PA: Need guidance on lemon title out of state dealer purchase, can’t figure out next steps (DMV/auto tags etc question).

[Moleculefinder]

I live in PA, bought a lemon-title Buyback from an out of state dealer. Got it shipped here, came with temporary plates and a temporary “registration” issued by the dealer. However this is just a sheet with my info, the VIN, and the dealer’s address.

As far as I can tell I’m required to get this car registered and inspected within 10 or 20 days of sale. Problem is the dealership is saying there’s no title, they had me fill out power of attorney paperwork so they can get a title from Illinois DMV…

which they say takes 90 days…

and then I transfer that title to PA, which is also a process and may take another couple months. The car is amazing, but pretty worried if it gets towed or I get pulled over, as all I really have is a bill of sale and insurance and a note with thone three pieces of info. Can’t seem to find clear guidance on what the process is supposed to be here. I knew buying out of state would come with some headache, but I didn’t anticipate the dealer not having the title in any form.

The dealer assures me I’m good to drive with the temporary permit from Illinois, but PA DMV doesn’t seem to have anything to say about that. Totally lost and not sure where to go, the dealers here I talked to said they can’t do a state inspection with out-of-state Temporary plate.

I thought I read up on this all but just kind of confused/amazed that the dealer - who has otherwise been amazing and I’ll recommend on the relevant thread- didn’t think it was worth it to get the title in their state in the first place after they bought it at auction.

Guessing there’s some dumb assumptions here and happy to be wrong about anything above. Suspect I’m misunderstanding a lot, but have never bought out of state before.

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[Bigisland Guy]

I'm not sure if this will help, but in CA our local AAA branches issue plates and do inspections maybe someone at AAA auto club has some suggestions. Good Luck

 

[Tfarrell73]

IL states original owner must apply for dup title. See below from il website
Out-of-State Residents
Out-of-state residents may not apply for an Illinois duplicate title if they have purchased a vehicle without a title from an Illinois resident. The out-of-state purchaser must ask the Illinois owner to apply for the duplicate title.However, if a former Illinois resident was the last valid title holder of the vehicle, a duplicate title may be applied for.

The former Illinois resident must:

Indicate their former Illinois address in the owner's address information area on the application, and
Include out-of-state mailing instructions in the "MAIL TO" information area.

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