Sort of. I'm flying to Cincinnati next week to buy an RX-7. The owner says that in Ohio license plates are transferrable from one car to the next so he is going to keep his. That would leave me with a 1000+ mile drive with NO plates! How the heck do you get around that there?

 

30 day temp tag from the license bureau I bet. You know the drill don't you?

BTW, shouldn't this be posted over at rx7club??

 

Probably but I figured I'd get better responses over here.

When I get there, do we have to immediately go to the DMV? I've never bought a car from out of state and I've never had people keep their plates when I've bought cars in state.

 

Bought mine in CA and would've had the same issue, but the previous owner allowed me to keep the plates with a promissory note that I'd return them when I arrived in CO.

If he hadn't, I'd would've needed to get a 30 day temporary tag from the California DMV in the county he lived in, which includes (for CA) a smog test. What a pain in the ***. I'd really work towards getting your buyer to allow to you to hold on to the plates for the trip.

If he won't budge, its either temporary tag or 1000 miles of really illegal. Most officers are comfortable giving you a warning if you have a bill of sale for the day or the previous day. I wouldn't extend it into a 2 - 3 day trip though.

 

His suggestion was that I bring a license plate off of one of my other cars! Hell no!!! That'll really get you in trouble.

 

You just need temp tags. I believe all you need for temps are the title of a car. Just make sure the BMV is open when you're buying the car. Here's the BMV site:

http://www.ohiobmv.com/

This too: BMV Clicky

I would probably shoot an email to them to make sure you're able to do this. The BMV is weird in that they have registar offices and title offices so your best bet is to go one building with both offices located and open.

I don't know of anyone coming from out of state to pick up a car and drive it back though so I'd definitely double check the rules.

 

can't you get a temp tag from TX and bring it with you to OH so you can drive the car back?

 

I know Texas is a little looser on laws but I'm pretty sure you need a title to get a tag.

 

A friend of mine who has bought and sold lots of cars said the same thing today. I need to look into that.

My biggest concern about getting a temp tag in Cincinnati is that my flight gets in at 2:45 on a Friday and that's if it's on time. We need to get to the DMV before close or else wait until Monday. That's not happening as I work Monday. If my plane runs late, I'm pretty much screwed.

There's got to be a way to do it. There must be people that go to different states on weekends when everything is closed, and then do the same thing. The key is how. I'm going to stop by my local courthouse to ask them what they recommend.

 

If you can get the title transferred ahead of time you can probably get tags in Texas and bring them with you. But I don't know what kind of arrangements you have.

BMVs in Ohio are usually open on Saturdays and in major Counties, like Cincytucky, there is going to be at least one open late on Friday (6 or 7 PM).

Really I'd just call them and check. I'm sure they deal with this all the time especially in Cincy which uses Kentucky over the river for their strip club needs. Probably a lot of Kentuckian hookers and pimps who buy used cars in Cincy with that money.

 

Problem solved. My local tax assessor just wants to see proof of insurance, which I'll get before I go, and for $25 they'll give me a 30 day plate to take with me. Easy enough.