Attention: TDR Forum Junkies Final post on this thread at least from me.
Couldn't agree more with RVTRKN on value of TDR. *I started here when I purchased my 2004.5 Dually. Great resource I have relied on TDR members knowledge many times.*
As a California resident buying a vehicle out of state I had to personally go to the CA DMV. *Dennis Dillion had called and asked me what DMV office I'd like the paperwork sent to which they did. I was surprised that the dealer didn't just send the paper work to the DMV headquarters in Sacramento. I asked at the local DMV when I was there and was told it was much better to send to local DMV and that Sacramento frequently makes a mess of the registration and takes far longer to complete the process.
One *issue is CA only allows 20 days for the registration process to complete.*
CA DMVs are notoriously busy and while one can make an appointment, which greatly speeds up the process, I could not get an appointment within the 20 day time frame. *So after walking in without an appointment and waiting 3 hours I had the truck in the CA system with a 60 day temporary CA permit and was told I had to have the truck smog tested. *Smog test a brand new, the DMV inspected it, 50 state truck how stupid is that.*
So off to the smog test. *By the way the CA smog test system is pretty paperless. Test station just hooks up to the vehicle computer and automatically uploads the result. *So even if I had known I needed a smog test I could not have gone to the test station first because the truck wasn't in the CA DMV system. So another 2 hour wait at the DMV and I finally had my registration and license plate.
Even with the DMV process nonsense I would not hesitate to buy out of state again and save 5,000 bucks.
Mike
Couldn't agree more with RVTRKN on value of TDR. *I started here when I purchased my 2004.5 Dually. Great resource I have relied on TDR members knowledge many times.*
As a California resident buying a vehicle out of state I had to personally go to the CA DMV. *Dennis Dillion had called and asked me what DMV office I'd like the paperwork sent to which they did. I was surprised that the dealer didn't just send the paper work to the DMV headquarters in Sacramento. I asked at the local DMV when I was there and was told it was much better to send to local DMV and that Sacramento frequently makes a mess of the registration and takes far longer to complete the process.
One *issue is CA only allows 20 days for the registration process to complete.*
CA DMVs are notoriously busy and while one can make an appointment, which greatly speeds up the process, I could not get an appointment within the 20 day time frame. *So after walking in without an appointment and waiting 3 hours I had the truck in the CA system with a 60 day temporary CA permit and was told I had to have the truck smog tested. *Smog test a brand new, the DMV inspected it, 50 state truck how stupid is that.*
So off to the smog test. *By the way the CA smog test system is pretty paperless. Test station just hooks up to the vehicle computer and automatically uploads the result. *So even if I had known I needed a smog test I could not have gone to the test station first because the truck wasn't in the CA DMV system. So another 2 hour wait at the DMV and I finally had my registration and license plate.
Even with the DMV process nonsense I would not hesitate to buy out of state again and save 5,000 bucks.
Mike
