Getting A Title Bond – Project E36
As you may have seen by now, ShiftAtlanta is building a dedicated track car to use as a “training” vehicle. Why? Our goal here is to get people out doing more with their cars. So we’ve established a new community project to help make that happen.
One of the biggest limitations we’ve found to people getting on track is they don’t own a car they feel is sufficient to go on track. Also, even with track day insurance, there is often hesitation to take your personal car on track if you don’t feel it’s track oriented.
Lastly, many of us have high power/high speed cars we drive on the street. But having a high performance car on the track without the experience or skills can be dangerous. Add to the fact that nobody really wants to be the new person with the fancy car, having a simple, easy to learn on car for people to get their feet wet without worrying about what the vehicle is makes a lot of sense.
In this blog post we’ll take you through step #2 of the process of converting our donated BMW E36 into a dedicated track car that we will use to help teach people to drive on a track, which was to get a title. Of course, for most cars this isn’t a step even worth discussing… unless you have a car without a title.
Track Training Car – Where We Are Recap
The car itself was donated by ShiftAtlanta partner, Garage Prevail. Garage Prevail specializes in high touch towing and saving high interest cars. They are committed to the ShiftAtlanta mission of getting people on track and thought this car was the perfect opportunity to do.
As we mentioned last time, this car came with a few things we had to work through. In addition to a number of mechanical issues, and of courses the desire to track pre the car, a big initial issue was that was no title provided with the car.
What Is A Bonded Title?
If you purchase a car without a title and the original seller is no longer available or reachable to request a replacement title, you can transfer ownership and get a replacement title through a process called a “Bonded Title”. Simply put, a bonded title is a vehicle title that is backed by a surety bond, or guarantee financially for the value of the vehicle (actually double the value) in exchange for the state allowing you to transfer ownership without the title.
The goal of the bonded title is to ensure an owner or lien holder can be made whole financially in the event a bonded title is issued improperly.
What Cars Qualify For Bonded Titles In Georgia
Not all cars or buyers will qualify for bonded titles in Georgia.
- The buyer must be a legal resident of Georgia
- The vehicle must require a Georgia title
- Cannot be a 1985 or older year model vehicle
- Cannot be an abandoned vehicle
Getting A Bonded Title In Georgia
The good news is, thanks to a little help from the folks at Shift Brokers, we were able to get a title bond and complete the process. So the question is, what was the process and how difficult was it?
Short answer is – moderately difficult but a lot of steeps. It took about 2 weeks total to get the process done. Here are the pieces needed. We followed along with Shift Brokers guide on how to buy a car without a title in Georgia, so at least we knew we wouldn’t miss any steps. If you are actually looking to follow a detailed process, we recommend you head over and check out their blog post on it. We’re only posting the highlights from our experience. They have a lot of additional details and recommendations.
Step #1: Bonded Title Required Documentation
We started off by getting all of the requirement paperwork together. There are some additional forms in the upcoming steps.
Bill OF Sale – A document signed by you and the seller outlining the vehicle purchased, the amount purchased for and the parties involved.
MV-1 Application For Title/Tag – A title/tag application we had to fill out to go with our paperwork.
NMVTIS VIN Check – A report from the national database on vehicles showing the vehicle wasn’t stolen and didn’t have an outstanding lien.
Overall these forms were not difficult to fill out. The NMVTIS does cost ~$15. You can get a list of qualifying websites via the state. We followed the suggestion on the blog and used clearvin.com.
Step #2: Bonded Title Surety Bond
Next we needed to get a Surety Bond. This is a required step.
Your Surety Bond must be for twice the value of the vehicle, as determined by the state of Georgia, but not less than $5,000.
Getting the bond itself was pretty easy. Most insurance brokers in Georgia can help you get one. We actually found one via an online services. As we note above though, just make sure you get a company that is authorized in Georgia and will give you the correct paperwork in the correct amount. The bond company did not know the value, we had to get it for ourselves. We also are were entirely on the hook if the bond amount was incorrect or too low.
We got two additional forms which we had review. For the MV-46A we needed to fill it out and swear to why we couldn’t obtain a title any other way. We also had to get this form notarized.
MV-46 Certificate Of Title Bond – came signed and notarized by the bond company. We need to sign this form.
MV-46A Certificate Of Title Bond Application – we had to fill this out, sign it and have it notarized.
With our Project E36 the value came back at $1,800. Double it was $3,600. Since we were below the state minimum of $5,000, we got a bond for $5,000. It cost us right $100 and we had the paperwork in our hand in under 2 business days.
You can call the state at 1-855-406-5221 to get the exact amount needed, which we highly recommend. If you get it wrong, you have to start over with a new bond and they do not offer refunds.
Step #3: Insurance
We do plan to drive our car on the street, at least to get to and from the track. While we trailer our existing endurance race car, it’s certainly a lot more work. Most insurance companies will cover a newly purchased vehicle for up to 30 days automatically.
Thankfully the folks over at Shift Brokers found us a great deal on insurance our street driven track car. It was actually fraction of the price of just getting liability only from our regular insurance company.
Step #4: Inspection
A sworn law enforcement officer in the state of Georgia had to check to ensure the VIN numbers on the vehicle match the paperwork provided. They will also did a state level stolen vehicle check. They filled out the relevant fields on a form called a T-22B.
- T-22B Certificate Of Inspection – A form certified the VIN of the vehicle and signed off by a law enforcement officer.
In our case we had to take our car to the police department for inspection. In other municipalities they came to us. You’ll want to call your local law enforcement agency to determine what they require. Process was relatively painless. In our case, turned out the officer was a motorcycle guy and was intrigued by our plan to turn it into a track training car.
Getting Our Bonded Title
That was it. We made sure we had all of our paperwork and then headed down to the DMV. With inspection, bond and insurance in hand – as well as the other couple of forms we get our license plate within an hour of arriving at the DMV.
Overall we’d say the process isn’t one we’d take likely, particularly given the risks of buying a stolen car or one with a lien where we could be out money. Still, given we got the car from a reliable source the process was worth it. We placed the difficulty at moderate – it took a fair bit of time to get everything together, but wasn’t a difficult process.
What’s Next For Our Training Car
Up next is to get our car running right. This will include fixing a few known mechanical issues and changing all of the fluids and maintenance parts. From there, we’re going to start our track upgrades. Our focus will be on suspension, brakes and safety. While we plan to eventually add some power, our goal here isn’t speed.
