That sux, I got the complete opposite, great service, great prices, short lines.


All it took was a $800 check and a pink slip. 5 minutes tops.

It does matter which DMV you choose. I live in a county that has a really well run DMV with nice employees use to all kinds of weird titles due to the ammount of OHV and custom's in my county.

 

I bought a truck, new, from Idaho and paid sales tax in Nevada when I registered it. 6 months later, I moved to Claifornia and had to show proof that I paid sales tax already or I was going to pay it again. Also, when I registered my Porsche in Nevada, didn't have to pay sales tax cause it was used and Nevada stopped charging sales tax on used vehicles 2 weeks prior. Lucky me!

 

You had it easy. In the early 70's, I brought a Lotus into California from Germany. It had a US Forces registration, which at that time at least, didn't constitute a title. I had a bill of sale from the German dealer, but that didn't matter because it wasn't (are you ready?) notarized. After screwing with the local DMV for months without any semblance of progress, I drove to Sacramento and stormed the DMV head cheese's office. Well, his deputy's office.

I screamed bloody murder about discrimination against returning GI's and threatened to bring L. Mendel Rivers into it. Google him, if you don't know who he was. The upshot of it was me getting my California title and registration, and my local DMV getting their collective butts reamed.

I was a happy camper, and I had learned a thing or two about taking issues right to the top early on and not waisting my time screwing with the small fry.

 

Yeah in Texas the plate goes with the vehicle... Never known another way.

 

Allot of dealers will not collect the tax on purchases going to another state, like yours. It's allot of paperwork for them. HOWEVER, it is your responsibility to go down to the local revenue office and come clean. If you don't, you may be liable on the state level for fines and fees for evading the payment of the taxes. I would strongly urge you to handle this within 10 days from the date of purchase. If you would, let us know what you find out.

 

You were lucky. It was a time thing. I don't recall right now exactly the time limit, but think it is around 6 mos.

More than likely what happened is the folks thought you bought it there, lived there, moved here...

 

Some things have changed, some have not.

You can still get the bloody run around at CA DMV.
You will not be allowed to personally visit the Director, or the Chief Deputy Director or any of the other Deputy's. I know this only because I work with them

 

In California, it used to be that if you bought a vehicle out of state, say Nevada for instance, the dealership was required to collect the sales tax pertainent to the county you lived in and pass those fees to the CA DMV. About 5 or 6 years ago, they stopped that, and now it is up to the buyer to present the contract to the DMV and sales tax will be collected then.

Out of country purchases get problematic because of smog and safety regs. and it is possible that a vehicle cannot be registered period. I had that happen with an '88 Brandenburg Jag XJS from Europe. Plus, as mentioned in a thread above, paperwork is not standardized and since the robots here don't recognize that paperwork, meltdowns occur.

 

I do just the opposite, I buy my rigs in Montana, register them there for one year, then avoid sales tax. I do the same with ATVs and sleds, except usually Idaho, cause Nevada has no registration on recreational vehicles and ID is closer than montana. In NV if vehicle was registered out of state for 6 months you do not pay sales tax.