Many travellers think about buying a car in the states and driving it across country instead of spending huge dollars on rentals.
However, many are put off by the lack of/conflicting information available on the web.
In fact many websites & forums etc strongly advise against the idea, claiming it is impossible to do without formal “residency”.
And that’s all rubbish.
I’m an Aussie guy who just landed in LA, bought a car, got insurance and registered it with the CA DMV.
All done in a week, with the added complication of it being an out of state vehicle (originally registered in Virginia)
How did I do it?
Well here is the definitive guide (based on actual experience).
The details will vary state to state, but California is in the top 10 restrictive states so if this works here it should work elsewhere.
It’s a little lengthy as I’ve tried to give as much detail as possible ad answer the questions I had when I was searching the web – if you take the time this should help smooth the process for you.
Things you will need:
- Your physical address in California;
- A mailing address (also in California). This may be different to your physical address, depending on what type of physical address you have (see details below)
- Enough money to buy a car, pay registration, insurance etc;
- A valid driver’s licence (including, if necessary, an International Driving Permit)
YOUR PHYSICAL ADDRESS.
I have put “your” address and not simply “an” address. You will need to provide this address to both the DMV and insurance underwriter. For mine it should simply reflect where you are staying at the time you purchase, insure and register the car.
Some people advise that any verifiable address will do, and in practice no-one checks for documentary evidence of you being at that address at either insurance or DMV, but using a made up address could open you up to issues should you in fact have an accident and need to use the insurance.
YOUR address will fall into one of the following categories:
(a) if you have a friend or relative with whom you will be staying during your visit to the US, then use that address (with their permission).
(b) if you do not, you can use the physical address of say your AirBnB or Couchsurfing room.
(c) if you are staying in a hotel, I see no reason why that could not be used, however, I would suggest not putting the name of the hotel on the paperwork and just using their street address.
The reason I suggest you use “your” address is that it shows in good faith that at the time of insurance and registration that is where the car will be parked/garaged. The fact that you then take the car on a trip for a few months away from that address is just routine behaviour rather than fraud which could be argued for a made up address.
YOUR MAILING ADDRESS
If you are in situation (a) family/friend for your physical address, then it is likely that they will be happy to accept mail for you, including opening it and letting you know of the contents.
This is important as original documents, such as title to the car, insurance certificate etc will be mailed to that address.
You will need the original title should you wish to sell the car at the end of the trip.
You can drive in the states without the original insurance docs but the originals will be mailed out (See Insurance section below)
If you are in situation (b) or (c) then you won’t want your mail going to that address especially whilst you are off driving across the country.
The best answer to this predicament is to obtain a virtual post box.
There are a number of providers who will issue you with a mailing address, collect mail on your behalf, open it, scan and or forward it to you at another address (the amount of mail that they will do this for depends on how much you pay)
I used Virtual Post Mail who at an introductory cost of $5/month do this for 10 pieces of mail
Other services can be easily found on the web.
These services do requires you to fill out a US Post Form 1583 (which is required by law for them to accept mail on your behalf), provide 2 forms of id (licence and passport will do) and send them back electronically. Most of them provide the form for you pre-filled out so all you have to do is print sign and scan a copy to be emailed back along with your id scans
If you are travelling, printing and scanning forms can be a little troublesome – Staples and Fedex
offer in store business services such as printing and scanning – Fedex perhaps has more locations – see here for their online locator – Fedex Store Locator
BUYING THE CAR
There are enough posts and sites out there detailing what you should be careful of when purchasing a car. I’m not enough of a car expert to add to those, suffice to say that the overarching principle here is Caveat Emptor.
INSURANCE
DO NOT DO NOT DO NOT try to arrange insurance online via any of the companies that advertise (including Progressive). As part of the verification process they will ask you to send proof of residency – eg 2 months Utilities bill, Govt issued identity card etc, which you won’t have.
Instead contact an insurance agent/broker once you are in LA.
They will organise your insurance with the underwriter directly (and will not request that you provide residency documents)
A few things to note:
Progressive are still the biggest underwriter in this area. Many independent agents will refer the writing of the policy to them.
Agents linked to Farmers Insrurance will send the policy to a different specialty insurer (ie neither Farmers or Progressive). This is a new directive since Nov 11 – US drivers with provable driving records go to Farmers, Overseas drivers go to the specialty underwriter.
