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I recently found an original bill of sale for a 1978 cutlass salon brougham 2 door bucket seat 4 speed with the VIN number. I quickly realized that it is impossible to research a 13 digit VIN number because it is pre 1980 so I am wandering if someone knows of a website or a person or place that I can take it to to find out if this car is still registered to someone or brought to a salvage yard and is scrapped. I don't have a "friend" at the DMV so I am out of luck there. My father purchased it brand new in 1978 when I was a kid and so it would be nice to at least know what happened to it and who knows maybe its sitting behind someones garage rotting somewhere. If anyone has any ideas let me know, Thanks.
Not sure how things work in MN but I would start with the local DMV office and see if you can find a friendly soul. You may need to write to the state DMV office. Once the car leaves the state, all bet are off as the new state has less love for sharing information with out of state inquires. Let us know what you find.
I managed to find out it was last registered in 2002 and it's in another state more than likely. I could I suppose call 49 dmv offices but I would think there would be a better way.
You need to find out what the steps are to obtain a title in your state for an abandoned vehicle. In some states its more trouble than its worth. Technically it is still owned by someone.
here in iowa they by law can not share this info with anyone not the owner.i ran into this 2 years ago.about 25 yrs ago i sold my 65 442 to a buddy.while setting in his driveway somebody stole his carb,distributor and alternator,so he went to put it in a buddies garage,when he went to move it the shifter was goofy,got checking it out and there was only one loose bolt holding the trans in,damn thieves.anyway he moved and i lost track of itlast i heard he was in prison,and i thought i heard he got a dui right after i sold it to him and he couldn't title it so i figured it might still be in my name so i went to the dmv and had them check.they came up with over 40 cars in my name.i told em it would be a 13 digit vin and start with 3.next day they called me and said they found it and they contacted the owner with my info.bout 3 weeks later he called me.same guy and still had it.and he lost his inside storage so had to keep it in his driveway and the cops saw it didn't have plates and made him register it/otherwise it still would have been in my name and i wouldn't know where it ended up.
you might try this with your dmv.tell them it was your dads car and you would like to see if you could buy it back and could they check the state database to see if the vin is still active.and if so if they could contact the owner.
You got lucky you found someone at dmv that would help. Everyone I talk to comes off like I'm waisting their time. It's a a good idea though, it's worth a try.
I am in nevada and have a 1976 olds cutlass S. Bought it from an estate Nevada lic plate But not titled in nevada so I need to find out where can I find a 13 digit Vin # look up with out knowing the state?
I am in nevada and have a 1976 olds cutlass S. Bought it from an estate Nevada lic plate But not titled in nevada
How was the car sold to you without a title? Without a title, how could the seller sell it? A title proves ownership. Without one how do you prove you own the car?
I recently found an original bill of sale for a 1978 cutlass salon brougham 2 door bucket seat 4 speed with the VIN number. I quickly realized that it is impossible to research a 13 digit VIN number because it is pre 1980 so I am wandering if someone knows of a website or a person or place that I can take it to to find out if this car is still registered to someone or brought to a salvage yard and is scrapped. I don't have a "friend" at the DMV so I am out of luck there. My father purchased it brand new in 1978 when I was a kid and so it would be nice to at least know what happened to it and who knows maybe its sitting behind someones garage rotting somewhere. If anyone has any ideas let me know, Thanks.
I don't think you have any chance of finding it. I tried the 13 digits of my 75 jeep and got nothing. I then entered the vin number of my 87 olds and I got everything about the vehicle but the color or where it is in the world. I don't know if they would give you the current owner but Carfax will run the background on a 17 digit vin for 40 bucks. You might talk to them and see if they can work with a 13 digit vin and give you the info you are looking for.
How was the car sold to you without a title? Without a title, how could the seller sell it? A title proves ownership. Without one how do you prove you own the car?
NH doesnt have titles onlots of vehicles (i would guess mostly older ones)
Until maybe 1990s ish Mass didnt require titles on older vehicles.
I doubt carfax will do anything with a 13-digit VIN. That would mean it was a pre-1981 car, now 40 years old. For the kind of customer carfax sells its services to, which is people researching late and late-ish model used cars to find out their service and accident history, there's just not enough demand to justify investing in what would be needed to have info about pre-1981 cars. Anyone researching a 40+ year old car isn't generally interested in whether the car has been in an accident. Rather, they're more likely to be interested in what the OP is interested in, and that's prior owners, which carfax won't give you.
