What does it mean no title on car?

Since all vehicles are sold and ownership transferred by means of a title, it means he can't sell it, and you shouldn't buy it. If he has a right to the car, and owns it, he can apply for a duplicate title to sell it. If you go ahead and get it, maybe on his promise to get you a title later, you can't register it, or drive it, and if he vanishes and it does turn out to be stolen, the police will pay you a visit and have it towed away. You could be charged in that case with having stolen property.

I bought a car like that once and ended up serving 3 and one half years in prison on a 7 year sentence for receiving stolen property and nothing happened to the person I got it from.

You and the seller have to go to DMV to get a duplicate title. That's not bad at least you will know the car isn't stolen.

stay away from the car if there is no title it is shady could mean all sorts of things stolen pieced together reconstruction title or wasn't good enough for that you will need a title for any car you want to drive unless you are living on a farm

All of the above. It might not be his car, or it might just be that he lost the paperwork. Do not buy the car; he might have stolen it. If it is his car, he should be able to get a replacement title.

It means he doesn't have the document showing ownership of the car. So he can't sell the car without it. Also, he can't prove that the car is his.

title by those means is ownership

It means a its stolen, or b hes too cheap/lazy to go get one. If he cant sign a title over, you cannot register is easily, therefore you cant insure it until you go down and do all the leg work. In fact in todays world since you know who the supposed owner is, they probably wont give it to you. You can call and see, but depending on what state your in they may also need a smog device check, and that too you will be paying for, and if its deficient, it can be really expensive to fix. Some cars, have an older generic type put on and that ruins performance, depending on modle of the car. There are going to be so many monitary suprises coming along with this car, call your state DMV and ask them how to go about this. A trip to the mechanice and pay for them to really look it over, transfluid in good shape and not fouled by the radiator, the condition of the water pump *viewed on a lift, belt conditions, tires, breaks, suspension. Does it leak oil and where is that coming from. You could buy that car and potentially owe more to fix it than you paid for it. I bought a used car that they had hidden that the transmisison and radiator were leaking into each other, 3500.00 later.......more than half what I paid to get it in running condition again, and it broke again 37 mo later, same problem, no now I put in 7000.00 into a car worth 5000.00 at the time. Now the front bearings went that was 250.00 (for front only bearing). The new serpantine was some where near 100.00. So be forewarned, it could be a great car that the original owner lost the title. Questions to ask always. How long have you been the owner/tregistered owner? If they never put it in their name you may have all those penalties to pay, if hey owned it a few months, its junk, they bought it found it was needing too much work. Ask why they are selling it, ask about work performed since owning it. Carfax is so worth the money, so worth that money. I was able to see my used car had one owner. That was what made me think the car might be in ok shape. I was wrong, but at least I found the owners name in the glove box on the original paperwork, carfax told me the county the car had been registered in and I found the old owner and asked him a few questions.

TITLES USUALLY CAME WITH CARS AFTER 1970 OR THEREABOUTS....IF THE GUY HAS NO TITLE, STEER CLEAR....HE MAY NOT EVEN OWN IT...........WANNA BUY THE BROOKLYN BRIDGE?