Maybe you guys can help as I'm a little inexperienced... I purchased a 94 FD back in the end of last August '07 from a dealer in San Diego, Ca. Its now approaching the middle of June '08 and I still do not have plates for the car. The loan company I used called me saying my loan was in danger of defaulting even though I've never had a late payment due to the fact that their name is not specified as the lien holder on the vehicle. I explained to them that the dealer told me when I purchased the car that he would take care of registering the vehicle and getting the plates for me. The rep at the loan company took it upon herself to call the dealer and find out what was going on. She got back to me saying that he was in fact working on it and faxed paperwork showing that he was. She explained that he had lost the title for the vehicle and in the meantime had problems with his bond with the state and needed to fix that error before he could get the title for my car. He sends me a registration sticker for my back window every effin month and only after I call him at least twice. Is this normal?? Am I being jerked around?? wtf. Ten months with no friggin plates. Is there anything I can possibly do besides sit and wait for God knows how much longer? Thanks in advance guys and gals. This is the first car I've bought on my own so I'm a little inexperienced with things like this so go easy on me. It seems weird to me that a dealer can sell a car without having a title for it and maybe that was something he should have told me from the start. Thanks again advance.

Sev.

 

wow, sound like you should have never bought the car from that place in the first place, that is totally BS.. 10 months and no plates? WTF....

 

You are getting jerked around for some reason or another. I've had custom plates at my doorstep in less than 3 months, and regular plates are within a few weeks.

Something is up. I really don't know where the best place to start, but maybe the DMV, or call a lawyer or someone that can handle something like this and get a few people riding that dealers *** to get them moving. I know things can go wrong, but waiting almost a year just to be issued plates is assinine on their part. Makes me wonder if he even had a title to begin with.

 

Sounds to me as if you might want to contact the State of CA. I would first check with the state agency responsible for registrations and titles, and then file a complaint with the AG's office and/or the agency responsible for licensure of auto dealers. I'm assuming that you are already dealing with the owner of the dealership.

 

What dealer in San Diego did you buy the car from?

 

yeah, we can take action!

 

Get a bill of sale from the guy, take it to the DMV, have them issue a replacement title in your name, and then register it yourself. Simple really.

 

No, not that simple. I bought my FD in MO. I drove it to WA. It took forever for me to get a copy of the cleared title after the PO's lender was paid off. WA state would NOT allow me to register it without title. Even with a bill of sale, they would not issue me a title until they got a cleared title from the prior lien holder. I had to just wait.

 

Is the dealer's name Mr. Rx7?

 

oh please tell me no...

 

Hey guys.. sry I been busy as ***** all week. Thanks for all your replies. Apparently the car was previously titled in Texas. Im guessin thats why its not as easy as just hittin the DMV with the bill of sale. Thanks for the suggestion though. Im really not sure if the dealers on here as Mr. Rx7 to be honest but I know for a fact that he browses the forum because we spoke about it a little when I purchased the FD. Also when I purchased the vehicle I threw in a bunch of parts for the car which were delivered to him. The last of the parts (which was backordered forever) just arrived so Ill be picking them up in about a week... so.... I really dont want to shout out the dealerships name on this thread just yet till I have whats mine in my possession because who knows, ya know? Hope you guys understand. But soon as I get what I paid for I will MOST DEFINATELY update you guys. Dont want anyone else on here going through the same crap I am. Again thanks for the help guys. Im gonna try callin up the state and dmv to see if they can give some insight because this is ridiculous already.

Sev.

 

Call the DMV. I have a friend who got them to start harassing the dealership until it got the title to his car.

Unless I'm completely off my rocker, the bill of sale shows that ownership has been transfered. So, either you get the title or your money back.

 

Being a Texas car has nothing to do with your long wait. I bought my FD from Texas, took it to the DMV here in So. Cal for a quick inspection, smogged it and had my plates in no time. I thought it was going to be harder to register here but it was just as easy as registering a car you bought here. I actually had the pink slip showing I was the new owner when I registered it.

10 months is a long time to wait for plates. I'd ask the DMV or even a CHP office about it. Even those car registration places you see advertised can help you out. I've deal with them in the past and they've given me more info than the DMV when I've had questions about cars. Go to one of those places and tell them whats happening. They dont have long wait times like the DMV and in my experience, they're way more helpful than the DMV is.

Good luck.

 

to get a duplicate title it takes nothing in reality.The last owner needs to be contacted by the dealership,and the forms for a duplicate can be mailed to the customer,he/she signs it,and done.Here is the most likely reason(s) the dealership cant supply your title:

The dealership vehicles are on floor plan,meaning their money to buy vehicles comes from a company that lends them the moneymthus they hold the title.If the dealership is backed up on paying the floorplan company,titles are held,yes for that long.

The dealership sold you a vehicle that does not belong to them therefore having no title and probably havent payed the original owner so they wont release title.

The dealership DOES have the title but maybe doesnt have a signature(it happens)It takes the dealership a while to produce title because they are lazy and its an out of state title,which max it takes a month to switch over.

