Missouri registration - leased vehicle

[murderlawyer]

I took delivery of a Model 3 from the Chesterfield, MO Tesla dealer on December 19th, as a lease. I've never leased in a vehicle in my life and it was my understanding that in Missouri, Tesla will apply for your plates and have them shipped to your home. Missouri allows dealers to issue a 30 day temporary tag, but they cannot extend it - nor can the DOR.

Last week, I got a UPS My Choice notification that a label had been generated from "Tesla Registration Services" in Fremont, CA. It never even ships though - all they did was generate a label. My temp tag expires tomorrow, so I contacted Tesla and was told that their contractor takes "up to 60 days" to issue registrations and that Tesla has done everything they need to do on their end.

What kind of nonsense is this? I have to drive around with expired tags now and risk a ticket. In response to local complaints about folks riding around with absurdly expired tags, the local PD has started to vigorously enforce registrations. Now, most of the prosecutors here will dismiss a registration ticket upon getting legal (and honestly, I know all of 'em here), but it is still a hassle to enter a not guilty plea and go into court to deal with something that should've been dealt with. Why are they using a contractor that takes 60 days to issue plates when the temp tag can only be good for 30?

 

[SueC56]

Ditto! I live in Iowa and leased a car from Tesla, which came out of their Kansas City area facility, as Iowa doesn't allow non-dealer sales. I received the car with a Missouri temp plate. They had created the temp plate on Mar 8, but the car wasn't ready for pickup in Iowa until Mar 15. The temp plate then expired Apr 6. (On top of that, it went missing the weekend of 4/6 either due to wind plus highway driving or due to vandalism).

Today I emailed my Tesla advisor who said "It typically takes 45-60 days for leasing registration plates to arrive at your home. While it is technically illegal to be driving your vehicle, Tesla is still here for you if any issues do arise. However, the likelihood of this is extremely rare. Again, we do apologize for any issues!" Is that supposed to be a wink and a nod that it's okay to drive the car? "Tesla is here for you if issues arise"??? What does that mean? Are they going to make my lease payment and pay my traffic tickets?

(From what I've read, lots of people have had to wait a long time for registrations, not just leasees). So now I have a car that I'm paying for but can't legally drive.

Thanks for listening. Let me know if you have any suggestions.

I'm tempted to make a temporary plate (laminate some paper) that says "Registration paid 3/15, waiting for plates" and include my temp plate number. Does anyone think that would help?