Title trouble Maryland to Pennsylvania

Bought a Seca last year from an original owner who moved from Ca. to Md. and had trouble with the VIN. The sate of Maryland would not accept the manufactures VIN (I believe for the short number). They issued a special serial number and attached a metal plate to the frame under the seat. That number is what is on the Maryland title I got as the VIN. Now the state of Pa (my home state) has kicked the title back. I had no trouble with the short VIN when I titled my othe Seca which came from Ohio. Anyone had similar experience?

 

Perhaps title it in Maryland as historic? I did excatly that on my 81 maxim and had no issues witht he VIN number. And my title and bike came from it's PO in Va.

 

My Maxim is registered as Historic and I didn't have any trouble. I told them to fill in "X"s for the missing characters on the end and they were ok with that.

 

Historic makes no diff in Pa. According to the people at the Tag service anyway. The problem is with Maryland issuing a new VIN number and Pa does not recognize it. I have to take pencil tracings of both numbers in and resubmit. What a mess

 

Sorry to hear about your problems, but MD DMV is the worst I've ever dealt with. If you ever have to deal with MD again, different DMV's make life either harder or easier. I never go to Gaithersburg DMV, people are always rude and unhelpful, last time I was there to get my new motorcycle license the guy at the counter kept babbling about how the Russians are buying all of the US refineries and pipelines in the US. Maybe its true, who knows, but not what I wanna hear when I'm in a rush to move through the DMV. Best MD DMV I've found is Elkton, they bend over backwards to help you, followed by PG County because they just don't care and will do whatever possible to get you out to door fastest.

Maybe you can try a friendlier DMV to get a replacement title with the actual VIN? Like mentioned before, they just put X in the extra places with mine. Also, have you tried talking to a private title service in PA? I've had some experience with some (bought my bike in PA and titled in MD) and the good ones know every piece of paperwork and loop hole the system has. Sorry to hear about your problem and good luck! Keep us updated!

 

Government.... sheesh. Their computer can't handle it if the number of digits aren't correct.

What a joke, I can't wait till they have total control over my health care.

 

take your papers and what ever you have to your local state rep and ask them if he can straighten it out
those guys in Harrisburg are shady as hell but sometimes you need a little shade

 

i had the same problem, mine has the full length vin but the sticker was worn through for most of the vin #. i just had it verified that the number on the title was in fact the only number on the bike. i also told them that yamaha used only a short vin up untill that year. after a couple attempts they put it through. i just had to remind them again to renew the insurance policy but it was just a simple " ya that's the number" my main trouble tho was with the insurance company as their computer is set up that all cars ever manufactured have a 17 digit vin.

 

I agree about the Gaithersburg MVA. I live there but I go up to the Frederick MVA if I need to get anything done. It's a lot easier. The thing that really killed me when I moved to MD was that they have to have a title to my car before they'll register it. I explained that I don't have the title because the car is not paid for yet. It turns out that I have to send some form to the loan company to get them to release a copy of the title to the Maryland DMV. For a fee, of course. And I have to pay sales tax on the car. Again.

Good luck with the bike though. Like everybody else has said, if you just prove to them that really is the vin on the bike, they should work with you.

 

I took pictures and pencil tracings of both Yamaha VINs (frame and engine) as well as the Maryland "special serial number plate" The guy at the Tag service was not too helpful. Even though I showed him my Pa. title for the other Seca I own he said it would have to be researched to see why Maryland had a problem with the Yamaha numbers. My Plate sticker runs out in two days and I sold my other Seca last week. I may be without a bike the rest of the summer.