Buying out of state - a cautionary tale

It's not what you might think. My `14 CPO i3 Rex seems to be close to perfect and was a great value. Actually purchasing the car and getting it to my house was surprisingly smooth and involved fedexing docs back and forth and happened pretty quickly. My car was put on a truck and arrived 5 days later, from California to Indiana.

That's where my problems have started. It's not the car, it's my inability to legally drive my car for the next 45 days because I have no license plates - temporary or otherwise.

Per my dealer, because I had the dealership ship the car to me (as opposed to me shipping the car to myself), I didn't take possession of the car until it arrived in my state, they can't issue temporary California tags AND since they aren't a dealer in Indiana, they can't issue temporary Indiana tags.

They are working with what appears to be a great 3rd party title company who is taking care of all of my tags, taxes, etc - I should have my permanent tags in 45 days without any additional effort from me.

In the meantime, I'm stuck either a) hoping my lack of license plate isn't noticed or that my local officers of the law take pity on me or b) garaging my new pride and joy (after my Children, etc.) until the magical day when my plates arrive.

TL;DR: When buying out of state, be 100% confident you know what your short AND long-term license plate situation is going to be like before you sign on the dotted line.

PS: If anyone has any magical workarounds here - PLEASE let me know!

Sounds like you're relying on the out of state dealer and a 3rd party company to do the leg work. I believe you can do the leg work yourself in a much faster time. Do you have a bill of sale? Go to your local DMV and fill out the paperwork to get a title. Yes, it might take a few weeks to get a title but the DMV should issue you a temp tag based on your bill of sale and the fact you've applied for a title. At least that's the case here in S.C.

I will voich for the OP as I am in the same boat currently. However I was able to get temps by paying the sales tax and registration in Washington. I've spent hours going back and forth from the dealer to my licensing department to the California dol. I'm still waiting to fully register the car and my temp expires on the 25th.

Depending on your state your local Treasurer/DMV might issue a temporary permit. Call and ask. Make sure to talk to someone higher up.

How to get temporary tags is very much a state issue...they are not all the same. Where I live, you just need the sales paperwork from the person selling the vehicle showing the VIN, sales price, and, if used, the signed over title, and for a fee, can get temporary plates for the thing. I've only done it once, but it took all of about 15-minutes to do the paperwork and I walked out with temporary plates.