Getting my Z home.
 

My 83 280ZX is up and running and will be coming home soon. (the 14th)

Trouble is, it's been sitting for well over a year in New Mexico, has expired NM plates on it, and somehow has to make it here to Colorado. (6-7 hour trip)

Can I get temp tags for the transfer between states, or should I just have someone put it on a trailer to bring it over?

Get a 3-day transit permit at any DMV office in New Mexico. That will work. If you drive it you will also be required to have liability insurance on it.

Will do. Thanks for the info. The insurance won't be an issue, but will I need to be the one that gets the permit at the DMV? It's my name on the title but I was going to have my parents drop it off during a trip they will be taking up here.

Called the DMV in Farmington NM. Turns out they will only give up the transit pass if I was a buyer and just purchased the car.

Guess I'll have to go with plan B.

Now, to make a plan B....

Can't you just get a 30 day tag or something?

Thats what I thought. I explained my situation to the Supervisor at the DMV and and asked what my options would be.

She said:
1) Renew in NM.
2) Put it on a trailer.

Register it in CO. Does CO require you to physically have the car on hand? If you can register it in CO, just take your new plates with you when you go to NM to drive it home. Put your CO plates on and flip the bird to the NM bureaucracy.

I've registered all my cars in CA without anyone actually looking at the car with the only exception of one that hadn't been registered since the 80's and it wasn't in the system so I had to have a DMV "officer" or a real "officer" do a VIN verification to prove it was "real". Even then, they issued me a 90 day temp tag, site unseen, to get the VIN verification and smog check done.

just put a sign on it that says in transit.

That depends on where in CO he is going. The 8 or so counties in the Denver metro area require emissions testing before you can register it. You can get a 1 day temp tag tho for like 5 bucks in CO without emissions.


Justin

From what I can recall, I could register the car in Colorado if I had a CO title for it. Because it's a NM title I've been told the car will have to be present for an inspection.

As for the emission testing, I would have to go through that if I was registering up here in Broomfield, but I will be registering down in Trinidad instead.

At this time I have a way to get it back home, so no more worries. Hitting the road after work today.
:)