It has probably been chopped and re-built. Buying a car without a title will never be resolved. You will have to go to DMV and request a duplicate title and it will have old names of owners and possible liens. If you do, you will have to get previous owner to sign off on and lienholder to sign off on, then you can tag in your name. If the guy you bought the car from was the owner, then he should have already done all this if he got the car legally.