Florida Car Registration/Licencing/Insurance?

[ValiantHardtop]

Hey guys,

Just planning my Epic US Holiday for next year, and was hoping you guys could help a confused foreigner out with some info.

Basically, my wife and I are planning pick up a car in Miami and spend about a month driving through the south, finishing up in Houston. I'll put a post up in a little while asking for suggestions about places to visit along the way, places to avoid etc, but before then I was hoping for some advice about a car.

After checking out the cost of car hire (particularly given the amount of miles we plan on driving, one-way), it appears the best way to do this is to buy a car for the drive.

We can go one of two ways - either buy a sweet classic car, then ship it back home to Australia at the end of the trip, or buy a cheap car to get us through the drive and sell it/give it away at the end. Probably the cheapish modern car (Crown Vic most likely, maybe a cheap pickup truck) will be the way to go - I'm a good roadside mechanic but doing thousands of miles in a newly-purchased 40 year old car might be stretching the friendship.

Either way, we'll need to sort out the car-ownership legalities before we set off. What I was hoping someone could tell me is what is necessary to get on the road in Florida.

In Australia, when you buy a car, you need to have a safety inspection done by a licenced mechanic, then pay your state road tax and you're done. I was hoping someone could confirm what the process over there is?

Obviously you need to buy a car with clean title (we don't do "title" over here), but what other hoops do they make you jump through? Has any other non-US citizen had any experience with buying/registering/licencing a car in the states (Canadians on this forum maybe?).

Any advice with this would be appreciated - Have been dreaming about this trip forever, can't wait to put the plan in to action.

Edit - I've done some googling, and the Florida govt website is worse than useless, so anything you can tell me is fantastic
Thanks so much

Nick

 

[MoparMuscleGuy]

Here in Florida if you buy a car from a dealer and pay cash you're run through a terrorist data base first, if your clean you have no worries. Next Florida requires a title for a car which should be no problem to transfer to you showing ownership. Third, Florida requires Car insurance. It should go rather smoothly for you and good luck on your trip here in the United States. MMG

 

[ValiantHardtop]

Thanks so much, MMG! So there's no state tax or licence tags I need to worry about? My main concern is that I won't have a residential address or a US drivers licence.

So the insurance you mention is just the third-party collision/personal injury insurance for when I run in to a Mercedes Benz, right? Is that expensive or hard to get?

Thanks again, mate.

Nick

 

[MoparMuscleGuy]

Thanks so much, MMG! So there's no state tax or licence tags I need to worry about? My main concern is that I won't have a residential address or a US drivers licence.

So the insurance you mention is just the third-party collision/personal injury insurance for when I run in to a Mercedes Benz, right? Is that expensive or hard to get?

Thanks again, mate.

Nick

Miami/Dade has a 7% sales tax + tags/title/registration fees. Hope this helps.

 

[YY1]

You're required to show proof of insurance to get the title transferred, which means you have to call the ins co. and add the car's VIN to your policy before you register for a titile. At a dealership the ins co can fax the proof and the dealer can issue a temporary tag. From a private party it's a bit more difficult and may require mailing you a policy and could mean multiple trips to the DMV. There is definately tax due at the time of title transfer/resgistration, and they have been cracknig down on fraud- ie stating $500 for a Corvette triggers an investigation, and can result in a subpoena to have the vehicle inspected.

Are you sure you want to drive thousands of miles in a cheap third pary crown vic???

Id call the FL DMV and maybe a reputable dealer in FL and ask specifically what the procedures and timelines are for non-FL, non-US resident purchases and transfers.

 

[ValiantHardtop]

Have now logged an enquiry with the Florida department. Will see what they say.

I'd rather do the trip in a hemi Charger than a Crown Vic, but with a budget under 3000 and a need for long-distance reliability with air con etc I don't know what else I'd choose...