What should I do in this semi- emergency situation?
I just bought my mom a 1972 Superbeetle. She has no clue that any of this has been going on. The plan is to give it to her today. I bought the car on the 24th and a few days later it was discovered that the car has a REALLY bad oil leak. Now, I bought this classic car for a fair price, expecting to spend a bit more on repairs, but I was not anticipating such an extreme problem. California state law says that the title needs to be signed over within 10 days of the sale. So here is my question; should I present it to her today (her only day off in over a month) so we can get her on the title asap, and be like “oh by the way, It’s broken, but I’m going fo fix it” OR should I just sign the title into my own name and wait until I have it fixed to give it to her? Why?
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8 Answers
If you are going to keep the car and have it repaired, go ahead and sign the title over to your Mom today. Then have the repairs done.
I agree with @marinelife that you might as well sing the title over now.
Do you have any more detail on “REALLY bad oil leak.” ? The beetle engine is somewhat simple and the most common oil leak is from the valve covers – which is easy to fix.
I will present the car to her today.
@dabbler that’s a relief. It’s loosing all its oil within a day, according to my friend whose house it is parked at.
I wouldn’t give her a car like that in the first place. No airbags. Unsafe. Get her a more reliable, safer, heavier car. Besides, that car is destined to be in the shop every other weekend.
In any case it’s likely a matter of a gasket or two. besides the gaskets around the valve covers, other places that engine can leak oil is the gasket around the “oil pan” and at the oil drain plug.
Don’t get me wrong, it is possible to have a major problem, like a cracked block, that can also leak oil bigtime and require big repair (or engine replacement, which was surprisingly common when there were a lot of those around). But hopefully you’ve just got a bad gasket on your hands.
@Charles is right that that car, compared to contemporary cars, will be unreliable. (air-cooled engine just can’t stand up to long term use and highway speeds like a water-cooled engine). But I’m assuming there is a strong sentimental reason your mom might like the car and hopefully that will be worth the trouble.
Good luck with the fix!
If you title it twice you might have to pay tax twice. I would check that, and that would make the decision easy I would think? Plus, the fewer owners the better if you ever sell it.
My husband would love that car! Don’t listen to all these negative Jellies. We have air cooled cars and overall we don’t have a problem with them. The only problems we have is some things need fixing because the part is old.
@Charles Where is your sense of fun and nostalgia, there’s more to life than worrying about airbags and safety… live a little….
Seriously that thing is SO fun to ride around in! So… I ended up giving it to her that day. She is soooo stoked on it.
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