That is not at all possible in Phuket , there you the seller must provide a signed copy of there current visa , if they have left the country and the visa has expired then absolutely they will not transfer to the new owner.
I have had this happen to me twice , once a few years, i bought a Fortuner from a British national who had a holiday home here but lived in Hong Kong. He sold me his car and i did in fact have all the correct signed papers , Department of transport two forms being the POA and the transfer form both signed , copy of the sellers passport and visa . The problem i had his 30 day visa on arrival had expired by the time i got around to transferring it into my name and there was no chance of them doing the transfer. I tried everything but came up against a brick wall , they insisted he must come back to Thailand with a current visa. Then last year i bought a house from people from Norway who had left the country 2 years previously , the house came with there Toyota Avensis , i sent all the forms to them in Norway and they sent everything back with signed passport , but because there last visa to Thailand had expired again the DOT would not do the transfer insisting the owner of the car return to Thailand with a current visa stamp .