Not to be a pedant, but you _do_ legally own the car in the legal sense that ownership means you have exclusive use of the property, etc. The dealership can’t decide to let the dealer’s kid take your car out for the weekend or whatever.

If you use a loan to buy a car (or house, etc), it has a lien on it for the amount of the balance due on the note, and your ownership rights are bound by any other terms in the note. But unless you bought your car through an explicit “rent to own” arrangement, you own the car as soon as you sign the purchase agreement.

The reason I don’t like muddying “ownership” discussions in this way is because some people have been known to exploit this type of “non-ownership” argument to extort terms out of people that they wouldn’t get otherwise. You don’t see this as much with cars but you do see it with people trying to buy houses from people who owe mortgage debt.