<p>Complicated car situation. I’m out west. I want to buy my dad’s car in Illinois for my daughter. I want to fly to Illinois, buy the car and then drive it east where she is going to medical school. </p>
<p>I have been reading DMV sites all morning and I still don’t know what to do. Has anyone ever done this? Once I transfer title do I get plates in Illinois for the two day drive east? Then do I have to re-register the car in the new state? Do I show proof of insurance from my home state? It’s so confusing that I’m about to just give up. </p>
<p>I can tell you our experience doing this but the state is different so I’m not sure if it will work the same for you. My H flew into Ohio, bought a car, then drove it to SC to leave at our second home. The dealer in Ohio put plates on it which my H changed when he registered it in SC. He had arranged insurance, in advance, in SC.</p>
<p>Can your dad keep ownership of the car until you get it to your home state, at which point you would transfer the title, register and insure the car in your home state?</p>
<p>Edited: Perhaps you can do the registration and sale in your home state before actually taking possession of the vehicle? Would not work for a new Connecticut registration as cars coming from out of state have to go through inspection before being registered. </p>
<p>Take your dad with you. Have him sign the title over to your daughter when you get to her location. Make sure she pays him something ($1 might be enough in some states) to make the DMV happy about not having to deal with the car being a gift. Help her pay for her plates, any required inspection, and the first month of insurance. Take your dad and your daughter out for a nice family dinner. Then, let your daughter drive the two of you to the airport and hop your planes to your separate homes.</p>
<p>Think of it as one last chance to have a dad-daughter road trip!</p>
<p>Not quite the same but similar. D bought a car in a state (not our state) where she was in school. She lived there for two years. During this time she considered our home her permanent address since she was a student. She kept her home state drivers license. The car was registered to her in the college state. When she transferred to a school in a third state she wanted to reregister the car. Our home state required the car to be in our state for an inspection to register it. That wasn’t possible since we were across the country.The new state did not allow OOS students to register vehicles and would have required her to get a drivers license in that state. We didn’t know what to do. She ended up keeping the first states plates and registration. When they expired she happened to be doing a summer internship in that first state and was able to renew the registration for another two yrs. it wasn’t ideal but it was the only thing that worked. Her car insurance at the time was Geico and she had coverage for both states. In our case since my D purchased the car OOS it was in her name. We were not able to cover her on our car insurance.
Can you keep the registration in your dad’s state and address? It gets complicated since each state has its own DMV laws.</p>
<p>I am a bit confused as who the ultimate owner of the car will be, you or your daughter.</p>
<p>I would borrow your Dad’s car and drive it to you destination under his registration.
After you arrive, have him sign the title over to the new owner (or take the signed title with you, but post-dated until after your arrival).
Register/insure the vehicle in the owner’s (you/daughter) state.
Return old tags to Dad to cancel his registration in his state.</p>
<p>Daughter will be the owner of the car. In Illinois, I believe the license plates stay with the owner. Dad will be buying a new car and the plates would be put on the new car. So we would be without plates for the drive. Not a good idea. I suppose there is a provision for temporary plates? </p>
<p>Son recently bought car in Va. Lives in CT. Dealer put temporary plates on it. If I recall correctly, dealer actually registered it in CT for him. May be different for you because you aren’t going though a dealer, but maybe temporary plates are the answer.</p>
<p>Dad doesn’t have to put the old plates on the new car. He could temporarily own two cars, long enough to lend you the old one to drive to your daughter. (You can pay him before he relinquishes ownership if that’s an issue.) I just bought a new to me car at Carmax and gave my daughter my old car. Carmax arranged for new plates for my new car. My daughter is driving my old car with the old plates. Until she gets it together to change the registration she is driving one of my cars with my permission. </p>
<p>Yeah. Unless we are talking vanity plates, you dad would have the option of getting new plates with the new car or transferring the old plates to the new car (in the case of a trade in). There’s nothing to prevent him from keeping the old car and old plates AND buying a new car with new plates. There may be some trivial new plate fee involved, but I can’t imagine it’s more than $50.</p>
<p>We once explored the possibility of buying a car on the west coast and then asked them to help ship it to the east coast. The dealer thought we were not serious and ignored us.</p>
<p>I think it is better for OP’s D to own the car exclusively, mainly for the auto insurance purpose. (I think this is what OP plans to do anyway.)</p>
<p>We once purchased a renter’s insurance for our child by going to our insurance company. They helped to call their agent in another state thousands miles away. But for the auto insurance, the complication is they need to see the car unless the car is new.</p>
<p>In Massachusetts I was able to transfer the title (mailed to me from Connecticut) and then get the car registered with that title and my license and get plates, which I sent back to my parents in CT so they could drive the car to MA. I had a week to get the car to pass MA inspection post-registration. The car was not previously registered, which is why it was such a hassle - my parents had gotten a new car and taken this one off the road. If it still was registered, I wouldn’t have needed to register it before actually getting it into the state.</p>
<p>Do either of the states have the ad valorem tax on motor vehicles? If the one she’s in has it and the one where you are insured doesn’t I’d get the plates in your state. </p>
<p>That’s good to know, eireann. We’re in CT and will be giving our old car to S1 who lives in MA. The only complication in our case is that S1 will be moving out west weeks after we give him the car. We definitely want the car in his name and insurance before he drives cross-country. I wonder if he’ll have to reregister the car once he gets to his new home state.</p>
<p>I bought (was given) my parent’s car when they moved from FL. What made it more complicated, is that the DMV gave me several different answers when I called. This is what finally worked: I bought insurance for the car, I had my parent’s sign the back of the title and transferred it to me, I brought the title transfer and proof of insurance to the DMV and paid the registration and the Highway Use Tax (special to NC). I got a new title in the mail. I needed to send the old plates back to FL. Even then, the FL DMV bugged them for a while for annual registration. </p>
<p>I could borrow the car for the trip from Illinois to Virginia. My dad will be coming to Virginia by air a week later. Could we then transfer title there, in Virginia, and register the car in Virginia? By then, D will have a Virginia address. Anyone see any problems with that? We would be on dad’s insurance as borrowers of his car for the interim.</p>
<p>Shellfell. Is your son relocating to that new state? If so, yes, he will have to register the car in THAT state.</p>
<p>We gave a car to our son. He drove it across the country to his new state while it was registered to us. We signed the title but didn’t date it. He got insurance, an new drivers license, and registered the car and got the title in his new state ( he filled in the date on the title). He mailed the plates back to us, and we returned them to the DMV here.</p>