Does anyone know the requirements for re-registering a car in NC, or specifically whether or not it must be inspected?

The situation concerns my '79 Malibu. It's been sitting quietly at my parents' house since 2000, waiting for me to get it back on the road someday. When I stopped driving it we took off the registration and turned in the plates so that I wouldn't have to pay insurance on it. This becomes a problem now because their homeowners' association announced that the Greensboro police deparment will be cooperating with them to enforce city code violations, one of which deals with inoperable vehicles. Evidently, to be compliant, any vehicle on your property in view of the street must be a)registered and b)capable of moving forward and backward under its own power.

Since the car doesn't currently run, this is a problem. However, if I were to put valid plates back on it, I doubt an officer would come up to the house and ask them to demonstrate movement. If I can re-register it without an inspection, then it's unlikely to be a problem anytime soon. If an inspection is required...anyone got a cheap, running small-block V8?

1/31/2006 4:41:11 PM

it's easy... just get insurance on it, and go to the dmv to pay for new registration/plates. whoever it's titled to will have to do it.

you're taking a chance on the inspection. it's possible they'll catch that it's been re registered, and possible they won't.

here's what i'd do if it was mine-

a.) park it backwards in the driveway so no one can see it doesn't have a plate

OR

b.) pull the plate off of your lincoln and put it on it. claim the plate is lost. go to dmv and get a new plate for the lincoln. that way it's got the appearance of being legal, and would take someone actually running the plates to find otherwise (highly unlikely).

[Edited on January 31, 2006 at 5:18 PM. Reason : .]

1/31/2006 5:17:44 PM

It's actually titled in my Mom's name (since it was her car before I got it at 16), but I'll probably have the title transferred anyway, since it will eventually end up with me in Raleigh. I was just hoping to wait until I got a house and had somewhere to work to bring it here.

As to the plate thing--I had considered that. We have a couple of old plates in the shed, and since the NC plate design hasn't changed in ages, I might just have them put one of those on the car. Presumably they're not going to come up the driveway close enough to notice that the sticker reads '93' rather than '06'...

1/31/2006 5:22:16 PM

Or you could just tuck it out of sight in the back yard.

1/31/2006 7:05:11 PM

they may still bitch if the plate is out of date.

i had my HOA bitch cuz i stored a car that was registered/insured, but had an expired inspection.

1/31/2006 7:11:36 PM

Perfect arguments for living outside city limits.

I hate HOA's and city/subdivision covenants and ordinances.

Green Acres is the place for me...

1/31/2006 7:19:33 PM

yep... i went through pure neighbor hell at the last place i lived.

1/31/2006 7:29:00 PM

Quote :

"Or you could just tuck it out of sight in the back yard."

Won't fit. There's a basketball goal in the way that Dad wouldn't want to take down, and there are trees on the other side.

I doubt they'll notice too much about the plate though. This has never been an issue before, and the neighbors obviously don't care (it's been sitting in the same place for 5 years, yes, but still looks more or less driveable). I guess it all depends on if it's "check out anything obvious" or "we're going to walk around every single vehicle to look for violations".

[Edited on January 31, 2006 at 8:23 PM. Reason : s]

1/31/2006 8:22:51 PM

place potted plants around it so its not visible

2/1/2006 12:04:05 AM

As it turns out, once registration and plates are issued, you have 10 days to get it inspected. So that's out. Also found out that displaying an incorrect plate is a $250 fine, so that's out also (not my decision). Checking into how much it would cost to keep it at one of those self-storage places; if that's expensive then I'll be looking hard at repairing versus replacing the engine.

2/2/2006 3:46:09 AM