How do you do it?
The DMV website is crap.
A guy contacted me about my GTI, and wants to trade his MINI. The wife wants a mini, so this works for me.
He is in SC.
I've never sold a car before (BigBlueRam helped me take the last one to the crusher) so I am clueless here.

I'll need to get a tag to bring it home, and/or for him to take my car. He may have to take care of half of that.
I'll need to get it inspected (5% tint all the way around, going to suck )
Then I need to get it registered.

Any help/ guidance/ experience would be greatly appreciated. I know a couple of you go through cars every few months.

12/17/2011 4:45:47 PM

Are you meeting somewhere halfway or going all the way to his house to do the deal?

Your best bet to avoid a bunch of hassle is just to drive it home on his plates and let him do the same. Sign titles over, get the notary to make a copy for your records, and get a bill of sale from him as well. Make sure he is agrees to just take the car home and park it until he handles his business at the SC DMV and vice versa. Sometimes you just have to trust people a tiny bit if you want to avoid a bunch of hassle. If something were to happen you or your insurance company might get sucked in, but it's pretty unlikely and your title copy/bill of sale should offer at least some protection.

The other option would be to have him meet you at your home or you meet at his home. Drive to the closest DMV, transfer the title for the one that is staying in that state and get a temporary tag so the other person can drive the other one home legally. They're usually 3-day tags. Bring it home and go to the local DMV for the official transfer to this state.

I've probably driven half a dozen cars home on the previous owner's plates. Really it's no more likely to get them in trouble than when they let me drive the car for a test drive. When I go into the DMV the next day to transfer the title I turn in their plates and fax them a copy of the receipt that the DMV gives you. Never had a seller balk when I asked them to let me do that.

[Edited on December 17, 2011 at 5:32 PM. Reason : s]

12/17/2011 5:28:10 PM

Quote :

"drive it home on his plates and let him do the same."

i disagree.
id never let anyone drive home with my plates. id rather them have no plate or a cardboard plate than mine. yeah, most likely nothing would happen. but i dont like to take chances. now, if they let me drive home with their plate, id probably do that. just because id try to run as many red light cameras as i can

j/k

12/17/2011 5:36:42 PM

Just had this conversation a couple hours ago with a guy who is buying a vehicle from me. Drive it home with no plates, or throw your GTI plates on the Mini- should you get pulled you will have a bill of sale showing you just bought it. Worst case scenario you will get Sargent Fucktard that writes you a non registered ticket, not insured ticket, and maybe a fictitious tags ticket, all of which will be thrown out of court by the magistrate when you show them the documentation. In a trade situation, write two bills of sale showing you buying the Mini for $1 and selling the GTI for $1. You can even pass a dollar back and forth and giggle if you want to look like a bunch of geeks.

You WILL need to find a place that can notarize sellers signatures on the titles, I usually have them stamp the bill of sales as well so they look more official. Don't forget to make two copies of each so you both have one- that is 4 in total. You can call your insurance company and have the GTI taken off your policy and the Mini put on it before driving it home if your scared.

12/17/2011 5:52:43 PM

ALSO, if you don't care about the physical tag and you aren't going to transfer it to the Mini you can leave it on the GTI and notify the NCDMV that you did so, and they will decommission the tag as of the date on the bill of sale (which you can provide to them).

12/17/2011 5:54:56 PM

Well, who knows about the mini....
Told the guy I was a go, and would like to take care of it this week
.
.
.
and he said he had to ask his dad.

12/17/2011 6:54:16 PM

pffft

aint gonna happen

12/17/2011 10:39:52 PM

I know that once you sell or trade in a vehicle, you can legally use the plate on a new vehicle for up to 20 days, provided that the vehicle has passed inspection, is insured, and you have the title in your name. It's basically just so you can drive it like that over to the DMV and do the title and plate transfer paperwork. If the inter-state part of the deal has any bearing on that, I don't know.

12/18/2011 8:01:46 AM

You will need your plate to get the balance of property taxes back on your original car. Then of course you have to pay property taxes on the new ride. Unless you are an idiot like me and collect plates.

If pulled in transit, the bill of sale is adequate to prove you just bought the car. I drove my E30 from Raleigh to where I live in SC with no tags and had no issue. I was pulled in my E46 after I bought it with almost expired Texas temporary tags (where I bought it) and the trooper really didnt care.

12/18/2011 9:15:45 AM

Just so you know some states (incl SC) do not require a notarization for the seller to sign their name on the title for transfer. NC DMV knows this and will not require it when processing an out of state title. You would, however, be required to have your sig notarized on your NC title when sold even when its going to a state that doesn't need one.

12/18/2011 10:01:43 AM