advice on selling a car with a loan? - PeachParts Mercedes-Benz Forum

Johnhef · #1 05-21-2007, 10:47 PM

My girlfriend needs to sell her car, a 2006 PT cruiser and we're getting her a 300D for the time being.
I've never owned a "new"car, let alone tried to sell one that you're still paying a loan on. How would we go about selling it?

POS · #2 05-21-2007, 10:53 PM

You tell the Buyer you still owe on it. You write up a Bill of Sale that lists the VIN, the date, the money, the parties, and everyone signs it. If they are financing the car, their bank will pay off your note and give you the difference. Then they'll get title from your lienholder. If they aren't financing the car, you get the check, pay off the note immediately, get the title, and give it to the Buyer.

diametricalbenz · #3 05-21-2007, 10:55 PM

1. Find out how much is left on the loan and or if there are any prepayment penalties.

2. Sell the car for more than the loan or as much as possible and enjoy payment-less vehicle 300D ownership!

Johnhef · #4 05-21-2007, 11:01 PM

I was thinking about that, but when new owner comes to claim the vehicle how would you go about dealing with the title? have them wait for it after paying off the loan with their money?

t walgamuth · #5 05-21-2007, 11:16 PM

you take their money, give a bill of sale and the car, pay off your loan, get the title from your lender, sign off on the title and send it along to the new owner. if it is during regular banking hours you may be able to do it all in an hour or so, otherwise you may need to mail the title to them. dealers do it all the time.

take your plate off the car before turning it over.

tell your insurance company to cancel the insurance after you sign over the title and give possession of the car to the new seller.

get cash.

tom w

POS · #6 05-22-2007, 08:44 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by t walgamuth

take your plate off the car before turning it over.
tom w

That's a really good idea; you need to do that in conjunction with the Bill of Sale. If the new owner gets into an accident in his new car before the papework has caught up to it, you will be the "owner" of the car still. With the plates off, he's forced to get it reregistered quickly, and if he doesn't, you still have the Bill of Sale to prove that you sold the car.

Stong advice to do both.

t walgamuth · #7 05-22-2007, 05:18 PM

yep

tom w

sixto · #8 05-23-2007, 01:30 AM

It gets a little tricky with paperless titles. The buyer has to have faith that the system will provide a title for the money he/she's paid. And how does he/she register the car until a title is available? If you take the plates, he/she might not even be able to get the car home. Personally, I wouldn't buy a car from a private party unless an official title document is immediately available when I fork over my money. I'm never really sure a hardcopy title is legit until the DMV accepts it to transfer ownership.

Sixto
93 300SD 3.0

t walgamuth · #9 05-23-2007, 06:24 AM

here, you are legal to just bolt on your old plate for 30 days. have a copy of the bill of sale in case you are stopped though.

yeah, it is good to at least look at the title and hold it in your hands, but if the car has a loan on it that will be impossible.

but if you do the transaction during regular business hours you should be able to go to their bank and get the title immediately.

tom w

sixto · #10 05-23-2007, 11:03 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by t walgamuth

if you do the transaction during regular business hours you should be able to go to their bank and get the title immediately.

Agreed, but more and more financing, in California at least, is done with paperless titles. There is no physical copy of the title at any institution location to put in your hands even if you pay off the loan in dollar bills. You have to assume that institution is the only lien holder.

Sixto
93 300SD 3.0

TX76513 · #11 05-23-2007, 11:13 AM

If you have the old fashion friendly bank they will be more than happy to set down with you and the buyer and walk you through all the paperwork including notary work. This is in the banks best interest as well.

Brian Carlton · #12 05-23-2007, 12:14 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sixto

It gets a little tricky with paperless titles. The buyer has to have faith that the system will provide a title for the money he/she's paid. And how does he/she register the car until a title is available? If you take the plates, he/she might not even be able to get the car home. Personally, I wouldn't buy a car from a private party unless an official title document is immediately available when I fork over my money. I'm never really sure a hardcopy title is legit until the DMV accepts it to transfer ownership.

Sixto
93 300SD 3.0

I've seen this happen quite a few times with dealers. They take on a vehicle that has a lien and, obviously, they don't pay it off right away. When they sell it to you, they want the cash up front, but cannot produce a title for a couple of weeks. They must pay off the loan and wait for the bank to send them the title.

The entire business is unseemly. There is nothing that forces the dealer to payoff that loan. He walks away with the cash.......the original borrower is stuck with the loan.........and YOU are stuck with a vehicle that you can't title.

Ken300D · #13 05-23-2007, 01:30 PM

My advice would be to avoid accepting an electronic title as long as paper is still available. It's good to have something physical sometimes as proof of ownership.

My story: I tend to take cars in and out of the "mothball" fleet as the situation demands. Not long ago I wanted to re-register a car that had been off the road for several years. I walked into the Virginia DMV and the clerk started entering the details from my paperwork. After a few minutes she said "I can't find the title for this car in the system." I told her "you don't need to find the title, I've got it right here - look." Well of course that wasn't good enough, and she had to go get supervisor help to figure out how to retrieve the title information by some sort of extra query.

But imagine the difficulty I would have faced from this particular DMV_Nazi had I not had a PAPER title to wave in her face.

Also, the same advice goes for your tax return. File paper as long as it is legally allowed. They don't have the manpower to do data entry of every line item into the audit computer - you have much less chance of being audited when filing paper than when filing electronic.

Ken300D

sixto · #14 05-23-2007, 01:39 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ken300D

Also, the same advice goes for your tax return. File paper as long as it is legally allowed. They don't have the manpower to do data entry of every line item into the audit computer - you have much less chance of being audited when filing paper than when filing electronic.

And how! Seeing the electronic return summary puts the return in perspective - the half-inch stack you mail in translates to about as many digits contained in an MB data card, not to mention the two-inch stack you don't mail in.

Sixto
93 300SD 3.0