One thing the OP can do with his VIN is spend time at the websites of the state DMVs to see if VINs can be researched at all. For example, Ohio will let you enter a VIN, and you will be told if a car with that VIN was ever titled in the state. If it is currently titled in the state, it will tell you which county the car is titled in. But that's it. They won't tell you anything about who owns the car or anything like that. But at least you'd know the car still exists, which would satisfy your curiosity, if nothing else. But this only does Ohio. If the search turns up nothing, it's on to the next state, and I don't know which states allow this and which don't.
Here's an example of what the Ohio site will give you. I can use that site because I lived in Ohio from 1983 through 2012. I owned a 1995 Pontiac Transport minivan from 1995 to 2001. I still have the VIN in my records, so I typed it in. This is what I got back.
It shows that the the most recent title for the vehicle was issued on June 2, 2016, and it shows the title as "active", which means the vehicle still exists, and it shows that it resides in county #3. You have to have a list of Ohio counties in alphabetical order because that's how they're numbered. Ohio county #3 is Ashland County, which is in the north central part of the state about 60 miles or so southwest of Cleveland. It also shows the mileage on the car at the time the title was issued, and it was 200,000. Pretty good! At the bottom it shows one previous title. The issue date of 12/6/01 is about when I traded the van in another vehicle. I remember it was during the fall of that year. That mileage of 97,090 sounds about right for what was on the car when I traded it. I'm guessing this means that the car was sold by the dealer to someone who lived in the same county I did. Apparently that person sold it in 2016 to the current owner. I don't know why the report does not show the originally-issued title when I bought it in 1995.
NH doesnt have titles onlots of vehicles (i would guess mostly older ones)
Until maybe 1990s ish Mass didnt require titles on older vehicles.
This could be a problem, though, depending on what state you want to register the car in. I know that some states don't require a title for a car beyond a certain age, but what that age is is not consistent from state to state. What would happen if I bought a car without a title in a state that didn't require a title for a car that age but I wanted to register it in a state that DOES require a title for a car that age? Will the new state accept the bill of sale as proof of ownership? I've never tried this.
I cant answer for all states but ive bought from Vermont and NH w no title and was able to reg in mass and received a new title in my name (after paying a fee of course)
I don't know about nowadays, but when I was in the Navy in the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard back in 1986, I lived in Dover, NH. Bought a 71 98 4 door for $75.00 right up the street and it had no tittle. Pretty decent shape for what it was. It had automatic climate controls, and there was a vacuum line that came off under the hood making it inoperable. Guy was frustrated he couldn't fix it as it only blew cold air, it was getting cold out, so he sold it "as is"- no heat, so he was practically giving it away. Needed new tires, and that's when I learned about fender skirt R&R on those big tanks.
I lucked out there on that car. I found the vacuum line loose, hooked it back up and boom...had heat. I had a bill of sale and a registration and that was that. I was able to register the car. I was dumbfounded that it didn't require a title, but at that time, they told me that a vehicle over 10 years old did not require a title. I guess they figured cars wouldn't last more than10 years and didn't want to worry about admin for those titles I guess.
Bought a 76 GMC 454 truck in Georgia in the 1990s. Same thing. The owner lost the title, but Georgia didn't require a title to sell an older vehicle, at least not then. I did have some issues with getting it titled in South Carolina though, as it hadn't been registered for a couple of years in Georgia. But I did have a notarized bill of sale and the "newest" expired registration, so they eventually gave me a title for it.
As for that Ohio website thing, I guess it only goes back so far. My 87 442 was sold new in Ohio to a woman around my age, and I am the 3rd owner. She still lives in the same town, I recently found out. But when I put in my VIN, it says it has no record.
That said, I doubt you'll have much luck hunting down the whereabouts of a 40 year old vehicle. But good luck. You never know when you'll strike gold.
You can put that VIN out here and we'll tell you all about it.
hello. I was wondering if you could help me find a car. Me and my husband want to restore it. And give it back to his father. Before he passes. We have been trying to find the car but the vin number is to short for any vin websites.
here's the vin BS23-HOB-425634 if you can help that would be amazing. Thank you for your time!.
hello. I was wondering if you could help me find a car. Me and my husband want to restore it. And give it back to his father. Before he passes. We have been trying to find the car but the vin number is to short for any vin websites.
here's the vin BS23-HOB-425634 if you can help that would be amazing. Thank you for your time!.
You're probably going to have more luck on a Chrysler site.
March 25th, 2019, 09:51 AM
