How New Jersey Finance Law Screwed A Kid Out of His Car

I read this story just a few minutes ago, and frankly, I’m having a horrendous time trying to actually FOLLOW this, and me with a bachelor’s degree in business administration!

This is the long and tortuous story of a young man named Ryan Brennan, a seventeen year old with his own landscaping business.  He worked hard, saved up five grand, and asked his folks for some help getting a loan to buy a used car–a 2004 BMW.  His folks agreed–he had a third of the car down, for crying out loud!–and they bought the car.

The car now sits in his driveway, the Brennans are making payments, and the state of New Jersey will not allow them to drive it.

Congratulations, kid, you just got screwed by the government.  Welcome to real life.  But here’s the WHOLE story–advance warning: if you have any aversion to sleazebag behavior you’re going to want to leave right now.

The title is held by Automotive Financing Corp. — or AFC — in Carmel, Ind. AFC is what’s called a “floor planner,” basically a bank that provides cash so used car dealers can order cars from auctions or other dealers to put on their lots. It lent $9,800 to Galaxy to park the car on the lot to attract Ryan Brennan back in May.

What should have happened is this: after the Brennans paid for the car with the $5,000 in Ryan’s savings and $10,000 loan from PNC, Galaxy should have paid the $9,800 to AFC and obtained the title to give to the Brennans — with a lien in favor of PNC.

But Galaxy never paid AFC and AFC never released the title — in fact, in August, months after the Brennans bought the car, AFC reregistered it as a “repossession” in Arkansas.

See that?  A little chicanery here, a little shuck-and-jive from a car dealer there, and boom.  Kid can’t drive the car he shelled out cash for.  What’s worse, the floor planner will clear the title, IF the Brennans repay that ninety eight hundred bucks. IN ADDITION to the fifteen they shelled out for the car in the first place!

The bank that made the loan on the car refused to talk about it, and poor Ryan can’t drive his car.  Sounds like angry calls need to go to the DMV….