is it normal to sell your car and just let them drive off in it?

7 comments

1. It’s pretty normal. You are legally required the change the name to your own when you buy a car. No, you aren’t going to be liable for damages in an accident. They won’t be able to drive it if the shaken runs out and it’s not registered in their name.

2. Meet at the office, and do the paperwork right there, together.

3. When I have done this even at a dealer I just got a day of insurance from 7-11 first and then drove off.
   Then just went to do the name change and stuff.
   I bought a motorcycle from a friend and just drove off with it and did the name change.

   Doesn’t sound too weird. But I’m curious how it goes in the end. 🙂

4. I was in the exact same position and yes shockingly that is how it can work in Japan. I appreciated the convenience. It would never fly in my home country but I guess Japan works different. I was dealing with a reputable dealer though. Not sure about a private sale.

5. you need to stamp your hanko on the 2　document, which you can download from many sites on the web and print out in a combini

   **譲渡証明書**

   **委任状**

   so buyer can do the registration under their name, if not the problem is that the taxes 自動車税 will keep on sending an invoice to your address and if you don’t pay you are in big trouble ..that is the only potential issue with a bad buyer..

   You can ask the buyer for a deposit – for example 50kY which will be payed back once he does the name change to make sure its done within x amount of days, 2 weeks for example

6. You can ask them to give you a deposit of 30,000 yen which you will return once they show the proof of namechange

7. I did it once and didn’t have any problems… they sent me the documents later after they changed over the registration