Car relocations from NY to CA

[skirmishdirmish]

Hi all,

 

I'll be starting my PhD in CA in the fall, and was wondering how to handle car registration. The car I'll have is currently not in my name and is registered in NY, but we're thinking of transferring the title over, registering it in CA, and getting me my own insurance. This is mostly because NY has a policy where you need to get an emissions check once per year, and it seems silly to drive it back once per year just to get it checked!

 

Anyway, I suppose I wanted to hear people's own car stories, and how they chose to handle their situations. And if you have experience in the situation I'm in, and have any tips or tricks for me, that would be great.

 

Thanks!

[rising_star]

I've kept my car registered in my home state, but that's because they don't require admissions tests or anything like that. I think your plan sounds like a good one. Just know that to transfer the registration over, you'll need to have the title and probably something notarized by the other person if the title is in their name.

[mandarin.orange]

Registration is one really solid way to establish residency for your new school, depending on if they require this (state-funded schools will want to move you off non-resident tuition within a year). 

 

DMV has an online calculator you can use to get an estimate for your registration expenses. Generally you need to note the first day you drive into the state, and do registration within 30 days of that date, otherwise there's a penalty. NOTE: if you've bought the car within the last year out-of-state, expect to pay mucho tax to the State of California on its value! We are talking 100s of dollars!  I opted to wait a few months, primarily because after relo costs, I just didn't have $600-700...once I saved enough, 12 months had elapsed and I was off the hook for the tax, BUT did get charged the $75-100 penalty for not registering within 30 days. I advised a new labmate to do the same - wait, then pay the late penalty with other regis costs. 

 

Car will need a smog certificate when you go to register. Use yelp to find a mechanic that can do this without hassle, and for a reasonable price. Rates are not fixed here, so garages can charge wildly different prices for the same emissions test.

 

Get AAA. Not only will give you peace of mind during a cross-country drive, but in southern California, you can avoid the DMV and register everything at a AAA branch! Learning this was life-changing for me and made an errand I was initially dreading, go amazingly! (I've heard this is not true for NorCal's AAA sector, though...AND you do need to FIRST go the DMV for the CA driver's license, which then takes 4-6 weeks to arrive by mail.)

Finally, my latest registration renewal - sent by mail - cost about $175.

[mandarin.orange]

I've kept my car registered in my home state, but that's because they don't require admissions tests or anything like that. 

 

Well, I'd surely be out of luck if my car had to pass an admissions test. Flakey cruise-control is about the extent of its brain power.   

[skirmishdirmish]

DMV has an online calculator you can use to get an estimate for your registration expenses. Generally you need to note the first day you drive into the state, and do registration within 30 days of that date, otherwise there's a penalty. NOTE: if you've bought the car within the last year out-of-state, expect to pay mucho tax to the State of California on its value! We are talking 100s of dollars!  I opted to wait a few months, primarily because after relo costs, I just didn't have $600-700...once I saved enough, 12 months had elapsed and I was off the hook for the tax, BUT did get charged the $75-100 penalty for not registering within 30 days. I advised a new labmate to do the same - wait, then pay the late penalty with other regis costs. 

 

Thanks for this. I was expecting the fines to be quite a bit, but  not quite that much! Good to know. And certainly, the fines are worth it compared to driving back and forth to NY once per year...

[rising_star]

Registration is one really solid way to establish residency for your new school, depending on if they require this (state-funded schools will want to move you off non-resident tuition within a year).

This totally depends on the state and the university. Where I'm doing my PhD, PhD students don't qualify for in-state tuition unless they do something else full-time for a year or do something else part-time for a year without being enrolled or are married to someone meeting the aforementioned criteria. So, I've never bothered to register my car in this state and didn't get a driver's license here for years because there were no benefits to doing so.

[mpheels]

How much do you love the car? If I were moving across the country and had that much paper work to deal with, I would just sell the car in NY and get a new (used, but new to me) car in CA.

 

If you're determined to keep the car, it will probably be easier to transfer the title in NY, so it's already in your name once you get to CA. I don't know the rules in NY, but most states will let you transfer a car title from parent to child, child to parent, or spouse to spouse without paying taxes. My mom and I were both named on my car title, and when we transferred it to just my name all we had to do was go to the DMV with a notarized transfer form, the car title, and $40. Trying to transfer the title and change to registration from NY to CA at the same time could be really complicated.

[skirmishdirmish]

How much do you love the car? If I were moving across the country and had that much paper work to deal with, I would just sell the car in NY and get a new (used, but new to me) car in CA.

 

I think I would like to keep it. Its a hybrid, with only 120,000 miles, so probably enough left on it to get me through my PhD since I won't be driving it back and forth across the country. Thanks for the tip about transferring the title while I'm still in NY!

[snarky]

If you're going to a five year program, you should definitely just register and insure it in CA. 

 

I was in another state for one year, and had this problem. I had to get insurance in the new state, otherwise it can be potentially considered insurance fraud. However, once I got insurance in the new state, the old state invalidated my (just recently paid) registration. I just kept my car unregistered for the year, because it made no sense to pay double registration in the same year and I still had the tags. However, my tags are expiring two months before I move back, so now I have to find a real solution. (It turns out that you can apply for an exception to emissions requirements when you reregister if you are out of the state...)  

 

All this to say that it is a huge headache to avoid registering and insuring in-state. If you'll be there for multiple years, just do that.