🚀 go-pugleaf

A friend of mine bought a car privately about six months ago.  Unfortunately
the car was financed, and so the previous owner needed to pay off the finance
company out of the purchase price that my friend paid.  Even more 
unfortunately, it appears the previous owner simply pocketed the entire
purchase amount and never paid off the finance company.  The previous owner
has provided numerous excuses for his failure to do so, of which my friend
believes some and I believe none.

The bottom line, though, is that six months after paying for this car, my
friend still has not received the title to the car.  In other words, the car
still legally belongs to the previous owner, and probably by this point the
loan is in a serious state (i.e. the finance company probably wants to repo
the car, but I'm speculating at this point).  My friend also suspects the
previous owner withheld a key from him, and so he has bought a club for the
car for the sole purpose of preventing the previous owner from stealing it
back.

Now two questions arise:

1.  What should my friend have done to prevent this sorry situation from
    developing in the first place?
2.  Am I right in feeling that potentially he could be in a lot of trouble?
    And if so, what action(s) should he take given the current situation to
    protect his interests?

Thanks for any information you can give me.
-- 
David W. Ash               | "What profits a man if he keeps his eternal soul
ash@sumex-aim.stanford.edu |  when he could have lived life to the full and
HOME: (415) 497-1629       |  been forgiven at the end of it all anyway?"
WORK: (415) 725-3859       |         --David Merritt, a.k.a. THE RED SHARK