<p>Does anyone know anything about what the logistics might be when one is a resident in one state but wants to buy a car to use and keep in another state. I frequently am in the state where relatives live, and I plan to have an extended stay there within the next year, eventually moving there permanently, but not for at least 2-3 years. It is too far away to drive my car there and expensive to rent a car for so long. I plan to leave it there and potentially lend it if needed in emergency. Can one get a license for and register a car in a state where one does not live and does not have a driver’s license?</p>
<p>You can just buy a car in your own state and take it with you to wherever you live. I think you have 6 months to a year to register a vehicle in the new state, if you become a resident, but you don’t have to register it right away. Check the Dept of Motor Vehicles in the state you are going to. Just be careful about leaving it and loaning it for use by others, as any accidents or incidents by another driver will be on your insurance.</p>
<p>Also make sure the car gets exercised every now and then and doesn’t sit for months with no use. It’s important to keep the fluids flowing, the battery charged up, the tires not sitting on one spot, etc. It’s good for it to go for some kind of drive every couple of weeks or so. It’s best if it can get up to the normal operating temperature in that drive, which usually doesn’t take too much - just driving around town or a couple of exits on a freeway will usually do it.</p>
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<p>This may depend on the state. You will need an address in that state in order to register the car. We have a car that we leave at our second home. It’s registered in that state, and neither of us has a driver’s license from that state. I second the suggestions to make sure someone drives it regularly. You may also want to check to see if it’s a state where you have to pay property tax on cars, which is really annoying.</p>
<p>This is very possible, but the details really depend on the state involved. We have two homes and our cars are each registered in the state where it is garaged. Both states required this. For the car garaged and registered in the state where we are not considered permanent residents, our registration is stamped “non resident owner.” The timeframe to register a car new to a state varies greatly. We had 45 days to register our car in one state and 60 days in the other state. It really helps simplify the insurance part if you have a national auto insurance company that is licensed to write policies in both states otherwise you may have to get two separate policies.</p>
<p>I would call or check the online DMV site for the state where you plan to house the car. There are some states that allow non residents to retain the registration of their home state in certain instances. It really depends on the specific state laws.</p>
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<p>It’s 60 days where I live.</p>
<p>If I were doing this, I would simply register the car at my permanent address, and then leave it with people in the other state. Students and some members of the armed forces or the Public Health Service frequently keep cars long-term in a state where the car is not registered because their permanent address is in another state.</p>
<p>CA and Mass were pretty strict. Check the state laws.</p>
<p>I will buy the car when I get there. I will not drive it from my resident state (3-4 day drive in dead of winter!) I will not have a permanent address there, nor a driver’s license from that state, will probably be in a furnished short term rental situation. So I cannot buy it in my home state, register it there. I will be buying it in a state where I will be temporarily, leaving it there with family members for me to use when I return periodically.</p>
<p>I would check, but guessing simplest thing would be to register it in the state where you buy it and are keeping it, and also have insurance in that state. It doesn’t matter that you don’t live there. We have a car registered in another state that is used by a family member who lives there.</p>
<p>I would check. D says that the CA cops are getting stricter and stricter and ticketing people who don’t have in-state license plates and/or driver’s licenses. Even if you can get the citation dismissed, it’s a hassle and you might have to pay a pretty big fine, especially if you get several tickets. That’s making her move toward getting her CA license. Hope she’s taken care of it, but thanks for reminding me to bug her about it.</p>
<p>We used to live near the border of one state and bought a car in another state. The car dealer just gave us the information to register the car in our state. Slightly different because we were using it in our home state but I would think that you could go out there, buy a car, bring the registration home and register your car in your home state. You are given a temp license when you buy the car. It wouldn’t be any different then a college kid taking/buying a car in their college town. Insurance would depend on the laws in your state but for us our company would rate the car where it is located, not where we live.</p>
<p>I’m in a similar situation. One of my kids is in NYC, I’m in another mid-Atlantic state, and he just got accepted to a PhD program in the SF Bay area. In NYC, he has never needed a car. Now he wants one for life in California. </p>
<p>I’m fairly good at car-buying; he’s completely clueless. It’d be his money, but he’d like my help making the deal. Any suggestions for how to work this? My preference would be to identify exactly what he wants then order a new car (maybe a Honda CRS) built to those specs through a Bay-area dealer … from here. I’d like to offer invoice price plus ~$100 & fees, minus incentives, over the phone & by email. Feasible? Can anyone think of any gotchas or California-specific issues I need to consider?</p>
<p>He does not want to buy on the East Coast and drive it West.</p>
<p>lorelei - I think it’s smart to buy it in the state where you will be eventually moving. It will need to be registered there anyway and insurance varies so much by state that your insurance company will need to know where the car is - even if it is not at your current permanent address.</p>
<p>When I transferred a car from one state to the other, the new state made me pay sales tax on 75% of the blue book value of the car, minus a credit for sales tax I had already paid when I purchased it. Ouch!</p>
<p><a href=“http://drivinglaws.aaa.com/laws/registration-for-non-residents/[/url]”>http://drivinglaws.aaa.com/laws/registration-for-non-residents/</a></p>
<p>That link may help answer some questions.</p>
<p>tk21769–I know a lot of people that “shop” for cars via email all the time. Most dealers around here have sales people that only deal with internet sales. Have your son pick out the car he wants, exact features, etc. and then start emailing dealers near him. Figure out what price you are willing to pay, send an email to 4 or 5 dealers in his area and say you want X car, with A, B, C features and are willing to pay X dollars for said car, who can wants my business?</p>
<p>We use a local no haggle dealership. We’ve found their prices to be at or below Edmund’s private party sale price for cars. That may be another option for him.</p>
<p>You can use [New</a> Cars, Used Cars, Car Reviews | Cars.com](<a href=“http://www.cars.com%5DNew”>http://www.cars.com) and then check out the dealers online and see what reviewers say (there are also dealer reviews on the cars.com site). You can search for new or used and add many other parameters.</p>
<p>I think the issue Lorelei has is that there is no permanent address in the state where the car is going to be. I know here (and everywhere else I’ve lived), I needed to provide an instate address to register my car and get instate plates.</p>
<p>The issue of insurance is also another one. The car will need to be insured where it is garaged. I know our insurance company did not underwrite coverage in another state where we loaned a car to a family member. We were honest with our insurance company…we had six months to make the change.</p>
<p>Many snowbirds leave cars in second states…but they have addresses in those states.</p>
<p>It could work to use family member’s address as address for title, except there will be no documents with my name and that address to prove the link. This is complicated! In NJ, you have to have a NJ driver’s license to get insurance and title, etc., at least I have to prove that when I renew and register. That is why I am concerned about how to do this in a western state.</p>
<p>Wonder what the snowbirds do? They often leave cars but they do NOT have licenses in both states. </p>
<p>When DS registered his car in AZ, he needed his drivers license first, and then proof of insurance…but he was permanently moving there, so that made sense.</p>
<p>There’s no standard answer, and various people’s anecdotes from various states aren’t much help. Different states have different rules on what is required to title and register a motor vehicle. Check the website of the DMV in the state where you plan to have the vehicle. If that’s not clear, call them and explain your situation. If the person you speak to doesn’t know the answer, demand to speak to a supervisor. Someone knows the rules for that particular state, and it’s not likely to be a bunch of random well-intentioned posters on CC who don’t even know what state you’re talking about.</p>
<p>Edit: You might also talk to a car dealer or two in the target state. They’ve likely encountered this situation before, and they have an interest in making the sale, so they’ll likely know the work-arounds.</p>