Just getting my plates from the dealer...
 

..and I need some advice. I bought my used BRZ from a Park Place Mercedes dealership in Grapevine, TX around the end of April. It's been this long and the guy who sold me my car still has not been able to get me my plates. I signed my trade in's title, pretty much everything he asked me to and mailed it back. So, to avoid any more frustration we agreed that I would take my car back to the dealership and he would take care of everything. I would receive my car back and be on my merry freaking way. I go back the next day after initially bringing the car in and it turns out that the front two tires do not pass inspection (aftermarket yokos) for unknown reasons. ( i suspect tread but they looked good to me) So when I go back to get my car, is it unreasonable to assume this will be a cost to them? What are the legal implications of this? I understand that I bought my car as-is but is it unethical for them to make me jumps through hoops for my plates only to realize I was sold a car that could not pass inspection? I need some opinions on this. I feel it should be all on them, especially to deal with the delays that no car buyer should have to deal with.

:paddle:

Sue.

So you brought your car to the MERCEDES dealership you got your car from for some plates and they are inspecting your car for tires?

Cool story bro.

i bought my brz in june and still havent gotten my plates yet.
But since you bought it from a dealership, they should have given you dealership plates that expire

Forgive my ignorance of your licencing system but how can you drive for months without plates?


If the car was just inspected now does that mean you were driving around in a potentially unsafe vehicle for this long?


You bought the vehicle as is and that is exactly what it means. The seller has no ethical responsibility to change anything since you agreed to buy it as it sat. Besides how is it not known if the tires would have passed an inspection 5 months ago anyway. The delays and aggravating as they would be were not the result of the bad tires so that doesn't factor into it.
Now...Having said all that, I would go after them for something for the hassle and bad tires. Maybe start out asking them to cover them and bargain down to splitting the cost or something along that line. They of course will have the contract saying sold as is and could tell you to shove it though.

I didn't think it was a necessary point in my epic story but yes I do have temp paper plates that expired on the 7th of July. It took me as of 3 days ago to make my lazy ass go to the dealership.

In an ideal scenario, and based on me buying a used car in the past, the whole process is pretty painless. Simply have the license plates shipped as it takes a couple of weeks for them to go through the system and viola. You get your plates, swap the paper ones and be on your merry way. I assumed this was done when I bought by car and did not realize an inspection wasn't done. Silly me for assuming that's just common practice, especially coming from a nice dealership. So this whole time I thought my whole situation was convoluted and was taking an unnecessary amount of time. What it seems like is that that step was skipped, hence the huge delay in never getting my plates. I wasn't trying to have a "cool story". I was just trying to have a sanity check to see if that seemed a little sketchy.

No, no no, don't read what I wrote as angry. I was truly confused. We don't have a system like that here. You can get trip permits for brief periods with no plates but every car must be registered and plated before it leave the lot.

I don't know the main differences between new and used. But I do know that my experience buying used in TX is that you get temp plates for a couple weeks and should be good to go once they are mailed to you. Which is why I'm king of confused and frustrated.

At that point, I would have just said fuck it, and picked up the plates myself.

Dealers up here provide registry service as a courtesy if you don't have plates, BUT here in MA we can just go pick up the plates at the registry if new ones are needed. Most people just pull the plates off their trade in and put them on the new car.

Plates shouldn't be a big deal. Most dealers have old retired guys that run to the registry for this type of shit...

You're right. I mean thi part of the process shouldn't be complicated. It's only when I brought my car back was I aware that the car lacked a proper inspection. Then I was like wtf?

Find out when the inspection is done, at the point of sale or at the point of registration.
Sale, they are liable.
Registration, you are liable.