If I buy a car while in PA and live in NY ...

I have to get seller to sign over title to me in front of a Notary, submit bill of sale, complete a MV 4ST form for odometer reading and show Notary my NY insurance card for new policy on car to get an "in-transit" tag from Notary which allows me to drive back to NY legally, right?


If the car is a 1968 year there should be a PA Title or does seller just sign over registration to me and I get the in-transit tag based upon reggie.

There's no form download for MV 4ST and I can't tell from the PA DOT website whether all vehicles are titled or not. I called the out-of-state number for assistance but spoke with someone who might be more clueless than I. :)

In NY a 1968 owner wouldn't have an actual title but would transfer registration to me and I would re-register car, weird quirk for older cars.

TIA ;)

The state promo says "You've got a friend in Pennsylvania" :)

Where da heck is my friend? ;)

Not really sure this is the legal way but a few years back I bought an 87 Monte SS in PA. I live in Jersey. All I did was go meet the guy, we drove over to a Notary who was 5 min away and signed the title over there. Then we went back to his house and I slapped the tags from my old car on it and drove it home. Once in NJ I took the title up to the DMV. After a 2 hr wait in line, I got a new set of tags and a new NJ title. Oh, I did call an added the car to my ins policy before this.

Basically I figured if I got pulled over I would have some explaining to do, but hoped for the best. I wasnt sure if that was the "legal" way to do it or not, but I only had a 1 hr drive and I just made sure I didnt do any thing stupid to get pulled over. If I got in an accident, the car was already insured thu my policy.

But to answer your original question, I do belive the Notary can give you "legal" documents showing everything was done right and the car is "in-transit". My advice would be to call the Notary you are going to use and ask them. They probably will know more than the DMV;) lol

Turns out to be an easy deal.

Pay seller for car and get title.

Bring title and seller to a notary with purchaser's insurance card for policy in car. Used a place called Fast Tags who took us in at 6:30PM

Seller signs over title in front of notary who fills in back of title and notarizes sellers signature. Notary left odometer reading blank - I filled in.

Temporary cardboard plate is issued.

$40.00 fee, no tax, no selling price disclosed.

And the car (1968 Buick Skylark) made the ride back to NY like a champ. Now for the fun part at NYDMV and a safety inspection. :)

Yeah, PA is pretty easy about getting temporary tags to transport a vehicle. NJ is a much bigger pain in the butt, except for the DC sniper who had no problems getting his car on the road.:think:

Originally posted by Jeff H
Yeah, PA is pretty easy about getting temporary tags to transport a vehicle. NJ is a much bigger pain in the butt, except for the DC sniper who had no problems getting his car on the road.:think:

Actually NJ is cake too. I bought the Saturn over there just over a month ago and I didn't have to much more than show the guy my insurance card and sign in a couple of places. Upon returning to PA I awaited the arrival of the title (the guy was still waiting to get that back) for a couple of days and then went over to a tag place here to register it. I paid tax on it here, registered it and I'm now waiting for the title in the mail in my name.

It was very simple.

;)