I don't think that there is an ethical issue here, as your motives are
honest, as are most of the motives of the potential buyers. After all, how
many of us have had, or passed on, a car that lacks documentation. The
problem is that as Barney put it, ethics aren't the issue, legality is. The
fact of the matter is that selling the vin and docs is illegal, even though
the reasoning behind it is just. The legal way to solve the lack of title
problem is to follow your states version of claiming ownership of an
undocumented car. In a lot of states this is a title bonding process.
What Barney discusses is a fact of life in vintage cars, and is the reason
that there are two documented vehicles representing the same very special
car. It occasionally happens when a very valuable car is totaled
(especially early race cars) and two people restore a car that includes some
of the original parts and each claims to be the original car.
James Nazarian
71 MGBGT V8
71 MGB Tourer
-----Original Message-----
From: owner-mgs@autox.team.net [mailto:owner-mgs@autox.team.net] On Behalf
Of Bill McLeod
Sent: Monday, April 26, 2004 8:38 PM
To: MG list
Subject: Re: '64 & '73 MGB Title and ID plates for sale
Well, I'll chip in with my .02 worth.....
I have bought many LBC's over the years out of peoples' back yards which
had been sitting forever but for which the paperwork was "around here
somewhere, but we don't know where Gramps put it." I had no doubt that
the ownership claim was valid, but the paperwork was gone and the car
had dropped out of the computer system long since. Many of these cars
were repairable and restorable. Other cars which were really nothing
but parts collections came with titles which left me with a file full of
Triumph and MG titles and number plates for cars which I had parted out.
I don't find any ethical problem with resolving the resultant
difficulties with Occam's famous razor!
Bill
Slightly Classics
Tucson
>>Beyond the
>>legal ramifications, there's also the ethical issue.
>>
>>
>
>No question. Buying titles and ID plates is a popular
>way to "clean" stolen cars. Or, they could be used to
>eliminate the evidence of a salvage title when a car
>is totalled...
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