Maine driving lesson · Owning and Maintaining Your Vehicle
Titling and registering your vehicle
A 4-minute lesson from the Maine course. Read the rules and examples, follow the handbook page references, and check your understanding before you move on.
Every vehicle on Maine roads needs paperwork. The title proves who owns it; the registration lets you drive it on public roads. In Maine you pay the excise tax to your town first, then register.
Know the rule
A motor vehicle must have a title before it can be registered in Maine.
Bought from a Maine dealer? The dealer gives you the blue copy of the title application to present at first registration. Otherwise you complete a title application and submit it with the prior title or manufacturer's certificate of origin, properly transferred to you.
If you own the vehicle outright you receive the title. If you borrowed money for it, the bank or credit union that lent the money gets the title. Keep the title in a safe place, never in the vehicle.
If your title is stolen, lost, destroyed or mutilated, apply at once for a duplicate, sending in the mutilated or illegible title with the application and fee.
At first registration you must submit a title application for any vehicle 25 years old or newer, plus a Use Tax Certificate so the state can determine whether Maine sales tax is due. Any sales tax due is paid then.
You buy a 2019 sedan from a private seller. First stop: your town office to pay excise tax. Then register it with the excise receipt, a completed title application with the seller's signed-over title, and a Use Tax Certificate.
Check your understanding
Read the question, decide on an answer, then open it to check the explanation. These are Roadwise study questions based on the source handbook.
What must a vehicle have before it can be registered in Maine?
A title
An emissions certificate
An inspection sticker
A bill of sale only
Answer: A title
A motor vehicle must have a title before it can be registered.