Most friendly states to title an imported Gelandewagen.

[Delibes]

Hello y'all,
I am curious as to which are the most hassle-free states to title a Mercedes Gelandewagen (1984 300GD, or any import, for that matter). The DMV in Kansas has been insisting that the original documents should be in English. I am looking at Missouri, Oklahoma, or maybe as far as TX. Any suggestions? Any experiences?

 

[Martyn]

A certified translation of the original documents shouldn't be that expensive or difficult.

 

[Delibes]

That's exactly what I thought at first, but the woman at DMV and her superiors insisted on the documents being in English, not translated. I checked with the equivalent organization in Spain, and they do not issue documents in any other languages that Spanish.

A pain in the rear, if you ask me.

 

[Gravyboat]

If you can wait another 10 years or so our army G-Wagons here in Canada will go up for sale as surplus. All the documentation on them will be in English, and French.


Sent from my Batmobile using morse code

 

[zimm]

ive always heard Maine was a cakewalk. It was popular with grey market defenders, due to very little paperwork required after 10yo, or something like that. i dont really recall.

 

[evilfij]

Maine, Alabama.

 

[Delibes]

Not the first time I hear Alabama. Any word on TX, OK, AK or MO?
Georgia seemed like another easy gateway, I have been told.
It's beyond frustrating to have to do this, but the law's the law.

 

[Ozrockrat]

Rather than answering your question on the easier path to registration/title. You may want to consider what you are looking for from a different angle.

If the originals are in Spanish I would suggest that you ask the question around of the DMV/MVD in Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and California. They are probably more used to dealing with imports from Mexico and will be more likely to have an officer fluent in Spanish on their staff. Of those my wild arsed guess would be that New Mexico would be the most likely candidate based on recent news stories around around the ability to be eligible for jury duty even if Spanish was the persons only language.

For example my experience in El Centro California was that as a monolingual English speaker I was definitely in the minority and most of the transactions were being conducted in Spanish. Made me feel a bit homesick for Chile. Not sure how that equates to documentation though.

 

[psykokid]

Hello y'all,
I am curious as to which are the most hassle-free states to title a Mercedes Gelandewagen (1984 300GD, or any import, for that matter). The DMV in Kansas has been insisting that the original documents should be in English. I am looking at Missouri, Oklahoma, or maybe as far as TX. Any suggestions? Any experiences?

Try another DMV office. Sometimes people at one branch have their heads so far up their own arses that even the upper management is useless. Since you are in Kansas, Is there anywhere near you where there is a large migrant population of farm workers? Not saying a lot of migrant workers would be using the DMV but it's worth a shot.

 

[mog]

Hello y'all,
I am curious as to which are the most hassle-free states to title a Mercedes Gelandewagen (1984 300GD, or any import, for that matter). The DMV in Kansas has been insisting that the original documents should be in English. I am looking at Missouri, Oklahoma, or maybe as far as TX. Any suggestions? Any experiences?

WoW. When I registered my Unimog in the Peoples Republic of California, even they accepted the Germany title documents in German. They even had a book of ‘pictures’ of foreign documents so the clerk could just compare what looked like what. I’m surly not recommending California, but pointing out that even one of the most pain in the a** states for registering vehicles accommodates foreign document. Oregon is pretty easy, but you need to be a resident.

 

[owhiting]

G

Colorado's western slope is easy to title almost anything. I do it all the time with non-english non translated titles. No emissions and no inspections other than the vin inspection that cost $15 by the sheriff at the DMV.

 

[Heady Expedition]

South Carolina, it's like the wild west of vehicle registration, no rules, no inspections, no emissions, no problem

 

[pugslyyy]

Hello y'all,
I am curious as to which are the most hassle-free states to title a Mercedes Gelandewagen (1984 300GD, or any import, for that matter). The DMV in Kansas has been insisting that the original documents should be in English. I am looking at Missouri, Oklahoma, or maybe as far as TX. Any suggestions? Any experiences?

As other have said, notarized translation of the documents are all you need (but you may need to talk to the right person - I've had DMV tell me things were impossible before, and just kept on talking to different people/offices until someone could get it done). Alternately claim 'lost title'.