[legion]

The root of the problem could be a proactive person and an idiot DMV worker.

A few years ago, I was considering getting a Caterham. Caterham's do no have standard VINs. I had read that residents of some states had trouble getting them titled because of this. I went online to research how to title a car with a non-standard VIN. Not surprisingly (considering the laziness of state employees in Illinois), no such information was available. I went to the DMV to ask what the procedure was for titling a car with a non-standard VIN. First of all, it took me 20 minutes to attempt to explain what a non-standard VIN is. I don't think it was ever understood. They simply could not get the concept that you can legally import a vehicle that doesn't use a standard VIN (or that a VIN could even be non-standard). Frustrating that my line of questions was not yielding any useful information, I tried a different approach: how do you title a home-built vehicle? The worker told me that I couldn't. I know this is false, as I know people who have gotten vehicles titled in Illinois that they have built themselves. The DMV drone asked me if I was building the car myself. I said no, I am buying it from out of state. He said then they will just use the VIN on the title. I explained that that could either be a non-standard VIN or a state-issued (by a different state) replacement VIN. Would that cause their system a problem. Blank stare.

It was clear that this was going to be an exercise in finding out how big a pain I had to deal with after the fact. Long time posters will remember that I had a heck of a time getting my 2007 Chevrolet Silverado title in Illinois because I bought it new out of state and Illinois simply does not have a provision in its DMV systems and procedures for buying a new car out of state. (It ended up taking 4 months and I had to violate some state laws to make it happen.) That experience was why I tried to be proactive with the Caterham. I ultimately decided that I didn't have the appetite for dealing with incompetent and vindictive state employees again.

As for the above, I would consider buying it if I lived in Rhode Island, could meet the seller and the DMV, and could hand them their payment upon successfully retitling. Other than that, you just never know if another state is going to accept one state's nonstandard paperwork.