Selling vehicle on Big Island (Hilo, Kailua: sale, vehicle registration, transfer)

[Dreaming of Hawaii]

Looking for input from someone who has actually sold a vehicle on the BI, please.

I see on the Hawaii County DMV website that "the seller is to give the new owner the endorsed certificate of title, the current certificate of registration and certificate of safety inspection. The seller completes a notice of transfer form and mails it within 10 days to the county motor vehicle registration office where the vehicle was last registered".

I'm used to selling a vehicle in Colorado where I remove the license plates and just give the purchaser the properly signed title. It's a little confusing here where the website says to give the current certificate of registration to the purchaser. Does mean the purchaser is driving around with my plates, or do I keep the plates and just give them the certificate of registration? What happens if there is an accident in the time between when I sell the car and when the notice of transfer form is received at the DMV?

I live an hour and a half from either Kona or Hilo, so doing the sale at the DMV office really isn't convenient.

[hotzcatz]

The plates stay with the car, they're not issued to you unless they're personalized plates. If they are personalized plates, then you take your personalized plates to the DMV and get the ones issued to the car and put those on the car when it's sold.


The plates, safety inspection and registration (even the one in your name) stay with the car.

The new owner will sign the tear off piece at the top of the title. Take a picture of that with your phone and have a date and time in the photo. From the time the new owner signs that piece of paper, they are responsible for the car. Make a copy of that torn off paper for your records (either copy machine or cell phone photo) and mail the torn off bit to the DMV.


There's another DMV up in Waimea, but that's even further from you than either Hilo or Kailua-Kona.

[Dreaming of Hawaii]

Thanks, hotzcatz. I should have known that you would have the answer!

[hotzcatz]

We just sold a car a couple of weeks ago, so now we no longer have "Prii", we're down to just one "Prius". Just one as far as Prii go, there's a few other cars around as well as that one that got eaten by the Guinea grass. Aughta dig it out at some point.