How Long to Get Title on New Car From the Dealer?

[TBonz]

If you have your tags / permanent registration, the title number should be on the registration sheet...

[Carlingtonian]

Originally Posted by TBonz

If you have your tags / permanent registration, the title number should be on the registration sheet...

It's not. It's blank there.

However, I called ArlCo, and they said to click the box that says "temporary plates" even though ours are not. They said that as long as the VIN is correct, whatever info the DMV has will be added to the County record. So I did that, paid the $33 decal fee, and then printed a temporary decal.

[Carlingtonian]

For future readers, here are my tips for buying a car from a Maryland dealer as a Virginia resident:

1. Ask if they issue VA registration, permanent VA plates, and emissions stickers at the dealership. Ours did, but not all do.

2. Ask about the title! If you're financing, you will not get a paper title--but you should ask when you will get the title number. In our experience, it took two weeks of repeated badgering to get this. Even if that's the norm, it would have been nice to know it takes that long.

3. Ask about the safety-inspection sticker. From what I read on the MD DMV website, a MD resident would get this sticker from the dealership. However, if you're a VA resident, you have to go get the brand-new car inspected for $16--as ridiculous as this is.

We got a great deal on our new car--almost 10% under MSRP. So it was worth it buying out of state in our case.

If you're thinking about buying a new car outside of Virginia, even though the additional fees are minimal, you might factor in the above inconveniences to use in your negotiation.