My problem is almost the same. My old car was financed by Honda American Finance. They sold my loan to Bank of America but forgot to remove their name (lien) in the title. After I paid off the loan, I brought the tile and paid off letter from BoA to DMV and was told the title still had a lien with Honda American Finance in it.
I contacted Honda American Finance and got a notarized letter stating that they had nothing to do with the car anymore. Brought it to the DMV, and DMV employees and their supervisors refused to remove the lien even with the notarized letter. They said Honda American Finance put the lien in, and they had to be the one to take it out.
Honda said the loan was old, they can't take it out electronically. The DMV refuses to do it based on a letter from Honda.
I'm at wit end. Can't sell the car until I get a clear title.

Maybe pull a credit history for yourself and see if it lists the old loan?

The title they have doesn’t have the actual lien holder listed? Maybe you need to start by requesting a duplicate title.

Did you write checks to pay off the loan? Do you have old check registers? Do you have the paperwork that you originally got from the dealership?

What are you trying to do with the car? Sell? Go to carmax, they will probably figure the title out for you

Tl;dr— I stupidly lost my car title, which was also the proof its financing lien was paid, and can’t get a new title without proof the lien was paid.

Longer story — I bought my car in 2006 and paid it off around 2010. After it was paid off, the financing company sent me a new copy of the title, stamped “Paid.” A year or two ago, while weeding out some old records, I accidentally put the car title into the wrong pile and shredded it like a genius. Now we finally bought a new car, and I need a copy of the title in order to do anything with the old car. But the DMV website (DC) wouldn’t let me order a new copy of the title because their records show a vehicle lien, and my proof that there’s no lien is the same document I accidentally shredded. DC DMV being DC DMV, the number they gave to call for more information is just “311.” A search of their website at least confirmed a few details of what documents they need to show the vehicle was paid off, but again no contact information to ask them for info or help.

Obviously the next step is to call the finance company. (Right? I shouldn’t use words like “obviously” when I’m this clueless…) But it’s been so many years that I can’t remember which financing company I used. I do know the dealership, but I’m not terribly hopeful on their ability to give me the financing details considering that I bought the car 17 years ago and didn’t finance through them.

Hoping someone with more (any!) knowledge of car financing and the like might have ideas on where else I can turn to at least find out the name of the finance company. Am I underestimating the dealership’s ability to tell me? Is there some other car database I should try? Any super-secret tips for getting useful help from the DMV? Thanks!