Need some advice on a car purchase (Already bought it, just having issues)

[Sentientbydesign]

I'm going to try to get all of the detail in here without writing a book.

Here's what happened:

Wife wanted an Evo. I started looking around. Couldn't find one for a decent price, finally called a local tuning shop and asked if they had any for sale. They said they had a Salvaged titled 04 for $13k. I did a bunch more research and found that I'd be paying about twice the interest rate due to the salvage title because no bank would give me $13k to buy the car due to the title.

Asked the shop if they'd drop the price, they said "Absolutely not". I said thanks, I'd love to buy it, but the price is high for a salvaged car and the 9.5% interest rate on a Signature Loan made it unreasonable for us to purchase it.

PMed the shop a week or so later and asked if it was still around and was told that it was and that they talked it over and could lower the price for us.

I call and it turns out that they are willing to lower the price down to $11k. AWESOME! BUT...they also want me to design a website for them...hmmm. Ok. Sure. When it comes to signing the bill of sale, they want the website to be valued at $2k and if I default that they get the $2k.

So much for lowering the price of the car...

My dumb a** forgets to check on the registration status of the car. After we buy it and drive it home, we get a ticket on the way to AAA because the registration is past due, plus there are penalties. Cop said that he was supposed to impound the car because the registration was 6 months past due, but believed that we were going to AAA to register it so he let us go with a fix it ticket.

AAA can't help us (salvage title), so the car sits over the weekend parked. Monday my wife goes to the DMV and they tell her that the fees are $843 (we structured the sale so that the car was only $3k and the rest was for repairs, kind of shady, but not really that bad). Of that $843, only about $300 of it is tax, title, and transfer. The rest is registration, back registration, VLF, multiple penalties, salvage certificate, replacement plates...etc.

On top of that, a form needs to be filled out by the seller for the salvage cert...

I go back to the shop and they don't want to pay the fees. As far as they're concerned, the car was going to be kept on the track so they'd never have to deal with those fees (a simple planned non-op would have saved about $400). We finally agreed on them paying $200 which covered the penalties and the salvage cert. Didn't cover the lack of registration or the VLF or any of the other misc fees.

While this is happening, I notice that the brakes are squealing (I complained about the rotor condition when we bought it, and they got upset and said that I basically didn't know Evo brakes and that they were fine). I do some research and find out that pads were swapped without so much as scruffing the rotor surface. Also the rear passenger side rotor has multiple deep grooves in it.

I go back to the DMV on one of my "furlough days" and try to get the registration taken care of and still can't complete it. The title transfer between the original owner and the shop was done half-assed and there needed to be another signature between the original owner and the shop. Also, the bill of sale that we have between the shop and us doesn't have the odometer reading on it, so we need 2 bills of sale now. Total payment to DMV was $722 with some begging for the penalties to be lowered/dropped.

So $722-$200 still leaves me with $522 in fees. Which is about $222 higher than I should have paid. Plus about 6-7 hours out of our lives sitting at the DMV.

I contact the shop and let them know about the bills of sale and the hell with the DMV. They say sorry and that they'd take care of the bills of sale, BUT the $200 they gave me is all they budgeted for and if the DMV asks for sales tax on the original sale between the original seller and them that they won't be ok with that.

So here's the break down.

First I was tricked into thinking that the price of the car was lowered.Then I get hit with DMV fines and fees that should have been taken care of already.Then I get hit with $160 + my labor to replace the rear brakesI have a contract that says that they owe us a rear wing and it will be on by March 5th (still no wing)I will have to drive to La Habra and pay $50 for the water diverter and heat shielding for the hood.

I was also told that I'd either need to wait longer for the wing OR take the "going rate" for one and look for it myself. The going rate according to them is $100. Dealer price is $1200... I found one for $200, but I have to drive down to San Diego for it...

What do you guys think of this situation?

Another $2k-$3k and a TON less headaches would have yielded a clean title evo.

Just a few items regarding the car:89k miles on the chassis.22k miles on engineRebuilt Transfer CaseWhite 04 SSL (Sun, Sound, Leather)Carbon Fiber HoodCF Canards on a IX front bumperPowder coated stock wheelsCamsTuned to 302 hp.

[s0m3th1ngAZ]

Jesus Christ...That really sucks man...but I've never had registration problems to that extent.I would try different DMV's and talking to a specialist...not a desk drone.And props for your girl wanting an Evo haha.

[Doc750]

sorry you learned the hard way, but this is what your dealing with on a salvage title vehicle. Yes you get a price drop, but it requires a lot of leg work on your part to make it all work.

I had a sc400 I got for $2500 that took about a month to get all the paper work straightened out. Was able to sell it for $4k 6 months later.