Be careful with the type of car you buy. I bought a Chevy Van conversion. Based on the VIN the specialty underwriter via Farmers agent refused to insure the car as that make/model was set as a “commercial vehicle” in their system and there is no way of bypassing that setting
Most passenger cars are fine, but RVs, Vans, even pickups (with a trailer mounted) might cause you an issue at these smaller specialty underwriters.
If in doubt give the agent a call and ask them to check the VIN is insurable as a foreign driver before purchasing it.
Note that the car that was a “prohibited vehicle” for the smaller underwriter was happily inured by Progressive.
I went through Kelly Jiggins & Associates (independent insurance agents) located in Pasadena, who got me organised and insured in under an hr.
No need to go out there to see them – everything can be done via email and phone – they will send you the insurance papers for you to print off and carry in the car with you
If you do use them, ask for Gloria and mention my name “Valdis”.
Note that as a foreign driver, you will not qualify for a good driver discount (as your driving record is unverifiable) so insurance can be a little expensive. You should explore whether your home country car insurance can cover you driving in the States.
Alternatively contact your local govt authority and insurer and see if you can obtain an extract of your driving history (ie demonstrating no convictions, claims). It may be possible to provide those extracts and get the 30% good driver discount (I was told this verbally but didn’t have the docs on hand to test what would be accepted)
REGISTRATION
As my car was from out of state, I had to do 2 things in addition to the actual registration:
- Get a smog test (the seller has to provide a valid smog certificate for CA cars)
There are any number of testing agents around – check to see who gives coupons – you should be able to get a smog test for a car for under $30, and a van/pickup for under $50 (both USD)
For out of state vehicles only – If you can, go with the seller to get one done prior to the sale, because if you buy it without smog and the car fails the check you will have to pay the costs to repair. Sellers of CA cars have to pay for work to get cars to pass a smog test - Get the DMV to do a vehicle verification of the car – think of this as a visual inspection, and can only be done at the DMV at the time of registration.
It takes about 15-20 mins to do and must be done before you can submit any paperwork.
To register, try and make an appointment as the standard wait at the DMV can be 3-4 hours.
Appointment lead times can vary from 3- 7 bus days depending on the branch – check out some of the more remote branches if you are pressed for time.
I’d suggest you make an appointment as soon as you land giving yourself a soft deadline to find a car – you can always amend the appointment if needed.
Note they require a US phone number to complete the online booking if you have one available you can even make the appointment before you leave home
DMV appointment portal and click the Field Office Visit appointment option
The CA DMV website gives really good info on what is required when buying a car – for CA cars it’s pretty much just the pink slip, for out of state cars it’s a few other docs as well
California DMV Homepage
Arrive about 10 mins before your appointment (20 if you need a Vehicle Verification). If you are too early they will send you away until about 10 mins before the appointment anyway!
Stand in the Disabled/appointment queue (not the longer turned up on the day queue)
When you get to the window show your paperwork and get a ticket and wait for your number to be called
If you need a Vehicle verification, go get that done – when that is finished come back and get in the same appointment queue again – they will issue you with a new number (the one they gave you was a placeholder pending the VV). DO NOT just come back sit down and wait for the original number to be called – they will have placed you at least 30 mins later in the queue system to be safe.
When your number is called, get to the window, smile, be pleasant and the DMV agent will help you through anything else you need. They get a lot of grief from the locals, so if you can put on a positive upbeat happy demeanour they will appreciate it and be very helpful.
As my mailing address was in a different City to my physical address (Walnut v San Gabriel) they asked me to fill out a form there and then – took all of 2 mins
Also they didn’t ask to see any id docs – no drivers licence or passport though you should take those with you.
Note that some DMVS will only accept Debit cards and not “CREDIT” cards.
If you have a stored credit card (Eg Qantas cash), you may need to be careful at the payment time. Being used to Paywave/TapNgo, I touched the card to the screen, which (a) worked, (b) surprised the DMV agent, (c) showed the transaction as a credit one.
Second time around, the usual swipe allowed it to proceed as a debit card sale.
You can use the DMV Fee calculator to estimate registration costs – see here:
https://www.dmv.ca.gov/portal/dmv/?1dmy&urile=wcm:path:/dmv_content_en/dmv/portal/feecalculatorweb/index
All going well you are now the proud insured owner of your US ride.
Good Luck and good motoring.
