Change of State registration after buying the car from dealer

Hello everyone

I have a situation here that I need some insights on. When I first got the car at a dealership(took finance under them) I mentioned to them that I need the car registration to be under a particular state and I signed all the necessary paperwork. The deal got funded and everything. Now I want to ask them to do the registration in a different state due to some personal reasons and I am ready to pay off the whole amount with the difference in the taxes via a cheque from a different bank.

Is this possible?

You are asking the wrong folks. You need to call the dealer and the state office that you wish to register the car in. If the car is already registered in the state you chose first, it is up to you to re-register the new car in your new state.

Thank you for responding. The car is not yet registered. I did ask the dealer and my sales consultant said its possible and asked me to send out a cheque with total amount including the taxes of the new state. But today when I talked to the finance person, he said that there is no way they can do the registration to a different state as he started all the processing with the 1st state I mentioned. So I wanted to ask here to know if this is possible.

Complicated yet simple. What state will it be registered in? Then pay it off and take the title and register it in the new state if needed.

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If the registration application has been submitted how can it be stopped? I don’t believe that it can. You will have to turn in the license plates when you register the vehicle in the next state and see if there is a way to get a partial refund on the first registration fee.

Got it. It will be registered in Massachusetts

For the registration, I was asked for additional address proofs. Due to my situation, I will not be able to provide those and hence I asked them to do the registration in MA for which I have a drivers licence.

Are you in the ’ Witness Protection Program ’ ? How does one get a loan if they can’t provide address info ?

Are you Active Duty Military by any chance, stationed in a state other than Massachusetts? If so, the car can be registered in the state you are stationed regardless of your drivers license.

At the dealership I was just asked for bank statement and I provided those. But later I was asked for a drivers licence. I do not want to change my drivers licence away from my work location.

No I am not

I dunno but you can’t just pick whatever state you want to register a car in. You have to be a resident of that state and then the car has to be registered in that state. Usually for out of state sales the dealer will provide a 30 day sticker for you to accomplish that. What does financing have to do with it? Why do they care what state you are in?

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Your registration, title, and drivers license all have to have the same address.

Nobody can give you legal advice, most of us only know the registration process in our own state.

You are not giving us a clear picture of your situation, Also, if it is possible for the dealer to do it, they may just not want to.

MA has strict consumer protection laws that your dealer might bot want to get involved in.

You refer to “your situation” and with any car deal there should not be any murkiness at all.

Granted, your situation is nobody’s business but your own but it comes across to me anyway that you’re trying to dodge something.

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I bought my first motorcycle in Georgia, but I live in Florida. They sent me home with a paper tag and told me I was on my own to register it. I registered it at the DMV (actually, the county tax collector’s office) in Florida and everything was fine.

Don’t overthink this. Just let them send you home with a temporary tag and register the car in your home state before the paper tag expires.

There is no reason the dealership has to register the vehicle for you except that it’s another chance for them to overcharge you.

If you bought a car in a private sale, you’d have to register the car yourself, so just pretend it’s a private sale and take the bill of sale and/or the signed title to the DMV and pay the annual registration fee. Piece of cake.

There have been threads here about vehicle buyers beating the dealer out of collecting the sales tax because of a mix up over state or county residence. It seemed that some applauded those who beat the sales tax, dealers take this seriously.

This was my red flag. Them chose one state originally and then changed the state for personal reasons. There was nothing that suggested it was where the OP was living. Maybe so but something is not right. A while back someone was living in one state and working in another and trying to register the car in the work state. So it’s a little cloudy.

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In my mind registration and sales tax are two different issues since the tax should be charged where the car was purchased, regardless of where it is eventually registered. The only apparent danger is that the OP might have to pay for registration twice, which seems appropriate if the dealership has already registered the car in the state originally listed on the paperwork.

I suppose there might be states that still charge some kind of impact fee or sales tax along with the registration, but with the motorcycle I paid Georgia sales tax and Florida registration.

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I live in NH on the boarder with MA and I’ve bought 2 different cars over the years from a dealer in MA.

You need the dealer to give you a temporary license plate (transport plate) when you buy the vehicle. Once you get the vehicle then you register it in the state you want. When you register your vehicle is when you pay the tax. The dealer can NOT collect the tax unless they register it for you. And all dealers around here charge you for that…At least $100 per vehicle. No thank you.