Expired registration and inspection (Ambridge: car registration, to buy, DMV) - City-Data Forum

coolpix99 · 04-13-2010, 01:02 AM

If my car registration and inspection are expired while i am outside The U.S. Upon my return, do I follow the regular renewal procedures or I have to follow different procedures and pay extra fees? If so, can i show evidence of my travel?

greg42 · 04-13-2010, 06:10 AM

How long will they be expired? As long as it's a short time (a month or two) then everything should be about the same, although you'll want to address it quickly lest you get a ticket for driving with those expired. Too much longer than that (let's say it's 6 months since expiration) I don't really know. The DMV web site is not particularly helpful on this, at least at quick glance.

I've done an expired inspection before (a few weeks expired) which was normal. Never done that with the registration.

I don't think there would be additional fees, esp if you're outside the US for military duty, but there could be additional red tape if they are long expired.

If you are still in PA now, you might want to consider renewing early. If it's only a few months before your expiration, you can go ahead and get a new inspection and renew your registration.

coolpix99 · 04-13-2010, 06:34 AM

When i leave, the inspection and registration will be about 3 months before they expire and they will be 5 months past the expiration date when i return to The States. What's the red tape you mentioned?

aveojohn · 04-13-2010, 06:39 AM

Will you have access to a computer? You can renew on line. As far as inspection, you can have it done when you come home.

greg42 · 04-13-2010, 07:07 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by coolpix99

When i leave, the inspection and registration will be about 3 months before they expire and they will be 5 months past the expiration date when i return to The States. What's the red tape you mentioned?

I don't actually know, only guessing, sorry.

I would go ahead and renew the registration before you leave. You can do that online as mentioned above. Unless you apply for a new plate or something, you're not going to gain those 5 months if you wait until you return; renewal is renewal. Plus, what's the car going to be doing for those months? Hopefully not just sitting, not really that good for it. If everything is current someone could drive it around now and then.

Inspection could go either way, but you should be able to do that early too. For example, right now it's April, but if inspection was due for June you could get it done now and still get a June sticker for next year. Worst case, you lose a month. Now if it needs something to pass and you want to wait until you get back, I could see that. Again, though, it would be good not to have it just sit, with 8 month old gas and sitting on the same spot in the tires that long. And battery discharging, perhaps. The battery isn't a big deal probably (may be fine but probably would need a jump when you first got back), and the gas you can put stabilizer in (Sta-Bil, etc.) But getting it off the tires is more difficult. If it were me, I'd try to leave it with someone who would drive it occasionally. That would mean getting these taken care of before you leave.

Honest Bob · 04-13-2010, 07:52 AM

You can get a car inspected 3 months before the inspection runs out.

The same is true with the license plates.

There is nothing to be gained by not paying it because when the license plates runs out, they can force you to buy a new temporary registration and pay all the fees to renew the plate which will cost more then just renewing it in the first place.

Even when you get the registration renewed, you can only drive the vehicle as far as it takes to go to the inspection station of your choice once the inspection runs out. As long as you have a appointment for inspection and you are driving the car to the inspection garage - you will not get a ticket.

But if you lived in Ambridge and your appointment was for a garage in Ambridge and you get caught driving in Neville Island - you cannot say that you were on your way to get your car inspected if you were traveling south and the garage was north of your location.
The get out of jail free card only works when you are driving directly to the garage for which you have the appointment and only if you had an appointment.

JRTurner · 04-13-2010, 01:28 PM

In addition to the excellent and accurate info Little Bevis gave....

Should your registration expire while you are gone, the state will probably send you a notice to return the actual license plate after a period of time without renewal. Then when they don't get it, they'll cancel the plate and (as he said) make you buy a temporary tag.

It's cheaper and smarter to renew the registration within the 3 months advance time and it will be good for the rest of the year.

Bong477 · 04-14-2010, 10:54 AM

Renew your tags online. As stated before, it doesn't help you to wait because if you have Jan tags and renew in march, they still expire Jan of the following year (not march). There's no penalty for being a few weeks or months late (speaking from personal knowledge) unless you get pulled over by a cop. How long you can go before they cancel your tags or whatever, I don't know. 5 months sounds like pushing it. I'd just do the inspection when you get back. Again, no penalty for being late with this unless you get pulled over by a cop.

ditchdigger · 04-14-2010, 08:27 PM

Quote:

There's no penalty for being a few weeks or months late (speaking from personal knowledge) unless you get pulled over by a cop. How long you can go before they cancel your tags or whatever, I don't know. 5 months sounds like pushing it. I'd just do the inspection when you get back. Again, no penalty for being late with this unless you get pulled over by a cop.

Due to nothing other than my own forgetfulness and/or procrastination, I did get pulled over by a cop, once for each of those violations, (on separate occasions.) I was a couple months out of registration, and a couple weeks overdue on inspection. They each cost me about a hundred bucks, and that was more than twenty years ago. I'd hate to think what they cost today. Also, on each of those occasions, I wasn't doing anything else wrong, or even anything to attract attention. I simply happened to be in the presence of an observant police officer, who did his job.

greg42 · 04-15-2010, 08:41 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ditchdigger

Due to nothing other than my own forgetfulness and/or procrastination, I did get pulled over by a cop, once for each of those violations, (on separate occasions.) I was a couple months out of registration, and a couple weeks overdue on inspection. They each cost me about a hundred bucks, and that was more than twenty years ago. I'd hate to think what they cost today. Also, on each of those occasions, I wasn't doing anything else wrong, or even anything to attract attention. I simply happened to be in the presence of an observant police officer, who did his job.

I thought the inspection one at least you could get waived as long as you got the inspection done within x time. Myth?