Buying an unregistered car

Hi, my quick reply is don't do it.  I'm by no means an expert, but  I just got done with a year-long adventure of registering an unregistered car, and at this point I don't ever want to go that route again.

In order to register the car, you'll first have to pick up the car, but since you can't drive it without plates, you'll need to have it towed six hours back home.  Then, to start registering it, you'll have to get through the inspection at RAR (www.rarom.com for locations).  You'll have to make an appointment, which means you may end up waiting a few months (like I had to do).  In many cases, whether or not you can get through RAR depends more on who you know rather than on whether or not the vehicle is roadworthy.  But again, in order to get to RAR you'll need to have your car towed once again since it doesn't have any plates.  Another expense.  And all this assumes that the original owner has all the correct documents and can get the correct stamp from the correct city hall in the allotted amount of time for the next step in the process...

If you decide to go this route, it's probably not impossible, but very well could be.  (Why is he willing to sell the car for so cheap, for example?  Maybe because he knows he can't get the forms to register it.)

Regardless, it will be a long process with a lot of standing in line and waiting for forms.  You could get lucky and end up having everything go great, but a large part depends on whether or not you can get through the inspection at RAR and whether or not the previous owner has (or can get) all the correct forms for the vehicle in time.

If you're up for the adventure, go for it, but I don't recommend it at all.