. So right now im just sitting on a free fd that i have not a clue to do with (altho i have been driving it with a transporter plate ocasionaly. Still dont have title.

So what do you guys think o that? i kinda realy want to just f it and part the damn thing out hahaha!

AnthonyNYC

iTrader: (3)

You better be careful...

Let's say he did not want to deal with the hassle and reported the car stolen. The insurance pays him so he can care less what happens to the car.

So now you have a car in your possession that you are driving "occasionally" that could be reported stolen.

In my opinion, thats the only way a person could leave a car with you and not care about losing 13K.

Anthony

Juster

I dont know about you but i dont know of any man that will just give you his car. Believe me, im sure he is trying to get his car back or way or another. If i were you i would try your best to give him his car back. besides its not right for you to keep this car anyway.

kronikroller

believe me i am not happy about this situation, i have done more than my share of work to resolve this but I am baffled. I just checked carfax and it is still clean so he hasnt reported it stolen.... not that it means anything but according to carfax he bought the car at auction in florida and sold it to me 3k miles later... i think he was trying to get away with something, but seriously what should i do? i cant just hold onto this car im going to get fukd somehow....

gnobesav

Carfax is not exactly a reliable source... I would share your concerns with the police so they can look it up in a real database of stolen cars.

kronikroller

If the car was reported stolen and he did not tell the police the address he SHIPPED it to then so be it ill part it out.... but i realy dont think he can report the car stolen knowing exactly where it is. And by driving ocasionaly i mean like 5 mins a week on some remote backroad just to keep the engine running good, ya know? who lets a rx sit for months? so i dont realy think i have anything to worry about yet.... maybe i wont drive it at all, its his loss. Ill check with tha police to make sure....

vudoodoodoo

Should call the police. You already got your money back. Get rid of the car before it gets you in trouble.

pomanferrari

iTrader: (1)

You got your money back. You didn't pay for the car. Therefore you don't own the car legally or equitably (e.g., like a mechanic's lien).

Nothing is free in this world. Just remember that once the guy wants his car back, it'll cost you more than $13K to get another car back.

I would hire a lawyer for a couple of hundred dollars to try and contact the true owner and they have a process where you can obtain title for abandoned property in most states. Not legal advice just common sense.

DaedelGT

Check with the DMV and get his adress from the liscence plate.

DomFD3S

I would hope that your local DMV doesn't give out addresses anymore.

A good number of years back, a celebrity was killed because a stalker had obtained the celebrity's address from the DMV (using the license plate number). The DMV gave the address to the stalker...the stalker broke into the house...and subsequently, the celebrity was killed.

California's DMV has since stopped giving out addresses. I hope your DMV is smart enough to realize this.

maxpesce

Sounds like a shady dealer bought the car from (or brokered for) the Orig owner then collected the credit card money and skiped - now the orig owner may or may/not hav been paid for the car - If he has, he won't care what beef you have w/ the dealer, and your Credit Card Co will be going after the person they paid out to (the dealer) to recover the funds so will NOT come back on you for keeping the car. If the orig owner hasn't been Paid I would think he woud be vigrously negotiating the return of his property with you. File a Mecahanics lein for storage fees in NY & AZ. You file w/ the dmv based on VIN and the dmv will attempt to notify the owner. If the Legal owner (on Title) doesn't claim the vehicle within the specified time (90 days in CA iirc, may differ in NY and AZ) the vehicle is your's free and clear. The worst that can happen is the car gets returned to the orig. owner - But you might end up with a free FD

kronikroller

now thats what im talking about maxpes, i didnt know i could file a mechacnis lean, im going to definatly do that... as for the guy who sold the car to me... anyone ever hear of RT Racing in arizona? I think the dmv does give out addresses but it cost 15$ and takes a couple weeks plus i dont have his plate.

DaedelGT

They still do it in Louisiana. I used the liscence plate on a Jeep my brother bought to track down the "real" owner of the car.

BigIslandSevens

iTrader: (4)

get the mech. lean! I have this problem with customers leaving their motorcycles after an expensive repair. check the local laws pertaining to the lean process you usually have to advertise in the paper or some public way looking for the real owner after that the process to switch names start. Thats how it works in Hawaii, we have a ton of abondonded vehicles out here.

