Help me own the car that I have owned for the last 10 years

July 13, 2015 2:42 PM

You have no idea the kind of self-shaming feedback loop this has been causing me. I've had, and continue to have, immense internal resistance to fixing this problem, but I must fix it and need your help. When I bought and financed my car 10 years ago, the financing dept got my last name wrong. It has been wrong on my registration and title (since I paid it off 5 years ago) ever since. I'm looking to trade this car in for a new one and need to get this fixed. How?

One thought I had was "selling" it from my wrong name to my real name, but this seems weird and probably not legal.

I honestly have no idea why I haven't found it within myself to just get it done, but every time I even think about it I start sweating and mumbling "Idiot" to myself. Any tips on how I can make this right? In California.

posted by bluejayway to Work & Money (8 answers total)

Is it a misspelling? My husband's last name is misspelled on our car's title and the DMV told me he just needs to stop by in person with his driver's license (he hasn't yet). This is in California.

I've been in that loop and I completely empathize. Be kind to yourself and realize that you are not alone, many many people have these weird administrative obstacles come up that they aren't sure how to solve.
posted by JenMarie at 2:44 PM on July 13, 2015 [3 favorites]

Assuming you have the title, there is a form for this and it's straightforward (page loads slowly). The DMV process is, as JenMarie says, likely just a thing you could do with a visit. It looks like you could bring the title and form there on a visit also.
posted by jessamyn at 2:46 PM on July 13, 2015 [1 favorite]

I'm in California too and, as it happens, used to sell cars in my poor college student days. JenMarie is right. This is a simple fix. Stop beating yourself up about it. Go to the DMV and explain the situation; it'll all get sorted from there.
posted by LuckySeven~ at 2:48 PM on July 13, 2015

Are you a AAA member? If so, they can handle this for you in their office and you can avoid the madness that is California DMV these days.
posted by buggzzee23 at 2:53 PM on July 13, 2015 [2 favorites]

I'd join AAA to do this if I wasn't already a member.

Don't sweat it. We've needed to make a minor change to our title paperwork for years, but we haven't run out of literally every other thing we need to do in our lives first.
posted by Lyn Never at 3:54 PM on July 13, 2015

I had my car in my married for ten years after the divorce. I was just lazy about changing it. Didn't want the hassle. I took my divorce papers to the CA dmv and it took 5 minutes to change.
posted by cairnoflore at 7:49 PM on July 13, 2015

If it makes you feel any better, I had the wrong date of birth on my drivers' licence for 17 years. No-one made any fuss when I changed it.
posted by girlgenius at 3:14 AM on July 14, 2015

Wha...? For heaven's sake, how are you an idiot? They made the error; the only thing you did wrong was waste the moment it took to notice it. Revise history. You never noticed. Erase the decade of needless angst. "Hey, DMV, financing screwed this up and I need to sell the car, now, thanks for fixing it." The end.
posted by Don Pepino at 9:01 AM on July 14, 2015 [1 favorite]