I bought a car outright back when I moved here in 2016. At the time I was young and naive, and when the dealership said it would be very complicated to register it to my name, I stupidly relented and let them register it to my then fiance's name.
I've ended things with my wife almost 4 years ago (the usual story, sweet girl turning into an insufferable ogre the longer we stayed together), but never got officially divorced as she moved to another country for work. Yesterday, two men showed up with a policeman at my house, with legal papers to repossess the car. I checked my documents stack and indeed the blue book was missing. After I kicked her out she must have sneaked back to the house when I was away, grabbed the blue book, and got a loan with the car as collateral. The papers show she made payments for almost a year, and then stopped, leading to my current situation.
The car is worth around 400,000 baht now (if sold person to person and not to a dealer). The amount she owes is over 250,000 baht. I am pretty sure I don't have many options at this point, but wanted to make sure there's really nothing I can do.
Logically speaking, I should pay the 250,000, and take back the car. However, it would still be registered to her, so in theory she could come back and demand it at some point, compounding my losses. On the other hand, not taking it back is basically immediately losing the entire 400,000 with no recourse.
I'm struggling with deciding what to do. I can take the 400,000 hit now and put it all behind me forever, or I can take the 250,000 hit now and who knows what happens next. I think I can take possession of the blue book if I pay the 250,000, but it still won't be in my name.
Any insights?
(Please don't chime in just to tell me how stupid I've been. I already know)