I looked through autotrader and found a car I like. Price, conditions, title, etc. were all good. I took it for a spin and I'm set to get it, but when I asked the seller about the title and ownership, it suddenly became complicated.

Seller is asking $7,500.
Seller owns Ford Motor Co. credit $8,000.

Seller claims she doesn't have the money to pay off the loan, so she'd like me to pay her $7,500, she'll come up with $500 and the creditor will give her the title. She said she will write me a bill of sale and the car as soon as I give her the money and that she will transafer the title as soon as the title is transferred to her from the creditor.

This seems risky to me, but if I could work out the ownership transfer safely, I'd like to get the car.

There are a few risk I can foresee and they're:
she won't pay off the car and she'll run off with my money.
she will pay it off, but won't transfer the title
bill of sale may not be an adequate proof of transfer of ownership if she doesn't have the title to the vehicle.


Any idea how you'd go about buying a car from a private party who still owes money on the car you're trying to buy?

Bill of sale is fine if you have a witness. I'd have them come up with the $500 then go to Ford with them. Otherwise your choises are to buy the car for $8K or keep looking.

if she doesn't give you the title you have numerous legal resources, namely, you can sue her for $7500 or a court order giving you the title. The hard part is sometimes people are hard to find to sue.

I agree with everyone so far. Before you continue though, you need to see a copy of the title to be sure that there are no other lienholders. Sometimes people say they own the vehicle and they "forget" that their spouse or friend owns a part too. You need to do this transaction at Ford Credit with the two of you. You need to get title and take possession of the car immediately after you transfer the money. Of course, you have legal recourse if you do differently but a LOT of work would be involved that way.