scrubbedexpat097

You will be on holiday so why waste pressure time and have to cope with lots of hassle and red tape to probably not save any money?

Rent a car, drive and enjoy.

Pulaski

The tags are registered to the driver in the US, not the car as in the UK. Many people do get new tags with a new car, but I'm not sure why as the old ones can't be reregistered to the next owner of the vehicle they trade-in. I'd be surprised if any used cars on a dealer forecourt would have tags (if they do, they're worthless), and if you buy privately the seller is going to remove the tags from the vehicle, either for their next vehicle or to return to the state for a partial refund of their registration fee.

In the states I have experience of, to register a vehicle I need proof of an address, AND a state driving licence.

UKNeil

Right ok I understand it now. So if you don't have an address here then you can't buy a car and drive it around? I'd have thought there must be a way to do that.

Bob

Registration/tax and plates will be new to you. I don't know if you need to get a inspection done when you buy in CA, but you might.

Also, it would be a hell of a hassle to import the car into Canada. You can't just leave it there.

Bob

You can buy it easily enough. You just couldn't get it road legal very easily, leaving you having to tow it or drive it illegally, which wouldn't be ideal.

Pulaski

I have heard anecdotally of people doing it, but I have no idea how. It may not have been recently, because states have tightened up their driver licensing and vehicle registration processes after 9/11, when it was revealed that several of the hijackers had obtained Virginia licenses with no difficulty.

UKNeil

I won't be driving a car that's not road legal, that's just a bad idea. I can understand having to have an address though.

Pulaski

Yes he can, it is perfectly easy to drive a US registered car into Canada, he just can't sell it or register it there, at least not easily, but he was planning to abandon it on land owned by relatives.

UKNeil

Yeah that would be the plan but we don't have a permanent address. With used cars why do people sell it and in the description give you the dates when that tags are good until? So to get it right, the person is registered on the car and when they sell both parties fill in the pink slip and the seller removes the tags and maybe the plates too, then the buyer has to go to the dmv and register the car in his name?

Cheers and sorry for being stupid!

Nutmegger

Tags and plates are just different terms for the same thing -- and yes, the plates are the property of the seller, as opposed to being always with the same car, so they are removed when the vehicle is sold and either handed in at the DMV or can be transferred to a new vehicle. The person buying the car has to start from scratch registering the car and getting new plates.

UKNeil

Got it!!

Yogibear1961

We bought our truck pre owned with plates and tags just paid $15 at dmv for the transfer also had to pay tax and registration fee though, but the plates stayed with the vehicle

UKNeil

Thats probably why I see ads with people saying when the tags are valid until then.
I'm going to go to the DMV and ask them

cheers

Hotscot

Why even bother?...a lot of potential hassle for minimum potential savings.

I had a quick look at Hertz. $1000 a month for a Dodge minivan, Ford Focus for less than $2000 Total for three months.

That's renting in San Francisco.

UKNeil

Yeah for 2 months getting the car from LAX its $3600 total price, I've got this one with hertz and thats the best they can do. Thats returning it to LAX so not ideal, returning it in Canada is either unavailable on some cars or costs a lot on the vehicles available.