Cihuuy

hmmm... maybe the owner... ermm... past away???

cdk 4219

He shipped you the car and you stopped payment on the whole car, and now you want to file a mechanics lien on a used car that you didnt contract to do any work on? Right is right and wrong is wrong, but deals like this usually bite you right in the ***. Get the car back to the original party and be done with it, because if he decides to report the car stolen and you are caught driving it, well you know.

Johnny

I agree...something called karma dude

kronikroller

even though i got most of the money back that i had paid for the car i still do not have a 1000$ deposit and another 950$ to ship it cross country. This wasnt some silly little deal you make it out to be. He assumed all responsibility for the car being in the mechanical and physical condition he represented it to be in. I sill would buy the car if he decided to assume his impied responsibilitys and either pay for the damages to the car (leaks oil from the tranny/engine, rear is rebuilt with bindo around the gas tank area to the bumper, car leaks boost from elbo on tb, ect, ect, its goes on... the engine was taken out and rebuilt but all the old hose were used and i got the car leaking coolant and the intake pipings/air pump hose barely attached. Its taken me this long just to figure out all the problems. How about this, he said the tranny didnt have the 5th gear syncro problem and guess what? of course it grinds every time you put it in. This is all stated in a written contract. ... So what youre saying is I should feel bad
and drop another 950 shipping his car back so this monkey can do it again??? I DONT FUKN THINK SO
sorry dude but karma doesnt pay insurance.

Johnny

get a fukn lawyer then dude...play it safe..just in case

Knifeboy

So you've gotten most of your money back (but you're still out ~1950?), the car is at your place but not under your ownership, and you have no legal responsibilities for the car? Well, why bother babysitting someone else's property when you're 1) NOT paid to do so, and 2)NOT required to do so?? Just park it on the side of the road somewhere with no plates and I'm sure the car will find itself a new home. As for the money you cannot recover.... just take the seats, gauges, etc etc.... that's approximately the amount that you're out, then leave it out for the scavengers to pick through, or let the city get rid of it. Trying to keep the car sounds like a LOT more hassle than it's worth (lawyer fees, etc). So just reimburse yourself for your loss/time and call it a day.

If the "real" owner doesn't seem to care about recovering his car (especially an FD), then something's up. So just disassociate yourself with the car and let someone else deal with the problem. If he tries to blame you for the car being towed/stolen/whatever just say it was stolen from your property. Seeing how it's not under your ownership why should you have to watch over it? Plus, after going out of your way to try to return the car with no success, you were generous enough to park it on your property without charging the owner a storage fee for usingyour space!!


Jason

AnthonyNYC

iTrader: (3)

Be careful parting a car out that you do not own. I pmd you if wanted to sell this car, disregard that pm since there is something really really shady going on here.

The entire situation feels weird.

I have 2 questions..

1. Why do you want to part out a car you do not own?

2. Why are you driving a car that you do not own?

3. How old are you?

Anthony

Johnny

I guessing he's pretty young...whatever you do...dont part out $2000 worth and leave it on the street. I'm assuming there is already a paper trail to the car to you..from the delivery company. You have to smart about this is you want to recover that $2K back...

kronikroller

Anthony, your first two questions can be answered as one; because the "real" owner or should i say guy who never sent me the title dissapeared from the face of the earth. Like i said before i dont realy drive the car except when i have to (move it or something) and as far as parting it out goes i dont know what to do. thats why i was looking for some advice from anyone who has been in a similiar situation. There is most definatley a paper trail that would lead you to the car so I think the stolen car thing is absurd, if he wants it back its sitting in my damn driveway. Its just that you gota look at all the angles, i think the 2 best ideas so far are
1) put a mech lean on it (that is if it is possible for me to do) and
2) Hire a lawer (wich im goin to do anyway just to write him a letter for now)
knifeboy, im sorry but thats a little ridiculous, i wouldnt leave an fd on the side of the street for people to ravage, if anyones doing any ravaging its gona be me yea i guess i am pretty young but im old enough to handle my **** so its ok... If anyone else has any good ideas feel free!

DomFD3S

Maybe he didn't send you the title because he was not the legal owner of the car. He could have stolen the car and was attempting to sell it for some money.

Just report the car to the police.

AnthonyNYC

iTrader: (3)

I 2nd this idea as well, call the cops!