Fly & Drive Illinois - Illinois Non Resident Drive Away Plates

I'm pondering a fly up and drive it home on a vehicle in Illinois. I'm in NC.  I'm a boring rules follower, so I'm nervous to follow the "just get the title, some insurance, and drive it, plates are for sissies" crowd or the "just pull some existing plates off another vehicle" crowd.  I'd like to moderately enjoy the drive back, not looking in the rear view mirror pondering the privacy of the showers in the local county jail :-)  

My Googling is leading to somewhat confusing results, as the laws in Illinois appeared to have changed in 2021.  But I think I can obtain a "Non-Resident-Drive-Away Permit" at a Secretary of States office.  The cynical side of me says that that office is probably run as efficiently as most state DMVs, so calling and asking for info is not likely going to lead to success.

Any of the GRM faithful have specific first hand knowledge of this type of permit in the State of Illinois?  Car is located in the Champaign IL area.

Thanks!

Do you mean Champaign, IL? If so, that looks like it's a 30 min hop down the Interstate and you're in Indiana. You will spend more time in IN, KY, and TN than you will in IL.

I think it would make more sense to get temporary papers from NC than IL.

In reply to JY_Rat :

Yeah, it autocorrected the city name, fixed, thanks.

NC will not issue a temp tag without a title hence the specific question about IL. I'd have to fly up, pay the guy, get a title, fly back, get a tag, fly back up again to drive it home, etc. Or be VERY trusting and pay for the car, and get seller to ship me the title before I even left NC. 

Or just fly up, do the transaction, get the title, and have the vehicle shipped to me. Probably makes the most sense, but the horror stories of the quality of the the open trailer shipment folks is not confidence inspiring.

I would buy it and just drive home.

I just bought a car in Tennessee and drove it home to the Chicago area.  Can I leave the TN plate on and send it back?  

I had the title, a bill of sale on an envelope and a copy of my insurance.  No issues.

I ran into a similar conundrum doing a fly and drive from Indiana. After looking into other options and explaining to the seller that I didn't want to drive without plates, he agreed to let me drive the car home on his plates, then mail them back to him. That worked out great and made for a worry-free drive.

I am in Champaign illinois, what car are you looking at?

I *thought* you have 24 hours from the time you buy it until you apply for plates.  I'll look that up though, or I can call the dmv that is 2 miles from my house.

Definitely DON'T put plates from another car on it.

Appleseed said:

Definitely DON'T put plates from another car on it.

Trailer plates then?

OP,

Maybe Eric can get the car and ship you a title to get your plates? He seems like a trustworthy gentleman :-). I personally would do some shady E36 M3 but have not been pulled over in 20 years so I tend to not get too worked up over the little ish.

Appleseed said:

Definitely DON'T put plates from another car on it.

100%. The penalty's for driving with plates from another vehicle are many times worse than driving with none in most States. In MD it's impound the vehicle, and arrest vs a $125 ticket. 

Steve_Jones said:

Appleseed said:

Definitely DON'T put plates from another car on it.

100%. The penalty's for driving with plates from another vehicle are many times worse than driving with none in most States. In MD it's impound the vehicle, and arrest vs a $125 ticket. 

And thanks to ALPR, you don't have to wait to actually get pulled over for something else for them to run your plate.  The display in the cruiser will pop right up there telling the officer exactly what make, model, year, and color of vehicle he should be looking at.

I wouldn't hesitate to drive a freshly-purchased, insured vehicle with no plate home from pretty much anywhere so long as I had all the paperwork in hand.  But I wouldn't even brush up against a car running the wrong tag, much less drive it.

EricM said:

I am in Champaign illinois, what car are you looking at?

I *thought* you have 24 hours from the time you buy it until you apply for plates.  I'll look that up though, or I can call the dmv that is 2 miles from my house.

PM Coming your way

I called the dmv, they opened at 8am central time.  You take the title signed by the seller and your out of state drivers license to the dmv and get a $27 "drive away" license that is good for 90 days.

There are three dmv facilities nearby, Champaign, Rantoul, and Tuscola. The latter two are never busy.  Champaign gets a little busy, but drive away license is walk up service.

For only $27 I wouldn't risk not having the correct paperwork.

