Car title & lien

[Anonymous]

I know theres a lot like theses but here goes my situation.

In 2013 I purchased an 08impala in texas, fell on hard times as a young 20year old and couldn't finish paying it. Santander never came to get the car. Yes, I kept using the car but no repo company ever came. My address is still the same, I've kept the registration current since then.

Fast forward to now, my life is finally stable enough to try and purchase a car from a dealer. I pulled my 3 credit reports to try and figure out what I needed to do about this impala. None of my credit reports show a charged off or In collections for this car with Santander. I ran the VIN twice with two different services to the impala and it doesnt have anything listen under lienholder.

What does this mean and what are my options? Should I contact Santander and ask what the settlement amount would be, I believe I still owed around 9k on the car at the time and currently the car is probably worth 3500.

If I apply for the title, would this cause the correct lienholder to populate on the VIN check websites?

[Anonymous]

Id be really really hesitant to poke the bear on this one.

Do you absolutely have to get rid of the impala to get another vehicle?  Because if you bought it in 2013, that means you went delinquent sometime after, which means if they decide to follow through on collections it will be a valid one for at least another year.

If it were me, id just throw the car in a garage and buy another one with a cash down payment, and try selling the old one to a private party without a title.  I know thats shady dealings, but if you try to get a replacement title, they are going to get notified.

[Anonymous]

I don't need to get rid of the impala, I've done regular maintenance on it, tires, oil change, replaced parts that have gone bad, etc. Other than some minor hail damage and I had replaced a side window motor the car isnt worth much with 105k miles. I was just shopping around for cars for a possible near future purchase.

I'm more curious as to why it doesnt show on any of my credit reports or why the lien holder doesnt appear when I run the VIN through the TXDMV or third party website.