I am buying a car that is currently in Dunkirk, which is an hour from my home. I need to get it home after I buy it so I can register it, and all that jazz. And I was hoping to not need to make 2 trips (one to pick up the title and then one to pick up the car)
Now I understand that NYS doesn’t give temporary plates or anything to get a car home after you buy it…
What would everyone suggest I do that will avoid 2 trips down?
Go to the DMV there. Bring your license and proof of insurance for the car (get it insured ahead of time).
r u transferring registration from another car or new reg?
if transferring, just make sure u have insurance and swap plates; if new reg, then 2 trips.
There are a few DMV’s around Dunkirk.
either do the insurance b4 hand or legally u need to make 2 trips…if it where me i’d throw on my plates and have a friend drive behind me…you may be able to throw a rope on it and say you are “towing” it home but I hear that doesn’t work so, get AAA and have them tow it for u
I would insure the car for sure before picking it up. It’s moreso a question of how do I pick it up without needing 2 trips, because I would be picking it up in the evening and DMVs all close early, so no dice there.
If the car has insurance on it, and I have a signed title showing I just took ownership of it, how much trouble would I hypothetically get into if I was caught?
Get the VIN number
Get insurance
Buy car, get title and bill of sale
Go to DMV, get sales tax form and registration form
Get plates and 10-day
Drive home
Edit: If you’re getting it at night, you’re screwed.
So lame.
NYS DMV is a pile of crap.
Edit- Anyone have a dealer plate I could borrow? lol
I bought a car a number of years ago this old camaro, I was like 18 at the time. Just about the same situation as you.
I got the car insured, brought the temp insurance, had the title signed over, and swapped the plates from my other vehicle, brought other vehicle registration, ect.
Well comming home, friend behind me notices both rear parking lights not working. So does a cop, and he proceeded to pull me over.
He let me go though. Said to bring the car directly home and not drive it until I had it registered properly. He said I was lucky I got it insured ahead of time or he would have had to impound it. He said he “should” impound it without registration, but he didn’t.
I just looked into this, and ended up buying a car on long island.
I was going to get a temp tag, but if your buying in NYS, then you mine as well just register it at the dmv out there.
The ny dmv makes the temp tag not make sense, you have to go in there anyways, so why not just register it.
The dmv website has a ezpass type deal, where you type up all the information to transfer plates, and you print it out and sign it. The girl scans one barcode, and this makes the process much faster.
You need the ezpass registration, an insurance card for the car, and the new affidavit bill of sale (on the dmv website). Also bring your old plates, and your old registration paperwork.
Looks like this is going to be 2 trips then.
NY seriously sucks in that regard. I now have to piss away like $20 in gas, to take 2 trips out there to do something that should only take one trip, as I will be picking the car up in an evening because I work like a normal person, so I cannot go to the Dunkirk DMV when they are open.
It’s not much different in other states, but if complaining makes you feel better…
Basically you want temp tags on a car you don’t have a title or bill of sale for.
Or
You want to get a temp tag well after closing hours of the DMV.
I will have a bill of sale, and insurance, and a title, and it is fully inspected and 100 percent safe in every way.
I want to get a car home without needing to make 2 seperate 2 hour drives. It’s absurd that they make it so difficult to do such.
But you’ll have all of that at what time? Before 5pm? If so, you’re fine. If not…well no DMVs are open that late normally (yes, extended hours some days, I know).
It’s not the DMV that’s difficult…
…how is the DMV not difficult?
They have hours that are very unfriendly towards people who actually work a 8-5 job like many of us do.
I can get insurance at any point online. I can get the title and bill of sale upon meeting with the seller, yet I need to go to a DMV which closes at as early as 4:15pm some days. Thus requiring two seperate trips that will total 2.5 hours driving per each trip, just to get the paperwork to take the the DMV (that may I remind you has extremely customer unfriendly hours), and then another trip to pick up the car once it’s registered.
Have seller mail title and receipt. No one is making you buy a car that 2 hours away.
Mailing a signed-over title thru the mail doesn’t seem like a good idea at all.
I was simply wondering if all this could be done in one trip, which it clearly cannot.
yeah I hear ya, the DMV is always a pain. Although the Delavan DMV is the best one I have ever been to.
Delavan is where i go because it’s near work. I head down on my lunch and in and out in 5 minutes.
I’m just bitter, that is all.
You cant take a half day at work? If you are so worried about the time table then slap some plates on it and take your chances.