<VV> Corvairs with 'Antique' plates/but no Corvair

[Geoffrey Stozek]

Some food for thought next time you buy or sell a car to a private party. 
I purchased a car in FL last year and was required to get a temporary plate from the FL DMV in order to drive back to IL where it would be titled and licensed.    I also sold a van to a guy from Ohio last year.  He was required to obtain a temp "plate" from IL in order to drive back to Ohio.    In both cases the buyer was required to get the temp plate.   To do so the buyer needed a bill of sale and/or a title.   I suspect most states have a similar process.   
The MI story is one example of why the seller also needs a copy of the bill of sale.   A more serious situation would be if the car you sold were involved in a serious accident before the buyer obtained the temp plate, assuming the state required one, and he fled the scene.   Until the temp plate is issued or the title transfer is applied for, you are still on the books as the owner of record and the one the police will come looking for.      A bill of sale including the buyers name, address etc. would help your position with the police.  
I have a related story from the mid 1970's.  A friend of mine sold a 64 corvair.   Several months later he received a letter from the Secretary of States (SOS) office (Il does not have a DMV) stating that his car, which had been abandoned on the expressway, had been towed and it would cost him $X to retrieve it.   Obviously the buyer never transferred title.   Did he drive it for months without plates?   Possibly not.   As late as the early 1990's,  you could get plates in IL simply by filling out the applications and paying the fee.   No one checked to see if you owned the car you identified or if it even existed.    I know for a fact because I applied for and received plates for my 67 convert, having forgotten that I hadn't bothered to transfer the tile form WI when I purchased it the year before.   IL has changed.  They now require to show a title when you apply for plates.  Darn. 
Jeff Stozek
N IL


________________________________
From: "HallGrenn at aol.com" <HallGrenn at aol.com>
To: 32chevy at 0306.org; vairvert67 at yahoo.com
Cc: virtualvairs at corvair.org
Sent: Sat, March 27, 2010 9:33:44 PM
Subject: Re: <VV> Corvairs with 'Antique' plates/but no Corvair


In a message dated 3/27/2010 1:10:05 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time,  
32chevy at 0306.org writes:

He took  a Hugh liability letting you drive the car with his plate as far 
> as  law suits and such in this day and age.



I'm glad the trip to Australia was uneventful, but the seller was really  
out on a limb as Mike said.  Last fall our new pastor (from  Michigan) sold 
his really rusty--holes everywhere--Honda (did I say it was from  Michigan) 
to a family down on their luck who needed a $300 car to get back to  Michigan 
from Maryland.  He asked for my advice and I told him to be sure  to take 
the plates off and let them get a temporary Michigan plate to get  home.  
Last week he sheepishly told me he had received a certified letter  from a town 
in Michigan that he owed $1,900.00 in fines and storage costs for  "his" 
Honda.  Apparently it was abandoned in Michigan and he is on the hook  as the 
last registered owner.

Bob Hall
Group Corvair
Corvanatics
CORSA
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