Short answer. Yes. A legacy of a generic thing like "a car" is valid even if the estate owns no car at all. Article 941 keeps such a gift of generic personal property alive, and the executor or administrator must comply by delivering a car that is neither of inferior nor of superior quality — a fair, middling one.
What the law says
A legacy of generic personal property shall be valid even if there be no things of the same kind in the estate.
Civil Code, Article 941 — Generic Legacies. Read the full provision →
What the law says
The right of choice shall belong to the executor or administrator who shall comply with the legacy by the delivery of a thing which is neither of inferior nor of superior quality.
Civil Code, Article 941 — Generic Legacies. Read the full provision →
A generic gift survives an empty estate
"A car" is a generic thing — the testator did not point to one particular vehicle, just to something of that kind. Article 941 protects that kind of gift: A legacy of generic personal property shall be valid even if there be no things of the same kind in the estate. So the fact that the deceased owned no car when he died does not defeat your legacy. The estate must still provide one. A generic legacy of personal property is not tied to any specific object that might be missing; it is a promise of a thing of that description, which the estate can go out and supply.
The estate chooses which car
Because the gift is generic, someone has to decide which particular car you receive. The article gives that power to the estate side: The right of choice shall belong to the executor or administrator who shall comply with the legacy by the delivery of a thing which is neither of inferior nor of superior quality. You cannot demand a specific luxury model, and the estate cannot fob you off with a wreck. The chosen car must be of middling quality — a fair, average example of its kind. This protects both sides: you get something genuinely usable, and the estate is not made to buy the most expensive option available.
Personal property versus real property
The article treats movable and immovable things differently, and it is worth knowing the contrast. A legacy of generic personal property — like a car — stands even with nothing of the kind in the estate. But a devise of indeterminate real property is valid only if there is immovable property of its kind in the estate. So the generous rule that saves your car legacy does not apply in the same way to a vague gift of land. For movables, the estate must supply the thing; for land, there must already be property of that type to draw from.
What 'neither inferior nor superior' means for you
The middle-quality standard is the heart of your protection. It stops a reluctant estate from handing you the worst example it can find, and it stops you from insisting on the finest. If a dispute arises, the question is whether the car offered is a fair, ordinary specimen — not a bottom-of-the-range castoff, not a premium prize. The executor or administrator exercises the choice, but always within that boundary. So while you cannot pick the exact car, you are entitled to insist that whatever you are given meets this reasonable, average benchmark of quality.