My Car Failed Its Emissions Test, Can I Still Sell It?

[GreasyJack]

@RedSwinglineOne

Well, strictly speaking, buying a car and getting it registered are two different things. Although I am required to provide a smog cert if I sell you a car, the DMV is not going to come after me to get it because I no longer have any interest in the vehicle. They are going to ask you for it when you try to register it, and if you don’t have it, they won’t allow you to register it in your name.

Normally if you buy a car, it is with the expectation that you will be able to register it, and the inability to do so would be grounds for getting your money back. But if the bill of sale says ‘not running’ or ‘won’t pass smog’, then it would seem to me you are assuming the responsibility of doing whatever work is necessary to get the car back on the road.

When I sell a car, I submit the Notice of Transfer and Release of Liability form, which does not require a smog certificate.

Everything I have said here is not so much a legal argument as much as the way things actually seem to work in my experience, and it has been many years since I sold a car that was not running. YMMV.

Ah, I see. So if I’m reading this right, you can de facto sell it (i.e. trade money for car) and then send in the form that makes it so you don’t get parking tickets and such, but the title can’t actually be transferred until the buyer gets it up and running and is able to smog it.

[RedSwinglineOne]

@GreasyJack

Ah, I see. So if I’m reading this right, you can de facto sell it (i.e. trade money for car) and then send in the form that makes it so you don’t get parking tickets and such, but the title can’t actually be transferred until the buyer gets it up and running and is able to smog it.

In my experience, this seems to be how it works, but things might have changed. Years ago I seem to remember buying cars and getting them put in my name, but just not getting tags until it was smogged. The DMV website seems to say that they don’t do that though. Maybe the car was not really in my name, but it had just been recorded that I had paid the fees.

[Omniscient]

@RedSwinglineOne

In my experience, this seems to be how it works, but things might have changed. Years ago I seem to remember buying cars and getting them put in my name, but just not getting tags until it was smogged. The DMV website seems to say that they don’t do that though. Maybe the car was not really in my name, but it had just been recorded that I had paid the fees.

Well, I’ve done a bit of research at DMV.org and the Illinois website and came to a couple conclusions. First, selling a car and transferring a title are essentially one in the same. You hand over the car and title and get cash in return. All you need to do is sign the back of the title and so does the new owner and you’re done.

After that the new “owner” is required to get the car registered in 20 days and in order to do so it must pass emissions. So, you can sell it and then having it registered is on them.

The big question that I cannot answer is if simply saying “As Is” when selling a car is enough protection against it not passing emissions and not being able to be registered as a seller to not get you sued. “As Is” is typically an obvious condition meaning no warranty is included but the registration issue might be a separate thing.

[gotpasswords]

@Omniscient

I also checked out the price on the seat parts and was pleasantly surprised to see that the parts on the seat are all sold individually. I can get a replacement rear pad for the drivers seat for $156 from the dealer. Probably quite a bit cheaper in generic or online. Wonder if I can replace that myself, it makes the prospect of keeping and fixing up the car more appealing if these issues are fixable cheaply and would make it more appealing to a buyer.

I don’t know about this car specifically, but swapping entire seats is usually a matter of four bolts and a wiring harness or two. Replacing individual components may be a task best left to an upholstery shop, especially if the replacement pad is just a bare piece of foam.

You can probably get an entire seat for under $50 at a “pick your part” self-serve yard. If they’re paying attention, they’ll charge you for the seat and for the track as separate items - the yard near me charges about $23 for a bucket seat and $14 for a track with motor. The obvious caveat is going to be what condition a a seat will be in at the junkyard. You may find a low-miles car that was wrecked, or you may find a car that was driven into the ground by someone who ate and spilled while driving.

Of course, this assumes the yard has any cars at all with the right color interior, but there probably was only a choice of tan or gray.

[RedSwinglineOne]

@Omniscient

The big question that I cannot answer is if simply saying “As Is” when selling a car is enough protection against it not passing emissions and not being able to be registered as a seller to not get you sued. “As Is” is typically an obvious condition meaning no warranty is included but the registration issue might be a separate thing.

I agree that ‘as is’, at least to me, simply implies no warranty. In order to cover your butt, I would make sure the bill of sale specifically says ‘not running’, or ‘won’t pass smog’.

[Omniscient]

Well, time for another update. Since replacing the gas cap I’ve driven for at least 6 hours over the course of the weekend, making 3 trips out to the suburbs at highway speeds and in some bumper to bumber traffic. My SES light is still off so I’m very optimistic that my problem is fixed.

I also removed the wheel and inspected it for the leak and much to my surprise it appears that it’s not dented to any real degree and the leak was a result of a really hard to see nail broken off in it. It was too close to the sidewall to have it professionally patched but I bought a simple plug kit from the part store and filled the hole myself. This might not be a long term solution but it’s holding air 100 times better than it was.

The next project is figuring out this stupid WSS issue. It seems to act up worst when it’s wet out and we had quite a bit of rain on Friday. All weekend with all that driving the ABS was pretty damn dicey.

[Omniscient]

If that ain’t a kick in the nuts. So, I’m driving to my mechanic feeling all chipper to get the go ahead to have the car retested today and put this behind me and sure enough, about 2 miles from home the frigging SES light comes back on. After 8 hours of driving and a couple hundred miles it waits until just hours before I would have been able to pass the retest to crop up again.

When I got to my mechanic and explained it he rescanned the codes and confirmed that it’s the same one as before. He guesses that it’s either a vent/solenoid or a canister that needs to be swapped, at $35 and $150 respectively for just parts. With my luck it’ll be the latter. I scheduled a smoke test for next Monday to learn the bad news officially. He’s also going to evaluate the WSS issue too.

I’m getting closer and closer to dumping this POS, it’s a shame I’ve put as much money in it as I have.