Car arriving with no plates!

[Soujouner]

What is most important is that your vehicle is insured. Operating a vehicle without insurance in most states is an arrestable offense. An unregistered vehicle is a citation and most officers are understanding if you’re on a waiting list for the DMV.

[terracore]

Originally Posted by Lucky01

Hi, I know this post is long overdue but i am currently in the same situation. I’m bringing a trailer in the island. I would like to ask, does the dmv guys need to check the vehicle before they give you the plates and do they have to weigh it in before releasing the plates as well? I’m really confused on what to do and i’m relying on this thread only. The DMV here just gave me the requirements and never gave me the steps on what to do. I can’t get a hold of them, i’ve been giving them calls and sending emails but they never bother to give a callback or reply.

I recently bought another sedan at auction and had it shipped from Oahu. Because it was previously owned by the federal government there was no registration history on the car. Similar to what I did in 2015 but this time I hit a new snag.

I took all the required documents to the DMV and the lady asked me for proof of the vehicle's weight. I explained to her that I got the weight by looking up the VIN number and using any one of the hundreds of free online VIN decoders.

Nope. I needed proof that the vehicle weighed the same as what the manufacturer reported. PROOF. Like maybe I encased it with concrete and added 2,000 pounds so I could cheat the DMV out of the next tier of licensing fees. Sigh.

So I took it to the weigh station and got PROOF. The weigh station didn't actually verify I was driving the car that matched the documents I gave them. I could have driven a mini cooper or something and screwed the DMV out of some licensing fees. But I didn't. And as expected, the weigh station reported the car weighed the same as the manufacturer did.

But to answer your question about the trailer, if you don't have proof you'll need a way to separate the trailer from the vehicle at the weigh station, and then quickly reconnect it again to get off the scale so as to not backup the traffic. I saw a guy dealing with that while I was there. I don't know what specifically his problem was, but he couldn't do that to get his weight certificate.

Oh.... and I asked the lady at the DMV how I was supposed to get the car to the weigh station since I couldn't legally drive it without the plates she wouldn't give me. She said I would have to pay to get it towed. Because of course Hawaii doesn't have temporary registrations like every other state I've dealt with.

Almost forgot to add.... I also recently registered a pickup truck I bought from a friend on Oahu and brought to the Big Island. It was a simpler transaction, just re-registering it with my name when transferring title. Easy peasy right? Nope, I needed proof the truck wasn't still on Oahu. Like I was trying to cheat them out of Oahu's higher registration fees by fake-registering it on the Big Island. Fortunately I had the receipt from Young Brothers documenting the voyage over. (alternatively, could they have gone to the parking lot and looked at it if I drove it to the DMV? I don't know). But... what if... I brought the truck over from Oahu, registered it, and then shipped it back?! Buhahaha DMV you will never know!