I'm gonna put this in big letters so that nobody makes the mistake a couple other members and I did:
DO NOT USE THE ABOVE COMPANY (MAINE-LY TITLE)... THEY CANNOT TITLE MILITARY VEHICLES ANYMORE, WILL TAKE YOUR MONEY, AND WILL OUTRIGHT IGNORE YOUR CALLS FOR 8 MONTHS UNTIL YOU EITHER SUE THEM, OR GIVE UP AND GO AWAY!!!!!
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Now then, with that out of the way, here's my reply to jjramrod...
Putting aside the condition and price of the truck, and the debate over whether or not it's a legitimate purchase from the .gov, here is what you're working with:
You have purchased a vehicle that, in the eves of the civilian DMV, has never held a title, and does not have a VIN. A lot of people refer to the serial #s on their trucks as VINs, but as far as the DMV is concerned, it is not... a VIN is a 17-digit series of numbers and letters that can be used to identify everything about the vehicle it's attached to... from the make/model and year, to the body type, engine and transmission model, and even what factory it rolled out of.
Recently, the state DMVs implemented the NMVTIS system, which is a computer-automated system that is supposed to hamper inter-state trafficking in stolen vehicles. A byproduct of this system, however, is that folks are now reliant on the computer, which will generally only recognize a 17 digit VIN... anything else input, like a 6-digit HMMWV serial number, will get kicked back with an error.
So, first off, forget the title companies... half of them are scams, and the few legitimate ones are no longer able to utilize the Vermont and Maine loopholes to title military vehicles. Any title company representative who tells you they can do the job is likely either a liar, or hasn't done one recently and doesn't realize their loophole has been closed.
A couple members, myself included, have already said this, but I'm going to repeat it anyway: you need to make a copy of your bill of sale, get in your car, and drive over to a local DMV office... walk up to the counter, tell the nice lady that you have an ex-military vehicle purchased from a Parish in Louisiana that has never held a title and does not have a 17-digit VIN, and ask them what you need to do to title and register it.
Ask them if there is a process to have the serial number inspected and certified by DMV or law enforcement, or if NY can assign a VIN. If you have receipts for all the major components... engine, transmission, body, etc... ask them about going the homebuilt/salvage route. Unless they ask, I wouldn't go offering up terms like "demill"... and if they ask about an SF-97, tell them you got it from the Parish, not the federal government, and they don't use SF-97 forms.
If the first person you talk to says you need an SF-97... or simply tells you you're SOL, find another, slightly more rural DMV office, go there, and repeat the above process. If the slightly more rural DMV says the same thing... find an even smaller, very rural DMV office and do the same thing a 3rd time.
When my coworker and I went through the process of titling and registering our HMMWV, all we had was a bill of sale, written in Microsoft Word, and notarized by the seller's friend in Alabama. It was a very risky purchase in retrospect, but we didn't know enough about military vehicle sales at the time... fortunately we got lucky and the process worked out alright anyway.
After getting ripped off by one title company, and almost ripped off by a second, I turned to the direct route and started walking in to offices: the DMV in Los Angeles said we were SOL without a proper VIN, so we towed the truck up to me in Sacramento, and I went up into the foothills to visit a smaller, non-metropolitan DMV office. The rural DMV was completely cooperative... gave me the name of the local CHP VIN inspector who came and checked out the truck, then assigned it a VIN... 2 hours and a lot of taxes later, I walked out of the office with license plates in-hand. The title cam in the mail a few weeks later.
So go directly to the source, and find out what you need to do... if the unanimous response is that you're SOL, then you can come back here and we cal give you advice on what to do with your truck.
