Question about vehicle registration

[WestwardBound]

Good Morning!

I have a quick question for the officers here regarding vehicle registration. I purchased a used truck yesterday from a private party. It did not come with a license plate or registration, and the local county clerk office is not open on the weekends. I will of course go down in the morning and get new plates and registration, but in the meantime is it to drive the truck until then? They old guy I bought it from assured me that I had 30 days, but I searched the TN DMV site and could not find anything to confirm that. BTW, my insurance DOES cover me for 30 days, just wondering about the registration here. Thanks.

[SgtCHP]

Here is the online information for TN registration......

http://www.tennessee.gov/revenue/vehicle/index.htm

[VA Dutch]

Just use the 'redneck dealer tag' and you'll be okay. That is when a buddy of yours takes the front tag off of your car and puts it on the rear of the 'new' vehicle. Then you drive it home and your buddy follows behind you.


^^^^ That is my sarcastic remark for the day. Please DO NOT attempt such a stunt, or you will end up with a ticket and a court date.

[JDCOP]

No you can not drive it upon any roadway in TN without being registered or having a temporary operating permit. Even if it is to drive it home from the guy's house you bought it from.

[WestwardBound]

Thanks for the answers. I posed this question on the AR15.com LEO forums and they responded by saying

you have 30 days to transfer the title over and get a tag. You need to go ahead and add the vehicle to your insurance, have them fax you proof of insurance, keep a copy of the bill of sale with you, and you should be ok to drive. I stop a lot of vehicles with no tags, and 99% of the time they have just bought the vehicle. As long as they have insurance and a bill of sale and/or title, they are good to go!

The followup post was in agreement with this one. I was on the link to the TN DMV website linked above this morning and was unable to find a specific answer for this question.

No you can not drive it upon any roadway in TN without being registered or having a temporary operating permit. Even if it is to drive it home from the guy's house you bought it from.

JDCOP, I appreciate your answer. Can you provide me with the statute that outlines this opinion? This will be a moot point for me tomorrow morning because I can get my registration then, but I am curious and may run into the same situation again soon.

[JDCOP]

http://www.michie.com/tennessee/lpex....htm&cp=tncode

TCA 55-4-101 Regestration required before operation.

Also

TCA 55-3-102 Driving or moving unregistered vehicle upon highway

If the link doesn't take you to the code just type the code in the search box.