<p>Anyone with experience here?
My daughter lives in Va and her car got totalled when it was “submerged” in the flooding from Nor’Ida. She is still waiting for the insurance check but we have found a car here in PA.</p>
<p>Is there some sort of temporary registration they can do until she gets the car back to Virginia and gets it registered there? She is coming home in 10 days and will go back to Va the first week of January.</p>
<p>I believe there is a way to do this–we did it once years ago. Are you buying it from a dealer or a private owner? If it’s a dealer, they can handle it for you.</p>
<p>Have bought several cars out of state – but only from dealers. We bought 2 in MA, and for the drive back to CT they put on a dealer plate. The next day I went to the DMV to register the car, & get plates. I then sent the dealer plates back by overnight mail. We bought my current car in NJ. The dealer got a temporary plate for it, took care of the CT registration, and then sent tne new plates to us.</p>
<p>From a dealer. Going to look at a car for her tonight and I don’t want to feel like an idiot ;)</p>
<p>Check state tax on car purchases. If D is legal resident of VA and tax is lower, she should buy the car with her legal address. The dealer can issue 30 (or 60, depending on state) day tags (but not submit permanent registration) and that gives D time to register the vehicle in the home state.</p>
<p>Wait…are you going to transfer the plates from the totaled car to the new one? If so, the procedure probably is different than for a new registration (I know it is here). Here you would send the VIN to your insurance first…get the insurance card…and then transfer the plates via DMV to the new vehicle.</p>
<p>If you’re doing completely new plates/registration…tell the dealer that. If you have the old plates and will be transferring them…call your DMV (or go online) and see what that procedure is in your state.</p>
<p>No transfer of plates - it was owned by her father and registered in PA. He had just signed over the title when she drove through the <em>puddle</em>.</p>
<p>mominva - she is a legal resident of Va. the sales tax in pa is 6%. We are trying to avoid buying and registering the car here and then transferring it over to her and having her pay the sales tax and registration again</p>
<p>Former Car Dealership owner here:</p>
<p>This can be very complicated depending on each state’s motor vehicle laws.</p>
<p>It also depends on the dealer. Some dealers have title clerks (and finance managers) who are able (and more importantly willing) to do the legwork for you and to title the car in the correct state. There’s a book published by the NADA (National Automobile Dealers Assn.) that most every dealer has and is used as their “Bible” for car registrations. </p>
<p>If you know the dealer you are planning to visit I would call ahead and inquire with their finance manager (referred to as F&I dept) about buying in PA but registering in VA. Since this is something they don’t do everyday it might require some legwork on their part either in making some phone calls or using the aforementioned NADA guide. Waiting to get there could make things frustrating for you. They may also need to get the correct Title documents sent to them since they may not do this often.</p>
<p>Dealerships generally reduce staffing at night and December is the biggest month of the year for new car sales so you will do yourself and the dealer a favor by calling ahead.</p>
<p>Generally you will find that a dealership that is owned by someone with multiple franchises and dealerships will be more equipped to handle something like this than a smaller dealer. It can also depend, sadly, on the brand of car you are looking for. By that I mean that you’re probably going to find a more qualified and attentive F&I person at a higher end dealership than you will find at a Kia dealership.</p>
<p>In the case of taxes, most states will allow you to only pay the difference in sales tax (if there is one) to register a car. Again, all of this is outlined in the NADA book I mentioned earlier or you can go to the website for the motor vehicle commissions for the states in question.</p>
<p>The big problem usually occurs is if you are financing the car;in some states the lender will not allow you to register the car yourself and if this is the case the dealer will HAVE to do it for you.</p>
<p>Call the dealer this afternoon and get some answers before going in tonight. You will spare yourself a lot of headaches and delays in advance.</p>
<p>eadad -
thanks for the head’s up. I had a hunch it might be complicated. It is a used car dealer but a large one that deals with higher end foreign (European) cars. The car is a Jetta.
I eluded to the situation in an email to them, so they kind of know what to expect.
There is no rush since she won’t even be home until the 20th. I am willing to pay cash and have them hold it until then.</p>
<p>The worst thing is that I buy and register the car in my name and then later do the transfer. trying to avoid that though. thanks.</p>
<p>You might want to check with the local VW dealer as well to see what their new car or certified used cars have to offer. They have some big time specials right now and getting a new car warranty on a Jetta (or the VW certified warranty) can be a good thing for that car in particular. </p>
<p>Check Consumer Reports on the Jetta model year in question. There was a period that it dropped off their recommended list due to so many problems. I have always advocated the manufacturer’s (not third party regardless of what the dealer may say) extended warranty on most German cars. When they break they are very expensive to repair. </p>
<p>My S and D drove a Passat while they were in HS, he passed it on to her. The last year we had it the extended warranty covered over 10K in warranty repairs. The car was serviced every 3K miles religiously and looked brand new but things like power window motors, alternator, A/C compressor and even the transmission required replacement. Very thankful we had put the warranty on the car. it would have been very costly even with my car business relationship.</p>
<p>FWIW, I owned nothing but import dealerships and am relating first hand, not anecdotal experience here regarding most German cars.</p>
<p>eadad has it right … depends on the state and particulars of the transaction. I’ve bought out-of-state from both dealers and private parties. Minnesota was a breeze … in and out in twelve minutes. NY, MA and CT … um, let’s just say it went less smoothly. If you’re buying from a private party it really helps to have them there with you at the DMV when you transfer title and get your temporary plate. But really, there’s nothing big to worry about here IMHO. Good luck!</p>
<p>MA makes buying out of state a pain … including making sure they get “their” sales tax. I’d definately check out how the sales tax implications and also if you can only get one set of plates and not have to get two sets within a couple weeks.</p>
<p>Well, I found out it will cost me $113 to get a temp registration for 30 days. won’t have to pay the sales tax until the vehicle is registered in Va.
Didn’t buy the car though. yet. for two days he knew I was coming, yet discovered that it needs a new belt and a new parking brake cable (it’s a manual transmission) and he wasn’t willing to dicker on the price.
eadad - thanks for the info.<br>
She has a budget of $4000 - which is actually $1300 more than what the ins company is paying her for her cute Cabrio -and we really can’t go beyong that.
The car in question is a 1998 Jetta. I have 4 more to look at - a 1999, another 1998 and two 1997’s. I will get to googling today.</p>