Can I get a North Carolina owned and registered vehicle inspected in the State of Vermont?

April 19, 2007 6:27 PM

Can I get a North Carolina owned and registered vehicle inspected in the State of Vermont?

My wife has an Audi that is registered in North Carolina and the title is in the name of her father, who lives in North Carolina.

We currently live in Vermont. The car has North Carolina license plates. The inspection sticker from North Carolina is several months expired. I would like to get the inspection up to date.

Would this require transferring ownership and registering the vehicle in Vermont?

posted by doomtop to travel & transportation (5 comments total)

Would this require transferring ownership and registering the vehicle in Vermont?

Not sure about VT, but in my state, yes. You can't inspect a vehicle in RI without an RI registration.
posted by knave at 7:19 PM on April 19, 2007

I would check with the North Carolina DMV.

From family experience, we had cars registered in Texas while living in other states. We skipped the inspection while out of state and did it when we returned. I recall that my father was stopped once right after returning to the state after a couple years in North Dakota in the 1970s. Upon explaining the situation, the trooper let him go and told him to get the inspection done as soon as he could. (Note: Texas does not require the inspection to renew your registration)

Of course, if you're planning to stay in Vermont indefinitely, then the easiest thing to do is transfer the title and register it there.
posted by Robert Angelo at 7:34 PM on April 19, 2007

You can probably get an out-of-state exemption for your vehicle that says "This vehicle is exempt from North Carolina inspection because it is located out-of-state for an extended period of time. When it returns to North Carolina, it must be inspected within 15 days." Contact the NC DMV.

Obviously, Vermont shops won't be able to perform North Carolina inspections.
posted by jellicle at 8:09 PM on April 19, 2007

The short answer is no. Your car needs to be licensed in Vermont (where I live, incidentally) to get inspected there. The good news is that you will not, I am fairly certain, get pulled over by the VT cops, what few there are of them, for not having the car be inspected in NC. So, you have some time to work this out.

I'd suggest registering the car in VT only because it's likely to be cheaper to insure and register and then you can get it inspected. The VT DMV is surprisingly easy to deal with -- they answer the phone, they answer email, there are rarely huge lines -- so this might be a better long term plan.
posted by jessamyn at 10:53 PM on April 19, 2007

I got a copy of the VT Periodic Inspection Manual and came across this piece of information. Looks like I would be able to get her car inspected without registering in VT.

2. Motor Vehicles Registered Out-of-State:

Courtesy Inspection:

If a nonresident temporarily in the State of Vermont presents his or her motor vehicle with out-of-state plates on it for inspection, you may inspect the vehicle and attach a sticker if the vehicle meets our Vermont inspection requirements.

I still would like to find out if it is even illegal to drive an uninspected out-of-state vehicle.
posted by doomtop at 6:02 PM on April 20, 2007