CA DMV

[Yetitime]

Anyone have any insight on how difficult CA DMV is on buying out of state and having inspected, lic and plated in CA?

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[1mic]

It is a PITA, all things DMV are. Took my 2.5 hours to pick up plates for my bike.

Purchased a car out of state back in 2007, it had to be smogged, inspected and registration fees were almost $1200.

 

[Traffic22]

I did the same with a Merc Marauder from WA state in 2009. It's a bit of a hassle, but very doable of you know the system.

Make an appointment. You're going to be there all day without one.

Get your CA smog done in advance.

You will need a VIN verification. Best done at DMV, not because they are good at it (I had to show them where all the vins on the car were), but because they may force you to go to CHP if you do a private verification.

Have all your Docs in order. There is a specific form for out of state vehicles you can not download from the web site. (At least you couldn't when I did it.) DMV and AAA both have the form.

Don't forget, they will require a hefty tax, so have your $$$ in order too.

Good luck.

It was worth jumping through hoops for me when I bought my Merc. But the pia is not worth it to everyone.

 

[krt22]

^^ That is the jist of it. One thing to note is you need ~100 miles on the clock to get the smog done, so make sure you ask for a temporary operating permit from the dealer you bought the car. Definitely get an appointment as well since it needs to be inspected by the DMV for VIN verification. I had an appointment so it was pretty painless

Covered here as well. Myself and many others in nor cal had our cars come from out of state.

http://www.mustang6g.com/forums/showthread.php?t=38898&highlight=state&page=3

 

[keltykid350]

Did the out-of-state buy with my Boss due crazy ADM's. No big deal if you have an appointment. All the above posters are correct. They will want to see the 50 state emissions sticker under the hood. Smog, docs and $$$$ (sales tax,registration and VLF) and they'll give you your plates.

 

[Yetitime]

Thanks for the info!

 

[barstowpo]

Go to AAA. If you're not a member, join. It is worth it for this one transaction alone.

 

[Trackaholic]

Just did mine a month or so ago. Pretty easy.

1. Get smog done
2. Make appointment at DMV
3. Download and fill out paperwork from DMV website. Note that you do not need to do anything with the inspection form, since the inspector must fill that out.
4. Bring the Manufacturers Statement of Origin. (Mine came in the mail from my dealer/dealers state DMV a few weeks after I got the car home).
5. Be prepared to spend a bit of time at the DMV. I also needed to renew my lisence, but even so I was only there for an hour and a half or so.

Making an appointment was key, as the non-appointment line was very long.

If you can find a less busy DMV office, that might help. I looked for an office with lots of open appointments, thinking that it was likely less busy. It was pretty painless, except for the tax part. I bought in a state with no tax, so I had to pay the whole thing when registering. All told was $5000 to $6000 of taxes and fees.

-T

 

[krt22]

Go to AAA. If you're not a member, join. It is worth it for this one transaction alone.

I tried. For whatever reason northern california branches dont handle out of state vehicle registrations

 

[keltykid350]

AAA is great for most DMV issues but this has to be done at the DMV office. Sorry

 

[GRTWHT]

I almost purchased an out of state 350, when, at the last minute, one became available 50 miles from my home. The difference in what I paid locally compared to out of state was $2,000 more. I purchased early (Nov 15), mostly because I wanted an early chassis number (#111). To me, it was worth it, simply because I did not want to go through all the items mentioned by other posters. Are you going to travel to the dealer (cost), transport the car back (cost), dealer fees (cost), smog (cost) etc. For me, buying locally was fast, clean, and simple, IMO. Seems to me you should be able to strike a deal and save all that time. There appears to be a lot more cars available now in California.

 

[krt22]

I called ~50 dealers in CA and the cheapest I found was 5k over in the middle of the central valley. Cheapest in the bay area was 20k over and a lot of dealers wouldnt even do a custom order, they were going to order it how they saw fit (ie mostly tech packs) and wait and see what it sold for

So the out of state MSRP deal was a no brainer, $1000 to ship it, $40 for smog, no other fees.

 

[barstowpo]

That's too bad. My local AAA had no problem dealing with a car I bought in Montana. It was a private sale though.

 

[braco427]

Anyone have any insight on how difficult CA DMV is on buying out of state and having inspected, lic and plated in CA?

The only thing I would recommend is that you pay for all the registration fees and California taxes your self at the DMV, instead of letting your out of state dealer collect those and register the car on your behalf. You have to go to the DMV anyways for the inspection so you can get it all done the same day.

I made the mistake of letting the dealer collect the registration and taxes. Which has dragged out getting my title and permanent operating permit. I still had to pay the registration fee at the DMV to get a temporary operating permit. So now the dealer has to reimburse me for that.

 

[TheDivaDanielle]

it sucks, plus you pay through the nose in taxes.

We lived in California for a year, never bothered to register our cars in California. Noted we regularly saw a ton of cars with out of state plates or none at all in Los Angeles.

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