Wrong VIN on Title

I am looking to buy a 1975 CJ5 (I live in NC) from a guy in SC, and I noticed that the VIN on the title does not match the VIN on the jeep. He said he never even looked at the title when he bought it 2 years ago and wasn't even aware of this issue. There are 2 characters that don't match up, but everything else is good. Has anyone ever ran into this type of issue? If so, how do I need to handle it?

 

Could be a typographic error, depending on the differences. A 1975 Jeep VIN will always start with "J5", and that has to match. The last 6 (?) digits of the VIN are the sequential serial number, and those have to match.

If the serial numbers do not match, I would not touch it unless I could run a check on both VINs.

If only a couple of characters outside the serial number do not match (sp. a typo), I would ask at the registry about how to handle it... before I bought the Jeep.

hth!

Welcome from Boston.

 

My son was given a jeep by my Father in Law, he had purchased 2 Jeeps 1 for a driver and 1 for parts, When he gave my son the Jeep he gave him what he thought was the correct title and threw the other one away. We didn't discover the error until several months later when we tried to register it. It was a PIT#. We had to start from scratch, purchase a bond get a certified vin inspection send registered letters and have a NCIS search.
Some states dont issue a title if the vehicle is over 10 years old just issue a registration so it can really vary from state to state.
As Tim said check with your state MVD before ploping down any cash.

 

I had New Mexico leave off 3 numbers on mine.
Took the Jeep in and thay did a VIN inspection and sent all the info to Santa fe for a replacement title.
Took about 4 weeks.

When I bought the Jeep the 3 numbers were missing from the title. I did not look at it close, it was 3 in the middle.

Now this id New Mexico and thay will do almost anything with titles.


Andrew

 

i say dont open a can of worms with the dmv if its not nessessary! My 46 2a numbers totally didnt match but i just registered it with whatever was on the title from the previous owner and it all went through fine.

 

Tell the current owner to get a corrected title. Should not be a problem.

 

Thanks everyone for the responses. The original owner is supposed to be getting it fixed right now.

 

yup if you were to get it fixed youd have to go back to him anyway

 

Registered a Bronco in Mi I bought in PA. DMV only asked for bill of sale, not title. They didn't want it. Said they didn't need it with a B.O.S. May be the same for you. Call and ask what you need to bring to them when you buy a vehicle out of state.

 

NC will want the title. They asked for mine when I registered my '71