EricM said:

I called the dmv, they opened at 8am central time.  You take the title signed by the seller and your out of state drivers license to the dmv and get a $27 "drive away" license that is good for 90 days.

There are three dmv facilities nearby, Champaign, Rantoul, and Tuscola. The latter two are never busy.  Champaign gets a little busy, but drive away license is walk up service.

For only $27 I wouldn't risk not having the correct paperwork.

Eric - thanks so much for taking the time to call and get an answer. A DMV that actually picks up the phone and is open on a Saturday is impressive.  For $27, that's the easy button for sure.

GRM comes through for the win again. 

Only semi-related, but shout-out to my DMV up here in CT.  They've been very responsive via phone or email any time I've had a weird-arse situation, and they're genuinely nice to work with in person.  Since COVID they've gotten a timed appointment system set up that works really well. 

It's nice to see that, especially coming from PA.

WonkoTheSane said:

Only semi-related, but shout-out to my DMV up here in CT.  They've been very responsive via phone or email any time I've had a weird-arse situation, and they're genuinely nice to work with in person.  Since COVID they've gotten a timed appointment system set up that works really well. 

It's nice to see that, especially coming from PA.

Having gone to the PA dmv the other day for license renewal, I'm reminded how much I love/hate the notary title transfer system here. It's great not having to wait at the dmv, but every notary is different in what they want and will do, despite laws being laws. 

wake74 said:

EricM said:

I called the dmv, they opened at 8am central time.  You take the title signed by the seller and your out of state drivers license to the dmv and get a $27 "drive away" license that is good for 90 days.

There are three dmv facilities nearby, Champaign, Rantoul, and Tuscola. The latter two are never busy.  Champaign gets a little busy, but drive away license is walk up service.

For only $27 I wouldn't risk not having the correct paperwork.

Eric - thanks so much for taking the time to call and get an answer. A DMV that actually picks up the phone and is open on a Saturday is impressive.  For $27, that's the easy button for sure.

I'm from the area and while the Champaign DMV can get very busy, they are also surprisingly efficient. Especially when you show up with everything you need. Illinois started doing DMV appointments which really speeds things up. You can schedule them ahead of time or the same day. Last Saturday I had to change my medical examiner status for my CDL. I looked at 8 AM and there were no appointments available. I looked at 9:50 and there was one available at 10:30. Rushed over there and arrived at 10:29. I was out of the building at 10:39. I overheard a walk-in customer get told the wait was about 2 hours if you didn't have an appointment.

In reply to EricM :

You the man - on 6/30/23 on a crowded Friday afternoon at the Joliet, Illinois DMV, last day of the month  I transferred plates to a new title and there was a smog check on the outgoing title that needed to be cancelled.  Two DMV ladies screwed up some steps and had issues.  

The cashier got pissed at me and told me to sit down while she worked on it and she slammed the blinds shut.  I turn around to see 30 people giving me the stink eye cause I shut down 1/3 of the cashiers.  

I never seem to hit the time right to be able to get a transit tag so I've done 8-ish with no plate and good docs just in case.  When I overnight I tend to back the car into a spot to hide the plate.  Except for the one we did July 4 weekend 2022.  Flew to the middle of Louisiana to pick it up on a Saturday morning.  We ended up spending the night at a downtown New Orleans hotel with valet parking.  Didn't phase them.  Set the cruise at 5 over on the trip home, somewhere along the way a trooper came up from behind us and passed us.  SWMBO is much more nervous about these adventures, and things like routine radar checks we encounter, but events like the trooper passing amaze her.

If I could easily and conveniently be a rule follower and get a transit tag I would but I wouldn't sweat it in the alternate.  Just whatever you do, don't put the wrong plate on it.  Even a prior owner tag is legally and insurance-wise sketchy and subject to lawyers and the courts.  Technically, if there was a transaction then the registration is dead and there is no more permissive use on the PO insurance since they technically don't have an insurable interest any longer.  The event hasn't been officially logged with the state so it's the gray area for courts to decide.  I would much rather be without a plate but with all of the docs showing the transaction ties to the timeline and location of heading home.

Rural vs. Urban locations seem to be the hot ticket to swift service here in Indiana