Personal Plate Transfer

[merpderp]

I inquired with Tesla if I could transfer plates from my old car (which I traded in) to my new one at purchase, and they said they don't handle this service-- that I'll have to go to the DMV myself.

Given covid times... I wonder if they can do this at AAA. Rather would not want to step in a DMV at this moment.

Thanks.

 

[israndy]

That's why I use my AAA membership to take care of these things. You might wanna check into doing it on the DMV website but I fear if you need the plates removed from your car TODAY you will wanna see someone in person. It can take weeks to get new plates for your trade-in car.

You cannot transfer a car w/o plates, so you will need to get generic plates for your car. Then you will need to request the plates from the DMV (or AAA) for your new car when you get it.

It would suck if someone takes your plates while you don't have them registered to a car. I was sneaky and moved the plate to another car and then move it to the new Tesla when I got it. Didn't wanna chance any of you clever boys nicking off my personal plates while I had my guard down.

 

[merpderp]

That's why I use my AAA membership to take care of these things. You might wanna check into doing it on the DMV website but I fear if you need the plates removed from your car TODAY you will wanna see someone in person. It can take weeks to get new plates for your trade-in car.

You cannot transfer a car w/o plates, so you will need to get generic plates for your car. Then you will need to request the plates from the DMV (or AAA) for your new car when you get it.

It would suck if someone takes your plates while you don't have them registered to a car. I was sneaky and moved the plate to another car and then move it to the new Tesla when I got it. Didn't wanna chance any of you clever boys nicking off my personal plates while I had my guard down.

Trust with the DMV has never been a high point unfortunately if its not in-person. Luckily the plates follow the person, not the car, from what I read. If they were to register my car, DMV will provide generic plates for them. I read somewhere that the DMV have to issue you generic plates first before a transfer of your personalized... which to me seems very idiotic. I have the plates with me though.

 

[israndy]

Doesn't matter if you physically have them, it matters what they are registered to. I would be careful thinking that the plates stay with the person. That's like thinking Free Supercharging stays with the person. It's a nice thought...

 

[arnolddeleon]

I just did this. I had retained the plates from a previous car. When I received my "regular" plates for our new Model Y I sent it in the transfer paper work (along with a check). A few weeks later I received new stickers for my old plates. No visits to the DMV required.

 

[LNL_HUTZ]

I think https://www.dmv.ca.gov/portal/file/special-interest-license-plates-application-reg-17-pdf/ is the link for the form you would have to mail in. It may take a minute to figure out the exact fee, but it does allow you to transfer plates to a VIN or existing plate by mail.

 

[arnolddeleon]

@LNL_HUTZ correctly linked to the paperwork. Determining the fee was a bit of a chore and I got it wrong. Luckily I paid too much, they just sent me a refund for what I overpaid. I suspect if I got wrong the other way it would have added delays.

I should add that previously this would have required a visit to the DMV to surrender your old plates. Clearly they've modified procedures. They didn't give me instructions on what to do with the old plates. Right now they're just going to sit on shelf. I also obviously received a new registration card.

I have to say the CA DMV got this one right. The only minor gripe what I couldn't check on the status. I saw they cashed my check but it was another week or two before the stickers and paperwork arrived.

There used to be hacks, but I couldn't remember them to determine your license plate number before you received it. I did that before to send in my Clean Air Vehicles early. If knew my plate number before I received them I probably could have started the exchange process a little sooner.

 

[merpderp]

I just did this. I had retained the plates from a previous car. When I received my "regular" plates for our new Model Y I sent it in the transfer paper work (along with a check). A few weeks later I received new stickers for my old plates. No visits to the DMV required.

Did you pay the retention fee & file for retain for future use before the transfer, or did you fill out that form to transfer without dealing with the retention part?

 

[arnolddeleon]

Did you pay the retention fee & file for retain for future use before the transfer, or did you fill out that form to transfer without dealing with the retention part?

I had paid for and filed for future use before the transfer because I wasn't sure when I was going get Y. That might account for the refund that I received.

My previous transfer was a straight to the car transfer, which I did at the DMV, no retain for future use since it came straight off another car. It was actually slightly complicated and I was impressed by how the person dealt with it. I had ordered a new plates for the our RAV4-EV since I wanted to use the plates that were on it for our Model 3. So first they had assign the brand new plates to the RAV4-EV, that freed up its plates to the assigned to the Model 3. Which allowed me to surrender the standard plates that it had.

Oh for background, all our cars have DEVCARn (or more properly /dev/car{1,2,3,4}) as their plates for almost 30 years). Unix nerds will recognize the device naming convention. I had to assign /dev/car3 to the Model 3 because it was too perfect and the RAV4-EV got /dev/car4 also because that was too perfect. I suspect DEVCAR4 will never get used again, I can't imagine getting back to four cars again. Also, before I got into EVs we had a minivan and it was /dev/car2. There was some debate on whether it should /dev/car2 or /dev/van1 but it became obvious that it was properly another instance of /dev/car because it used the same drivers (another nerdy joke). A final note, Unix veterans will also know that device numbers starts at zero (0). However the CA DMV doesn't allow you to use the number zero in special interest license plates. Back then, I wasn't bright enough to realize to use the letter "O" although I believe you are not suppose to you use an "O" in place of a zero.

 

[ganix]

When I traded in my car, Tesla did the transfer of my personalized plate. It was just a form that you need to sign and fee you pay when you go to pick up your car. Your will receive your Tesla registration and stickers in the mail. Tesla delivery center has DMV liaison that handle all registration. All plates are mailed from Tesla Delivery center, not from DMV.