Can we skip the renewal in Utah and register it in Oregon?

August 12, 2011 7:27 PM

My partner and I are moving to Oregon at the end of the month from out of state (utah) and we are very poor. Our car's registration ended last month (July 2011). Since Oregon says we have to register our vehicle within 30 days of moving there, I want to wait till we get to Oregon to do our car's registration. We wont really doing any driving before the end of the month (we both walk to work and the grocery store), I can't see any problems with this, besides possibly getting a ticket on the drive to Oregon. Are we likely to run into problems registering our car in Oregon if our registration from Utah is expired? Thanks!
posted by anonymous to Travel & Transportation (7 answers total)

Not sure about the states in your question, but I have my own experience with expired plates. My North Carolina plates were expired by 2 years when I finally got around to renewing them in Illinois (I know...I know...I paid a lot of tickets on it!) The fact they were so expired when I renewed them didn't matter at all. YMMV
posted by katypickle at 8:01 PM on August 12, 2011

I just registered my car in Oregon with a NY registration that expired five months prior. I had zero trouble.

I was also in court for an unrelated matter and several people were there who had received tickets for driving with expired registrations. If since the time of the infraction they registered their car the judge threw out the ticket.

Welcome to Oregon.
posted by munchingzombie at 8:07 PM on August 12, 2011

In my past experience driving lots of sketchily registered cars from one place to another, Oregon will not care, at all. However you may be in trouble with your insurance where if you get into an accident and your car is not registered, your insurance may not cover you. I don't know how this sort of thing works in Utah which is what would matter, but you might want to call and sort of run this by your insurance co or click around on their website to check.
posted by jessamyn at 8:27 PM on August 12, 2011

My experience has been that they'll charge an additional amount if you register after the 30-day window from the time that you move to the state. Just fib on the date that you moved and you should do fine.
posted by tmt at 11:17 PM on August 12, 2011

Anecdata: I have several friends who moved from Washington to Oregon and left their plates expired for years in some cases and proceeded to have no issue with getting the Oregon registration.

Do be prepared to pay roughly $160 for the title transfer to Oregon, plates and tags for 2 years. Add $20 if you are moving to a DEQ inspection area (Portland Metro and Rogue Valley). Do DEQ before the DMV. Add $38 if you are going to be a Multnomah County resident. Add roughly $60 for each drivers license (8 year). You will have to take a written (on a computer) test. Know that a person on horseback with their hand in the air means the horse is spooked and don't approach. Only go to a "regular" DMV. There are some "DMV Express" locations around Portland that won't do out of state anything.
posted by Mister Fabulous at 12:32 AM on August 13, 2011

Is there an option for a temporary registration? I had to do temp tags on a monthly basis when I could not get my title from the bank after an interstate move.
posted by Jazz Hands at 7:11 AM on August 13, 2011

I'm in Canada so the rules are different, but it's a least $200-300 if you get caught driving without registration. Also make sure that driving an unregistered car doesn't invalidate your insurance. If you were to get in an accident, as spitbull points out, there might be some much bigger financial consequences.
posted by lulu68 at 7:17 AM on August 13, 2011