Transporting a new purchase

[Pete Masterson]

If buying from a dealer, you'll get a temporary "paper" plate or some
other new car indication. (In CA, it's a small receipt-thing that is
taped to the lower right corner of the windshield.) My coach,
purchased in Texas was given a license plate sized card board upon
which the dealer wrote a date (about 30 days into the future). Unless
you're doing something odd, such as using a LLC in a "favorable"
state (like Montana or North Dakota), you'll be given the bill of
sale and other papers to take with you to the license/tax office in
your state. When I bought my coach in Texas, I did pay a small
"transfer fee" (as I recall, 1/2 of 1% or so) of the transaction cost
to Texas. It may be that fee applies to sales heading out of state
only ... other states may or may not have similar fees.

If buying from a private party, you'll almost always have their old
plates -- although in Colorado, you have to retain your old plates
and turn them back in to the county vehicle tax office. Again, in
Colorado, dealers put a temporary "paper plate" in the back window of
the car that's dated (much like Texas) to give you 30 days or so to
get the vehicle registered.

Frankly, my experience with Colorado vs. California is that Colorado
makes it a big deal and not at all convenient. You must physically
appear at the license office, offer proof of identity, and then pay
the fees. (I found all this out because my 91 year old father in law
bough a new (used) car, then died before it was registered. We wanted
to register it in my 80 year old mother-in-law's name -- but she's
paralyzed and an invalid. Still, she had to appear at the tax office
and sign the forms to register the vehicle. This was a major
undertaking.

In California, if you buy from a dealer, the dealer collects the tax
and forwards it to the state. You get the registration and plates in
the mail in about 2 weeks...

As I may have said before, when I bought my coach, I had the Texas
paper plate on the dashboard, and drove across Texas, Oklahoma,
Kansas, Colorado, Wyoming, Utah, Nevada, and California. I was not
molested by any police along the way, except for a RV fan Nevada
Highway Patrolman who was curious about the coach.

I think most of the time patrol/police officers don't have time to
bother with registration anomalies unless there is some other reason
to stop a vehicle. (It's unlikely that a thief had just robbed a
convenience store and used a similar Blue Bird to make their escape
-- so you're not on their radar.) Indeed, in California, since new
cars or cars without registration carry their permits as small slips
of paper on the front windshield, it's obvious that the police aren't
looking too close at vehicles without plates...


On Dec 6, 2007, at 3:48 PM, Gardner Yeaw wrote:

> Shane,
> In New Jersey you pay the tax when you register it. So I need to
> find out what other states require so I don't pay TWICE. There must
> be some kind of system to handle these kinds of transactions. I
> can't imagine folks paying double tax.
>
> Gardner