I picked up an 1991 the other day and when I was looking at the title and the car I disregarded the funky VIN on the title. I bought it for the engines and transmission coming with it more than the shell itself, but I figured I could do something with the shell in the long run as well. However, the more I think about it, the more nervous I become. The name is proper, the description is right, and the only difference is the VIN. It's not like this a GMV or anything, it has a US VIN on the door and the firewall.

Anyway, is there a special VIN on titles for those in the military? If not is this car relegated to track use only? Is it possible to get a proper title with just the current title and no BOS? Too many hassles to be worth it?

Anyone who PM's me with information and is interested, I can send a picture of each number to them, just not real comfortable putting it all out there for the public.

 

if the vin on the title doesnt match the vin on the car, its not for that car..

 

so pretty much call the cops, man.

 

Personally if you are just using the drivetrain then I would forget about the VIN.
If you start to inquire about the VIN and it turns out to be stolen,or whatever you have lost any money in that purchase..Poof..gone.You could get charged with possession of stolen goods.
I'd get what I want off it.
If you go to scrap it though,I would make sure that the VIN is GONE..like cut the damn thing off and bury it in the forest...deeeeeep.

 

the military doesn't get a special vin.

you won't know if you can get a proper title unless you ask, write the numbers on a piece of paper, and call/go to the DMV and ask, if you're questioned (in my experience they don't care, so they never ask), tell them you're thinking about buying it.

 

If the car has a current CO title, there is no VIN verification required to register/tag it.
You could transfer the title into your name, no problem.
That doesn't solve your real issue, just kicks the can a bit further down the road.

When you say "funky VIN" what do you mean?
Is there one digit mistyped or is the whole number wrong?
A possible clerical error should be fixable but a completely different VIN is just bad news all around.

 

VIN on the title is listed as "ID#####COLO" VIN on the car is standard "JM1..."

 

that's some stupid **** if you can get a title in colorado with some made up numbers you randomly pick out. the VIN had to be verified at some point right? in every other state the VIN is verified once and then follows the title. even if the title is lost you would have to have the car re-verified.

basically you're screwed if the car is listed as stolen by the VIN or if it ever leaves the state and is checked on with the stolen title.

well i guess i know where i can go to get titles for the caterham(s) if i get hassled anywhere else!

 

Google suggests that the CO VIN would have been assigned for a reconstructed vehicle, not sure how that applies to your case.
At any rate, seems like the DMV should be able to tell you what that VIN actually means and how it affects a sale.

BTW Ben...
CO VIN verification (for which they charge $20) is a shambolic joke.
My GTU had a CA title and I needed to verify the VIN, they only look at the plate on the dash, not the number stamped on the firewall. I pointed out that the dash plate could be moved from car to car with little effort and suggested the permanently fixed firewall stamping would be more accurate...tech didn't care, hood stayed closed.
I was somewhat surprised.

 

yeah, it might be legitimate. just call the DMV and tell them you're checking on the conditions of a car for sale, they won't give you much info but they should at least tell you if the title can be used. BUT be sure to have them correlate both the actual VIN of the car and the VIN on the title, because DMV workers are lazy as hell and will give you the quickest and fastest response available, even if the answer isn't correct.

 

California was the same. they do a vin verification on every out of state car that comes in, which is dumb, but its free, so whatever. the for must be filled out by a DMV person, which is also fine, its a separate line, so there's no wait.

so i pull the Rx8 up, and she asks what kind of car it is, it pretty legibly says Mazda Rx8 all over everything. then she asks where the vin is. then she filled out the form wrong, and i had go back and do it again.

so i'm pretty sure i could have told her it was a 1947 enron side fiddle, MK1, vin number of rx-8 and she wouldn't have batted an eye.

 

Could be the title was lost by someone long ago. Car was sold or someone went through the process of doing a VIN check through law enforcement to make sure the car was never reported stolen. With that Vin check complete and a posted bond in case it ever did turn up stolen, some states will issue a bonded title with a state vin, that way the car can be legally registered. Don't be afraid to have cops come check it, or have motor vehicle department check it out. It's probably legit.

 

Sounds good, I'll call and find out for sure. I don't know why it didn't click when I was picking up the car... Probably because the guy made me stand around and wait for an hour...

 

I'm not worried about it, the loss will be minimal if it is all screwed up, and I'm sure I could take the seller to court for any losses incurred. I just wanted to know if someone here had dealt with anything like this. I plan on calling the DMV tomorrow now and, if they say they don't know what's up, I'll be calling CSP to come out and take a look at it.

 

Vin can be a messy deal when it comes to the state..but some county's have different regulations.

 

If it was me, I'd run a CarFax or similar check on the firewall VIN to see what pops up. Before contacting any state officials, I'd want to know what records are out there tied to that VIN. Well, actually, if it was me, I would have done that before buying the car.

 

Hey, so I called yesterday, but being a student and on spring break, I'm trying to cram EVERYTHING I've needed done for a while into this week and I got a little distracted. Anyway, when I called, the lady I spoke with said that everything with it was fine. The reason the state assigned a VIN could have been one of many reasons, not the least of which the dash VIN plate is broken off my car. But yeah, we're all good, I can register it, and then I can decide on what exactly I'm going to do with it.

 

Make sure when you transfer the title (first thing you'll do), you tell them the car will be non-operable for the foreseeable future and fill out the forms saying so.
In CO, you have 30 days from title transfer to register/tag the car and after that grace period, you pay a fine every month. If you declare it's non-op, the fines go away.

 

Clokker, thank you and I will definitely do that! No matter what, it's going to be down for at least the remainder of the year. I've debated on slapping one of the spare engines in it and making it work as a backup to my '85 GSL-SE, but I am really thinking that I would rather make it nice and have it look good, sound good, and perform perfectly before I use it as a "backup" to the other one. Although, at that point, I'm probably going to want to make it a trailer queen. Who knows, I've got a lot of thinking to do.