Well, I had the same issue -- even better, my car crossed into the USA from Canada with the wrong VIN on the paperwork.... Worse the Province of Saskatchewan doesn't issue Titles so nothing to correct. I went to my DMV and said to the person at the desk "who is the person that straightens out messes?? Because I have one...." They immediately pointed to one guy..."get in his line." I asked the guy -- "what exactly do you need to make this work for you?? After some soul searching he told me what kind of letter he needed to make it work. I went to the prior owner and the Saskatchewan DMV (they were exceedingly helpful) and we got it squared away. I went back to the exact guy with the paperwork required and I was all set. I think the key is to make it clear to MD that you won't leave until someone offers you a plan to resolve. Someone there knows what it takes to make it go away.
My cousin sold his GTO Tri Power 4-speed Convert, received funds, shipped it across the country. Buyer brings the car to the DMV in that state and they say they cannot register it because the VIN tag on the door has an extra "1" at the end, not shown on the title. Turned in to a big mess that they could not resolve, cousin sent him his money back and shipped the car back across the country, he now has it and it appears that when the car was restored 30 years ago the resto company ordered a new VIN plate with this extra stamped "1" on it because the old one was broken during resto. This was never an issue or even caught with prior owners. He now has to jump through hoops to try and figure it out, not a cheap car to be stuck with either.
I had to deal with exactly the same problem myself as the buyer. I purchased the car with the original 1960 title (Missouri ) in the original owners name. The last two digits of the VIN were seven sequences off. It’s my believe that accidentally either a typo from the DMV or the dealer accidentally issued A title for a different car on the lot. The VIN was never checked even one time for 25 years in the original owners care. He was able to plate the car every year because it’s something that no one would’ve checked. In Colorado any vehicle being registered with an out-of-state title requires a VIN verification. I could do nothing with that title at Colorado DMV. The original owner was deceased so a dead end on that side. I wound up having to Bond title the car in Colorado which really wasn’t that difficult of a process. I liked the car and was willing to go through the process. I’m assuming the purchaser of your car likes the vehicle and would rather keep it. Maybe he would entertain going through the same process if you were willing to pay the fees(?) it wasn’t that expensive for me I think I spent around $300 for the whole process. Steve weim55 Colorado
I had the same issue once, it’s always a pain to get it straightened out. Now I read the title close before putting it away.
Struck out again....did exactly what the lady told me on Monday: get a letter from Idaho saying they made a mistake. Get a different lady this time and she said no go and "who told you that?" She said need corrected Idaho title. I said we went thru that can't since a Maryland title already exits Idaho can't issue. This is getting old ...going to MVA twice in one week in a pandemic.
This is why I went the bond title route. Colorado, the state I live in would not move anywhere with the situation without going back to Missouri to try to obtain title there first. Obviously, there was no title anywhere with the ‘correct’ VIN#, same as your case. this is a longshot, but I’m wondering if you might be able to talk with somebody in the state patrol vehicle division that could look up the Vin number that is on your title and then compare to all Buick models for that year. Correct me if I’m wrong but there will not be ANY GM models for that model year that match the first six digits on your title proving that it must be a typo. Wondering if you might be able to get a letter from them to straighten that out? OR: anyway you can go back in state title history owner by owner and possibly find where the typo happened? Do you have a stack of old registrations that might show the timeline? Some states keep for history vehicle transactions decades back...... Steve weim55 Colorado
I pointed her out to them and asked for a supervisor. I'm working with previous owner to see if he can get a new Idaho title. It won't conflict with my Maryland title if it has the correct number. Then he can sign it and I can get a MD title and act like the bogus MD and Idaho titles never existed. But it makes too much sense so unlikely to happen.......
Latest is Idaho says it might not have been their error so not their problem. Good news is that state police in MD can do a vin verification but they need to see car in person. No pics or tracings allowed. So that means I have to get car from NJ with trailer and drag to MVA headquarters so they can look at it and drag it back to NJ.
Its just hard to conceive that anybody would have you go thru all that to right a problem that you didn't create.
Maryland is now saying they need an ORIGINAL letter of correction. Printing an email version even with letterhead no good. Even showed them the email string and the guy who signed it phone number. I said maybe you could call him in Idaho. She laughed and shoved all the paper work back to me and said: next.
