Back in May I went to my local DMV to find out if I could save myself a couple $100 by registering my brand new car myself instead of having the dealership do it for me... I was told this could NOT be done and the dealer has to do it FOR ME. Dissapointing.
Here's the story:
On January 13th I took delivery of a brand new vehicle I purchased from NuCar Connection (Mazda). I special ordered this vehicle back in August and I had a trade-in.
My trade-in vehicle was co-owned with my sister (both our names in the title and loan), and I made sure the salesman (Steve Taylor) was aware of this because this would I want my new 2007 car to be just MINE. He nodded, agreed, and said 'sure!'
Working out the deal closer to the delivery date he told me I should just transfer the tag instead of getting new ones and save myself $100. I said, "yeah, why not? If it can be done I'm all for it!" He, again, nodded, agreed and said it would be no problem.
I live in Maryland, The dealership is in New Castle, DE (about 5 minutes from the MD border line).
According to Maryland law you CANNOT cancel insurance on a vehicle unless you return the tags first. When I took delivery I was told by my salesman that I would be getting a 60-day Delaware temp tag and to keep my current plates until they "put the paperwork thru the Maryland Motor Vehicle Administration because right now they don't know you have transferred the plates". It made sense in a way, they're the "experts" who do titling/transfers every day so why not trust them?
* wrong *
Since I would NOT be returning the tags I called my insurance company and told them that car 1 is gone and car 2 is taking its place, they asked to speak to the salesman and everything. I cancelled insurance on the trade-in that afternoon.
Almost 2 months later I emailed the sales manager and the salesman to find out what was taking so long with the plates. Turns out the transfer got DENIED by my DMV because you cannot transfer plates from a co-owned title to just one name (SOMETHING THE DEALER KNEW VERY VERY WELL BECAUSE I KEPT MENTIONING not to question their knowledge but because I wanted to make sure my sister would not need to come with me to take delivery and sign-off the trade in).
The dealer didn't call me to let me know about this, instead... As my agent (Power of Attorney, ehem?) they made the decision of getting new plates and "absorb" the $128 for the new plates. That's fine with me.
I told them right away that this presented a new issue because I have PLATES on my TRUNK that have no insurance then and this is against Maryland Law!!!
They didn't care I was fined $1,275 for driving without insurance for 78 days because according to them these aren't their rules but Maryland's. I ask myself, did I have an option? Isn't the dealer responsibility to be up to date with all of the DMVs regulations? Apparently they don't want to accept this. I can't do the titling, I depend on them... And they can't do it for me! Something must be done about this.
I made my part... And made sure I noted my purchase experience on the Mazda Survey.
Every piece of communication is in a written email so if anyone has a question let me know and I can show you the emails, I have the proof.
Thank you for reading
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