I also heard from a friend who is an attorney in Birmingham that a newspaper did an expose' on titling cars in Alabama and the reporter was actually able to get a valid title and plate for his six year old's Radio Flyer wagon. Apparently, the case cited by Kevin and the publication of the expose' was enough to motivate the Alabama legislature to re-write the legislation controlling titles.
My son recently moved to Birmingham from Atlanta and according to him the titling/registration process in Alabama is now a real pain, even for the honest guy. He recently purchased a '91 Mustang in Georgia and brought it into Alabama with a valid Georgia title, but without a current Georgia license plate. He had to actually present the car at the tag office in his county and they checked ALL of the VINs before they would give him a title and plate.
So much for registering your 550 in Ala-damn-bama.