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Titling and registration in Texas

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I know there's a bunch of posts about the painful process of titling and registering in Texas, but since the situation changed all throughout 2021, I'm hoping to get feedback from people who did it recently.

I'm supposed to receive my Model 3 on 11/30. With Christmas and New Years during the 30-day registration period, I'm wondering if anything can be done before getting the packet from Tesla. Ideally everything, if not at least the title or paying sales taxes to avoid penalties. I saw a form on the Comptroller website for Titling and/or Registration, Form 130-U, anyone knows if I can fill it out myself?
 
Wasn't all that bad when we got our car in September. You need the forms from Tesla and I don't think you can really fill much out on your own. We got our first welcome packet with all the forms within two weeks. However, Tesla messed up and didn't include my wife's name on the paperwork. So had to get them to resend which took about three days of pestering them with daily phone calls to accomplish.

The second corrected packet came within the 30 day window and we would have been fine if we lived in a 'normal' county. Unfortunately, Travis County is still operating under super strict Covid rules so you need to make an appointment to pay your taxes, transfer the title, etc. Those appointments are booked out for weeks so even though I made the appointment one day after getting the car, the earliest available date was after the 30 day window had passed. Fortunately the county employee was able to waive the penalty when I showed her that I had made the appointment within the 30 day grace period. Spent less than 45 minutes at the tax office and walked out with my plates and no tax penalty.

I think if your county is operating under normal conditions you should be fine. There are third party title 'couriers' that can do the legwork for you but I am glad we didn't choose to use them. Would have had to pay them for their service and we would have been stuck paying the tax penalty as well.

Overall the process was no more unpleasant than typical dealings with your county tax office (haha). Good luck.
 
I took delivery in Sept 2021. A few weeks later, a packet of forms arrived. Basically everything needed was filled out by Tesla, including the vehicle inspection certificate. All I had to do was take it all down to my county registration office with my insurance card. Other than signing a big check, it was pretty painless.
 
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The out of pocket sales tax, another surprise about the Tesla buying experience. I was hoping I could add them to the loan and get the money from the bank to pay them, but no. So now I have about $3k sitting in my checking account for when I have to go register the car.
 
I took delivery in September and the forms came via FedEx within 2 weeks. They included 2 temporary tags with the car so if something was delayed at least you’ll have tags to put on your car for 60 days. I’m in Collin county and I paid thetitlegirl.com $250 to do it for me. I don’t know how easy or hard it would have been to do it here, but my trade in wiped out almost all my sales tax so it was well worth it to not have to go to a county office.
 
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Pretty simple really. I got the docs a week or two after I got the car. I'm in Dallas County and I went to the registration office on LBJ and Hillcrest. It didn't take too long, parking was plentiful, the place was clean and modern and the people there were nice . . . wait, I wonder if it really was a county registration office 🤣

Writing the check *was* a little painful

btw, there's a passport office in that building too if you need it
 
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Pretty simple really. I got the docs a week or two after I got the car. I'm in Dallas County and I went to the registration office on LBJ and Hillcrest. It didn't take too long, parking was plentiful, the place was clean and modern and the people there were nice . . . wait, I wonder if it really was a county registration office 🤣

Writing the check *was* a little painful

btw, there's a passport office in that building too if you need it
Nice office and you definitely get a sense of what that cheque is contributing toward. 🤣
 
Thanks everyone. I'll add my part for people for people who could need the info afterwards. I took delivery of the car on Nov 30, the documents still came at the two weeks mark or maybe a bit earlier (I was afraid being December they would take longer with people going on break). From there went in person to the Dallas office on LBJ and Hillcrest, no appointment needed. Had to pay sales tax on top of the registration fees, but everything was done in less than an hour. And was able to keep the license plates from the car I had traded in.

Because I was keeping the license plates from the older car, I had to call NTTA so they can change the temp license plates with the new ones for the Tesla. The system wasn't allowing me to do it by myself probably because it still had those license plates with the old car in my account.
 
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Make sure you get an original copy of the inspection report. I got a print out with a signature and today, the tax assessor's office refused to accept it. Wasted a good hour of my day driving there and waiting. Sent a message to the SC to hopefully resolve this. Not looking forward to paying that huge tax bill for my Model S though.
 
Make sure you get an original copy of the inspection report. I got a print out with a signature and today, the tax assessor's office refused to accept it. Wasted a good hour of my day driving there and waiting. Sent a message to the SC to hopefully resolve this. Not looking forward to paying that huge tax bill for my Model S though.
Purchased a new MY a few weeks ago in TX and just got my registration documents. It didn't have any kind of an inspection report included. It has the MVPA, Manufacturer's Certificate of Origin, Application for Title, and Odometer Disclosure. Nothing else in my packet. Am I supposed to get an inspection done before registering the vehicle??
 
I am picking up my car today. I am going to try to register it before Sept. 1st to save $400 from the new ev registration fee.

Does anybody know why I can not fill out the registration form myself? What form is it? Is 130u?https://www.txdmv.gov/sites/default/files/form_files/130-U.pdf
You have to wait for Tesla to send you the documents. They'll overnight it to you. I know they're trying to get as many TX people done as possible before Sept. 1st, but you probably won't make the cut. It took about 2 weeks to get mine. I registered mine about 1 week ago.