Be sure to post back afterward and tell us how it went.
“It would be easiest to also depart from Milwaukee/Chicago, rather than Texas”
what did you mean by that?
- Usually round trip fares from the same city of arrival and departure are cheapest.
- The car title does not get printed the day you pay for your car and title fees and registration. It gets mailed to you up to two months or so later from the original date of the transaction. You have to pick up the title somewhere along the way, so you can sell the car. Your intent was to sell in Texas, yet the title be going to a non-Texas Post Office Box.
–How are you going to get the title to Texas where you will sell the car? Are you going to drive back to Milwaukee to get the title?
–Are you going to leave a forwarding order in the Post Office Box so the mail actually gets to Texas?
–You need to figure this out even if you are going to give away the car at the end of the trip.
Just keep in mind things don’t always go according to plan. You must have a plan and the paperwork to either sell or give away the car. A valid title in your name and possession is key.
You are assuming that everything will go smoothly and as planned, but as one who has dealt with both state and federal US governments his entire life I can tell you that it most likely won’t. There will be delays, and bureaucratic hangups, and people saying “no” because you don’t talk like them and they live for the chance to say “no” to people no matter what the excuse, and you will be pulled into rooms and questioned as to your intent, probably more than once. Hell, it’s often difficult for ME to get things done at the DMV, and I have the advantage of having citizenship. As Jayhawk just pointed out, getting the title normally is often a greater-than-two-month process. I bought a car a few years back and didn’t get the title for 4 months because the DMV was backlogged. If this happens to you (and it probably will) you won’t be able to sell the car before you leave.
Plus, you’re assuming that flying over here, buying a car under one assumed PO Box and then immediately forwarding that box to another assumed PO box on the opposite end of the country is not going to make anyone suspicious of anything in this age of militant overreaction to anything odd because it might be a “terrist” plot. It’s a bad assumption and it’s most likely not going to go well for you if you try this. You’d be far better off expanding your budget and renting a car as is the usual route for short-term tourists in any country. It’ll be a lot less hassle, and you’ll be able to spend your time exploring the country rather than exploring the windowless walls of soulless government offices.
At $2000 max, you’re probably not looking at the same generation of the Sebring, so you’d have to look at the reliability and quality of the old (pre 2000) models, which share very little to nothing with the current Sebring, which is a joke for a modern car.