Legal Question in Civil Litigation in Virginia

Re: Automobile Sale

Your questions assume the commonly mistaken idea that a contract is a piece of paper. A contract is the deal, the piece of paper memorializes the deal but is not itself the deal. You can have a contract that is entirely oral or even inferred because of assumptions the law makes about the intentions of parties based on their behavior.

Most of your questions ask about enforceability.

I would point out that a contract for the sale of goods in Virginia must be in writing and signed by the party to be charged where the cost of the goods exceeds $500, and that a signature is not the same as an autograph: a signature is any sign or symbol used or adopted with the present intention to authenticate a writing.

But you're asking for legal conclusions about hypothetical situations, so I can't tell what's really going on. I realize you're trying to boil the issues down so as to avoid prejudicing potential respondents, but unless I have some idea of what the facts are, I can't express an opinion.