Well, 'Mike' promised me the vin number on Friday, and as yet, he still hasn't sent it, so I'm guessing there's even more to hide, and he doesn't want anyone running a Carfax. I'd steer clear of this one I think.

'judging by seeing cars with clear titles and 40k miles going for around $13 or 14k'

When you find those SRT6 convertibles for $13K with 40000 miles give me a shout, and I'll buy another one ....
You might find a coupe for that money, but the cheapest reasonable vert that I know of recently was TerryR's, but that was in excess of $16k