# US title for a car which was imported into Mexico nearly 10 years ago...



## MangoTango (Feb 8, 2020)

So I recently sold an SUV which we imported into Mexico nearly 10 years ago.
I provided the buyer with my permission to circulate, my pedimento, and a copy of my INE credential.

He called recently asking if I had the original title and bill-of-sale- from 2001.
I found those and a (knowledgeable) friend says - just give them to him.

BUT - in addition to the already completed 'Carta Responsiva' and signed away pedimento - he is asking for me to 
sign the US title as though we were completing the sale in the US. He feels the US title is still valid.

The US couple who purchased the car seem like very nice people. It is just that at this point-in-time my life is 
filled with so many 'cans of worms' related to my wife's estate that I am already barely sleeping, have no appetite
and feel nausea most of the time. 

Any thoughts/suggestions appreciated.


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## eastwind (Jun 18, 2016)

I know of two issues you can get into when you sell a car. Long ago (this was around 1982) my dad had an old 1968 clunker which he sold to a contractor who had promised his workers (in Virginia) that he'd get them back to Mexico. The contractor paid Dad $250 for this car and gave it to the workers to drive. It got most of the way through Virginia before dying, they left it on the side of the interstate, and eventually the state came after my dad for towing charges because he was the last owner of that VIN they had on file. He didn't have to pay, he just said he'd sold it, or else he gave up salvage rights in exchange for not paying for the tow, or something. 

The other issue is I sold my old clunker just before moving to Mexico. It was a basket case car, needed work, and there was a poor guy who I befriended and I ended up selling it to him for $1. Probably that was a $500 gift, but whatever, I didn't have time to find a real buyer. He did some work on the brakes, got it back operational, but couldn't afford to pay the fee to change the plates to his name. (It was a couple hundred bucks he didn't have). So he just kept driving it with my old plates, racked up a bunch of camera-toll charges for the bridge, and eventually they came after me for the tolls. I signed some kind of official thing that I'd sold the car and sent it back to them and that was that. (At that point he had the title, I'd signed it over to him, and had no proof of actually having sold him the car, but they accepted my word for it, so I think I was fortunate).

So maybe there would be some point in signing the title over to your buyer, getting him to sign too if there's a place on the title for the buyer to sign, and then you keep a scan or paper copy of it just in case. But I think it's very unlikely you'll ever need the scan, unless he tries to un-export the car back into the US. I am less sure that about whether some Mexican authority might want your buyer to produce the title, but I don't think it will hurt you for him to have it (once you've gotten your money).

I think this falls under 'pick your battles'. It's not hard or (I think) exessively risky for you to give him what he wants, so do it, and keep a copy and move on.


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