NGLBGL

I recently took ED of my S5 SB and when I arrived back home my new license plates were already waiting for me. The more I think about it the more I think my dealer made a mistake because I don't think its right to be losing out on a couple months of registration while I wait for the car to be shipped over. I'm curious what others experiences have been with this? I would think you would go through the registration process once the car gets here; just as you would when buying the car directly at the dealer.

mkinn

Mine was registered the month my A7 was shipped back to my dealer. Timeline was signed papers end of Sept., took delivery at Neckarsulm in Oct, reached my dealer in Dec. Month on license plate for renewal is Dec.

NGLBGL

Yeah that sounds way more proper. I think I just got screwed by the dealer not knowing how to handle an ED.

lowjdml

Wow, that’s a really quick turnaround for an ED. Was it a custom order or a dealer inventory build?

For the OP: I registered my car after I received it in the states.

TIME89

Same here, the day I get my car in local dealership - the same day they send registration to DMV.
Other state may have different rules.

My car get to the port at September 4 and do to some minor bump scratch fix it was re-delivered to me on October 2. My registration month on LP - October.

superswiss

Yep same here. The car was registered once it got to the dealership. Delivery was 4/18 in Ingolstadt. Drove it for 3.5 weeks before dropping off and then it took about 9 weeks before I had it back at the West Coast. Registration date was 7/14, so almost three months after delivery.

Interesting they could register it before the car was physically here. There's no guarantee that the car will make it to the US. You could in theory decide to keep the car in Europe and pay the VAT or total it on your trip with some bad luck, or a shipwreck could leave your car at the bottom of the ocean. The latter has happened before.

NGLBGL

I completely agree. I was pretty confused by it when I got home from Germany earlier this month and my license plates were already there waiting for me with a SEP registration sticker. Very disappointed with my dealer on this one

NGLBGL

I wonder if the registration has anything to do with how the car was purchased? Like if it was leased, financed, cash...??

superswiss

Perhaps. I could see if leased that it might be different, because in that case you are not actually the rightful owner. Many leasing companies actually don't lease a car to you if you do ED. Third-party financing can be difficult as well. AFS handles both with ED or not. In my case, I paid cash.

FLkiwi

Mine was also registered after it arrived at the dealer. In fact, they left dealer plates on it for a few days while they wrestled with the Florida DMV over transferring the tags from my previous car.

Interestingly enough, it would have been useful to have this option when I was looking for financing options - nobody wanted to touch an auto loan for a car that wouldn't be registered in the US for another 2 or 3 months.