jmood

I would like to insure and register my car in one state but am buying in another. The dealer is insisting that I must change my licence over to the same state. Geico insurance has said it is not a problem.
Thoughts

md95065

It depends on the laws of the state in which you intend to buy the vehicle (and on what the dealer is prepared to do).

Generally speaking, you don't need either a driver's license or insurance to purchase a vehicle (although, if you are financing the purchase, the lender will normally require insurance) - those things only come into play when you want to operate the vehicle.

Pulaski

Sounds like the dealer is confused. You must register your car where you live, which is presumably the state where you have your license?

However if you have moved states and not yet changed your license then the dealer is correct, and you should swap your license for one issued by the state where you live.

Bob

Sounds like they don't want the hassle to filing one extra sheet of paper to say you don't owe sales tax in their state...

rpjs

Where is the dealer? NY? (You're on the NY/NJ border aren't you?)

S-i-L, who lives in PA, recently leased a new car from a dealer here in NY, with her sister, my wife, providing the down-payment. They gave S-i-L NY paper plates to drive off the lot with and told her she needed to register it in PA A.S.A.P.

She did eventually do so, and I think even before the NY paper plates expired, but within a couple of days of her getting the car, we were getting frequent calls from the dealer asking us to remind her to register the car in PA. So I guess there may be some liability that could come back on the dealer in NY if they provide a car that's going out of state and isn't properly registered within a short time.

jmood

I will be buying in NJ. I have a licence from NJ but my address is NY and I want to register and insure in NY. I can't sway my licence yet because the NY DMV web site says I must have held it for min 6 months before I swap for the Ny licence.
What do you think? Should I buy from a NY dealer? would that make a difference?

( I got the licence in NJ because it didn't require me to take a 1 week paid course like NY and they accepted my UK licence AND let me keep it.)

MsElui

we used to live on Ohio and moved to texas. we drove to the new state. Due to some insane plan by my husband, we stopped off on the way in ANOTHER state we never lived in or even visited before - and brought a car there (part exchanging a car too) and then continued travelling down to Texas. The sold car reg and driving licences were all from ohio, and we had only a temp address to give for texas. No fuss was made at all. we just resisted the car and got new licences in due course in texas.

Pulaski

Oooops, what a mess! .... You might do better with a NY dealer, because it sounds like you can't have a NJ address. ..... HANG ON! HTF did you get a NJ license without an NJ address? It sounds like the license might have been improperly issued/ obtained by deception?

Pulaski

So the car didn't want to go to Texas?

md95065

It depends on the state, but there are places where it is not necessary to be resident in the state in order to get a driver's license.

(A lot of people get confused by the rules that say that "if you are a resident of a particular state then you must get a driver's license from that state" and think that also means that you must be a resident in order to get a driver's license. Some states do require that you prove that you are a resident, but others do not ...)

jmood

My life is a mess.

Thanks for the curveball! (not)
Absolutely no impropriety or deception. The more I give details the more you'll get hung up on the irrelevant details (a.k.a the mess my life is), so if you don't mind, just take my word for it. No deception, no impropriety.

Back to my original question/issue - any suggestion with this added info?
Thanks :-)

Pulaski

I think you either need a NJ address (which I guess would require "proof" such as a utility bill, so not easy to fix overnight), and then register and insure in NJ,

OR

you need a NY license, so you can register in NY.

You decide.

hungryhorace

Oh dear...! I applaud your ingenuity though. Probably best to switch it to a NY DL when the time period elapses to enable the swap.

BTW - my suggestion, fwiw, buy the car from another dealer in NY that isn't going to care, OR bite the bullet and buy one in NJ.

jmood

I just talked with another Honda dealer based in NJ. They said as long as you have proof of address in NY you can register the car in NY and it doesn't matter that your licence is from NJ.
Hopefully that is true.

Pulaski

So you'll be registering your car in NJ then.

Problem solved.

Next question?