how to license a car in cali with bill of sale?

[john walker's workshop]

a friend sold a car to someone in california with just a bill of sale. what does cali require to get it licensed and titled? in washington, you get it inspected by the state patrol and then the DOL issues a registration only and after 3 years, they send a title.

[Noah930]

I recently registered an out-of-state motorcycle with a bill of sale. I went to the DMV (can't do it through AAA). They wanted to inspect the car there. They looked for 4 things: VIN, engine serial number, federal compliance sticker, and the emissions sticker. The vehicle must be 50-state compliant (not a 49-stater). The car will also need a smog check (from a smog check station--not done by the DMV), which in Cali requires not only a sniffer test but also a visual inspection.

If any of those issues isn't met (I didn't have the federal compliance sticker), then the vehicle must be inspected by the CHP. It has to be at a specific CHP station. You can't just get a CHP officer on the side of the highway or Burger King parking lot to do it. You call the station and set up an appointment. The wait time may be a month in advance. The CHP officer will do a walk-around the vehicle. I suppose if there are any other obvious vehicle code infractions they can bring it up at that point. They look up all the serial numbers to make sure the vehicle and/or motor aren't stolen.

With that clean bill of health, your friend will then have to return to the DMV to finalize the registration. It is advisable to pay all fees/taxes/etc at the FIRST visit to the DMV, otherwise by the time you go for the 2nd visit at the DMV you will have passed the x number of days you're allowed to register a vehicle when it comes into Kalifornia and be stuck with additional hefty fines. Technically, until this last visit to the DMV, the vehicle isn't really legal to be driven on the street. I rode my motorcycle to and from the DMV/CHP offices, but that wasn't entirely legal. No one seemed to care about that.

edit: Then, with all that done, DMV will send you a title within a couple weeks. At least the above was my experience a couple months ago. YMMV, depending on the DMV clerk you get.