QuestionQUESTION: hi Jay,
I bought 91 GT Mustang 5.0 from private dealer. pink slip looked clean, did not state salvage on it. carfax showed clean title. i paid 3k. at dmv it turns out it is a salvage car (had been in accident) and was not registered since then. we now need to register car as salvage vehicle. passed break light inspection, but at 'smog test only' we were told the edelbrock intake manifold has been put in there for more power and won't pass. it doesn't have labels/numbers. also, we need to take it to chp for certification, but if they see parts without numbers on it will they impound car? it would cost a bunch to put a regular manifold in the car just so it can pass these certifications. is there a place we can get labels for it? also dmv couldn't find emission label when we first tried to register it. this is why they are sending us for chp inspection. please help, we didn't know and don't want to lose car it runs very well. what will chp look for in the inspection? if they look for stolen parts how can we know, there are no labels. also we need it to pass smog and finally get it registered. thanks!
ANSWER: Well gauging from what you have said, it sounds as though you are in California. I am unfamiliar with all their rules on this sort of stuff, I know they are pretty stringent. But looking at this whole situation on the outside, I would probably think of going a different direction and maybe checking into the legalities of pressing charges on the persons whom you purchased the car from. There is just to much "squirley" business that has already happened, and it sounds that as you progress through this it is probably going to get a lot worse. I mean, first and foremost, selling a salvage car, without making you aware of it is a big NO NO, in my opinion. Now you have illegal parts on a car with no labels....BIG RED FLAG. See a salvage title does not necessarily mean it was wrecked, it can also mean that the car was stolen, and turned in to an insurance company as a complete loss, which in turn is a insurance dated/salvage title. So now you have a chance this car was stolen, or maybe parts on this car is from other stolen vehicles from chop shops and such. And carfax is not 100% accurate, but it might explain why no records of what happened to this car ever got reported to a police agency, and then out of the blue, here is this car. My thought would be it was probably stolen some time ago, they let the dust settle, and now they are trying to sell it. And I could be way off base with this, but that is just my first intuition. I dont know californias laws and regulations, but I would just try to find a way out, before the real troubles begin, probably when the chp does their inspection. You should be able to replace that car, LEGALLY, for a lot less than what it appears you are fixing to spend, trying to make this crazy situation legal.
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QUESTION: Jay, thanks for your answer. Yes, we are in California.
We found the ad on craigslist. The phone# of this guy is now disconnected. The pink slip is not in his name, he said he was selling the car for his friend. DMV did tell us the car was salvaged due to being totalled. Would they not know if it had been stolen?
It is so sad cause I am a single parent trying to help my son get his first car, and everything seemed fine. We just don't have much money and that was all I could do for him. Now there might be stolen parts in this car, but maybe they are not stolen. The guy at the smog check told us many young kids like to 'upgrade' the cars so it will go faster. He also told us that CHP generally just looks at the vin# not at all the parts. Could you verify? Or will they take the car away due to parts without labels?
It took me so long to save this money and I feel like we did everything right except we did not bring a mechanic to check out the car before buying it. I should have saved more money and brought one along. Ok, well thanks, and if you know the CHP procedure pls let me know. And are you sure DMV wouldn't know that it is a stolen car?
Thanks for all your time
AnswerI am unfamiliar with the CHP procedures but here is what I think in a nutshell. The DMV should know if a car was stolen, so I would think you should be ok in that department. And I just cant see how they could do anything about a car having stolen parts, I mean, how would they know? Kids do a lot of upgrades, especially on those cars, and I would proceed with the CHP inspection. I think that if a red flag was going to come up, it already would have. I hope all goes well.
