Maybe he hopes the friend would then default on the loan, and tell the bank they can’t repo the car because someone else owns it now?

IDK, all stupid because this is why the bank holds the title and has a personal guarantee on the original borrower. His credit will get hosed, the bank will file a lawsuit, and the car will still be repo’ed.

Then this sovcit is welcome to go try to tell a judge why he should get the car back.