Short answer. Yes, generally. Article 2236 makes a debtor liable with all his property, present and future, for his obligations, not just one asset he chooses to point to. If the car does not cover the full debt, you may generally pursue his other property as well, subject to exemptions the law separately provides.
What the law says
The debtor is liable with all his property, present and future, for the fulfillment of his obligations, subject to the exemptions provided by law.
Civil Code, Article 2236 — The Debtor's Whole Patrimony Answers. Read the full provision →
A debt is not limited to one asset the debtor names
Article 2236 states the principle plainly: the debtor is liable with all his property, present and future, for the fulfillment of his obligations. A debtor does not get to decide that only one particular item, his car, his savings, or any single asset, is what stands behind the debt. The obligation to pay reaches his entire patrimony. If he tells you the car is his "only asset" as though that limits what you can go after, that claim does not match how the law assigns responsibility for a debt.
"Present and future" property is included
The article does not confine liability to what the debtor owns today. It extends to property he acquires later as well, which matters if he currently appears to have little beyond the car you already know about. Should he later inherit property, earn income, or acquire new assets, that property can likewise become available to satisfy the debt if it remains unpaid. A debtor's claimed poverty at one point in time does not permanently shield him; his whole patrimony, as it exists whenever collection is pursued, is what answers for the obligation.
The debt is not tied to any specific property unless agreed
Unless you and your debtor specifically agreed that a particular asset, such as the car, would secure the loan through some form of collateral arrangement, your claim is a general one against him personally, not a claim limited to that one item. That is precisely why Article 2236 speaks of "all his property" rather than any single piece of it. If the car's value falls short of what is owed, the shortfall does not simply go unpaid; it can still be pursued against whatever other property he holds.
The exemptions the article itself acknowledges
Article 2236 is not absolute. It closes with an important qualifier: liability extends to all the debtor's property "subject to the exemptions provided by law." Certain kinds of property are set aside by other laws and cannot be reached to satisfy an ordinary debt, regardless of how much is owed. Which specific property qualifies for such protection depends on those separate provisions, so before assuming every asset your debtor owns is fair game, it is worth checking whether any of it falls under a recognized exemption.