What state? The dealer just told me “You cannot get a temp tag in California if you do not register the car in California some states may do this, California is not one of them.”
Oh boy. This is why I don’t touch WA deals. The dealership needs to send the title to WA DMV. This process (I’ve done it, and I told my client 90 days MINIMUM to get plates) took about 115 days.
If you’re reading this post Bistra, I am sorry LOL and hope you’re enjoying your M340 
just touching back on this – it does sometimes go a LOT quicker. but ive had two back to back bad experiences with this and I hope in your case - its a lot quicker.
3 Likes
None of the CA dealers I work with issue temporary tags for WA deals. So that’s not surprising. And depending on the dealer, either the dealer / third party reg service they use will handle the registration for you OR you will need to register the car on your own when you receive it. In both cases, it takes several weeks to process since the title needs to be generated and then sent to the WA DMV before the car can be registered there.
In the interim, you should be able to go to your local WA DMV and get several 3-day “trip permits” to be able to drive the car. I believe you can get max three of them each month, for a total of 9 days. That way you can at least drive the car until the permanent plates arrive. That’s what all of my WA clients have done in the past without issue, and it’s usually been enough time until they receive their permanent plates. It’s not ideal, but it’s better than paying for a car to just sit there.
Update: I’ve also had a handful of customers report that they were able to get a 60-day temp tag from their WA DMV while they waited for their permanent plates to arrive, but that’s been more rare. This would of course be the most ideal situation.
3 Likes
Was that recently? Do you think the 5 day estimate is not correct here? 115 days is like 15% of the entire lease period of a 24 month lease!
I hate posting about this because the client is actively browsing the forum and even though I told her the time it takes up front, I’m still embarrassed and feel bad about it.
So starting off w/ an apology to Bistra once again. sorry. our situation was weird – and it wasn’t the dealer’s fault – took BMW forever to issue the title & mail it to WA DMV + the holidays coincided with this process.
like Zach said – she was able to get 9 days a month but since we had already told her it’ll take time - she waited on selling her other car until the plates arrived so she could have something to drive.
it takes time – that’s why esp for 24mo lease it makes no sense to lease out of state.
NV & AZ are a lot easier so those are the only states I will do out of state leases for now and even those I tell the client that they are liable to do their own research on the registration process.
sorry this happened to you but you will be missing a significant portion of your lease & that should have been disclosed to you.
1 Like
Thank you for sharing. I really hope mine doesn’t take anywhere near that long, this absolutely negates whatever value is received from getting something a little cheaper from CA
What’s the penalty for not driving with the appropriate tags in WA?
That sucks but usually you don’t get plates within 30 days if its out of state. In-state better time frame. Took me 6 months to get my tags from my Cali deal with Montana reg.
I would def push for temp tag on this matter or pay for your car note
Driving without a license plate? You get towed. This isn’t tags, this is the entire plate.
1 Like
Pay for car note?
Yeah, if they don’t want to give a temp tag, tell them pay for the monthly car note. Happened to me last year with BMW. They couldn’t figure out the registration and car got impounded till I can get actual plates.
100% they will give you a temp tag over paying your monthly car note
meaning covering your payments till your plates come
CA won’t do it @djrabbi
when we do out do state leases and the car doesn’t touch CA rounds, no CA tax is paid & no DMV fees not even a one way permit since its being trucked
we blow out all DMV fees - 0 incentive for them to assist w/ anything
either on the broker or dealer to cover the length of time it’ll take for OP to get plates due to failure of informing of the process
3 Likes
Damn that sucks. I had CA dealer Give me temp tags before but also 2 years ago
It depends on which state it’s going to.
From CA > NV, they can issue a one-way driving permit.
From CA > AZ, they can issue 90-day temp tags.
From CA > WA, well, here we are
4 Likes
I’d suggest renaming this thread to be something a bit more California specific and less generic.
This (not being able to drive) really isn’t an issue pretty much anywhere except states that don’t issue temp tags or have wacky laws/regs around them (like California), which is maybe two or three of them in the whole country.
2 Likes
Renamed, thanks for suggestion. @LuxConcierge
1 Like
Im in WA and leased/financed cars bought in CA. Was provided one way trip permit each time so ca - wa trip permit is definitely a thing.
Interesting, and you weren’t required to pay any taxes or anything in CA? How long ago?
No taxes. Latest transaction was 12/2024
Massachusetts like this too.