In any of those cases the dealership CAN have a copy of the title,which is probably what they have and they sent over to the finance company as proof of ownership.Now the finance company wants the title itself and they too are getting the runaround.Your choices are simple but some of them may come with consequences....get ready for this one,sit tight;

It is illegal to issue registrations(temps)on the vehicle that has not switched ownership every month,it can cost the dealership its license and possibly a shut down after a nice long investigation by motor vehicle.Contacting an attorney is not worth it because there are better ways and free that you can get this resolved to your liking,or to your loss.You can call Consumer Affairs that handles San Diego and tell them what is going on and they will place a call to the dealership after you provide them information on your purchase and the tag delay.This method,however might leave you without a car because if the dealership does not provide you the title nor tags,the car would have to be returned and the sale would be null and void,with the dealership having to reimburse you SOME of the money paid towards the car,MINUS mileage,use on car(yes they can do that).You can also contact DMV in San Diego and tell them the same thing about your tags and that would spark up an investigation INSIDE the dealership,causing either your title to show up mysteriously,or,again,getting a refund on your purchase.

Whew!!after all that,best thing to do is call the dealership,tell them that there is no way youll be able to wait any longet and that you see no other option but to call Consumer Affairs AND DMV to file a complaint about your tags,title,and to ask them(Consumer Affairs and DMV)if its legal to be issued registrations every month,which should scare the crap out of them.Good luck with whatever it is you choose to do.

P.S.you dont have to take my advice,ive only been in the car business 15 years -=)

 

Like gafu Mazda said, it is illegal to keep driving a car on temporary tags. I found this out when I bought my truck and was in the same situation you are right now. It was the better part of a year before I got the title to my truck from a dealership in new jersey ( mercerville motorsports for anyone whos interested, shady *** dealership to say the least!) and to keep stringing me along everytime I bugged them (a few times) they would send me another temp tag so I could keep driving the car. When I finally did get the title and took it in to transfer into my name I was shootin' the **** with the clerk and mentioned how they had sent me so many temporary tags, she told me it was actually illegal to drive on a temp tag after 30 days and that them sending me MORE was extremely illegal.

If I were you I would stop driving on those tags if you have another form of transportation available. The SOS here in MI told me that if an officer had "busted" me driving on those temp tags that they would have been able to impound the truck and I would have been hit with a pretty hefty fine.

How I finally got my title was reporting the dealership to the BBB and the IC3. Within a week of filing the report the title as at my doorstep! Although the followthrough of the BBB is not that great because I was also trying to recoupe some money from repairs I had to have done on the truck (reliability repairs, as well as cosmetic) that were blatently lied about in the ad, and after a couple months I just stopped hearing from the BBB, they didn't even let me know if the case was closed or not. You can state in your claim that the only resolution you want is to have the title sent to you. They have an option for others (reimbursement, etc) but you can specifically state that giving the car back is NOT an option for you.

 

Cant tell you guys how much I appreciate your help. Looks like my lunch break monday is gonna be callin the DMV and a couple of other places. Im gonna give the 7 a rest since the temp tags situation is illegal and with gas the way it is I cant afford tickets or impound, hehe. I have a G20 I drove over here from Jersey which hasnt given me one problem yet so thank god for that. Honestly at this point I dont even mind giving the car back. He tried to sell it to me for a ridiculous amount but once I had the compression test done on it lets just say I got him to lower the price CONSIDERABLY and I bought it as a project looking for a rebuild by the end of this summer, but I wouldnt mind taking my time and getting another with lower miles. But whichever way it works out, title or reimbursement, I'll be happy. Just want to be done with the jerkoff and have everything straight. Its awesome that us rotary heads have a spot like this with members like this to go to for questions. With that being said, thanks again and I'll definately keep you guys posted.

Sev.

 

here in Texas a new car dealer (Nissans) was holding up registrations. What really was going on was that he was not forwarding sales tax money to the state so ofcource they couldn't regs the car. Along with other scams against Nissan Finance, they including some family of owner and some unlucky salesmen ended up in federal prison. The mastermind CFO walked letting her two brothers take the hit.

 

hopefully you called DMV as well as Consumer Affairs.Its ok to call the BBB,but if theyre not a member there is nothing they can do other than post a complint,thats about it.Keep us posted with whats happening and its probably best to just return the car if youre not attached to it.Good Luck

 

Contact a DMV Investigator at your local DMV. They are responsible for investigating complaints against dealers. I had some issues with a manager at a local dealer and when I mentioned that I had talked to a DMV Investigator he stopped stonewalling in seconds.

 

Not a member? The BBB is an intermediate resolution resource, nobody has to be a "member" of anything. They start a profile on that specific business/dealership and open up the claim (good or bad). You submit your complaint and what you want to see done, they forward that information to the business and allow a reasonable amount of time for them to respond with an offer. At that point the business will either cave to what you want, deny any responsibility and refuse to deal, send back a counter offer (which you need to decide is acceptable or not), or just not respond at all. At that point the BBB will complete their report and post it up on their webpage for other people to see. If you aren't using them to file a claim they are basically just a resource, people can look up that particular business and see if they have good or bad reviews, and most importantly how all of the issues were handled. The BBB cannot force any business to do anything, they can merely intimidate them with the reasonable amount of influence they have on the market, somestimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.

 

What I meant in reality was accredited business,and what I meant you hit at the end of your post.BBB is just an intimidation tool that is not necessary to respond to by law.DMV,and Consumer Affairs on the other hand are,which is the best way to go,with no choices but for the business to take care of the problem or face fine(s).