registration/insurance as a foreigner

[adam-SKO]

hi everyone.

i am from new zealand and i am looking to buy a bus to live in for 3 months in the us next month. the bus will be purchased in new york. i have contacts who's addresses i can use in ny,maine and washington. does anyone know how i should go about this? i have read that only certain states will allow it at all? i do not have an international driving permit as i can drive legally on my nz license. has anyone been through this or know anyone who has?

thanks.
adam.

 

[Redbear]

Being from New York, I would advise in favor of registering in Maine. All other things being equal, people's attitudes toward your bus may be more favorable with a Maine or Washington plate than with one from New York. People see a New York plate, they think "Manhattan," "Wall Street," and "pushy;" not "dairy farmers" or "woodsmen."

Maine's registration is somehow different, and may be better. Most of the long-haul tractor-trailers I see on the Interstate highways have a Maine or Indiana plate on the semi-trailer, regardless of where the fleet has its terminals or registers the tractors. There has got to be a good financial or legal reason for them to go to the trouble to do this. I think they often use one or more licensing agents in Jefferson, Maine. It must be kind of like the lawyers' offices that register the offshore corporations' "headquarters" in the Caribbean islands.

Check it all out with your contacts.

 

[adam-SKO]

all go for maine. does anyone know what changing the title to rv involves there? will i have to go through any inspections?