The Pennsylvania Department of Motor Vehicles rules for registering a moped.

I’ve been trying to find a decent used moped to get back and forth to work when it’s wicked hot and I don’t want to ride my bike. Thanks to EBay I found a nice one in Slippery Rock PA, and the owner was willing to deliver it to me for $50. Good deal. I was stoked. The moped wasn’t registered, however. The owner suggested I call the DMV, and he also forwarded a few emails from other people who got mopeds registered here in ye olde commonwealth. I discovered one basic premise of registering a moped in PA:

If it isn’t brand new, and it isn’t already registered elsewhere, YOU WILL NOT BE ABLE TO REGISTER THE MOPED EASILY — IF AT ALL.

The person I spoke to actually laughed when I told them my situation. “Good luck,” he said. Great.

So here’s what the law actually says…if the moped isn’t registered, if you provide a Manufacturer’s Certificate of Origin, a bill of sale, and verification of the VIN. Well, the owner of the moped had all these things, but….he sent me an email from another angry PA moped owner….basically, this guy had all this stuff, brought down to the DMV, and they rejected his request for registration. The VIN verification was even done by STATE POLICE OFFICER!!! Sorry, they said, they couldn’t confirm the MCO. So he said his only recourse was to find a scrapyard, “sell” his moped to the scrapyard, then “buy” it back and register it as salvage.

Ahhhh, bureaucracy. We’re talking about glorified bicycles here. I’ve got no problem registering a moped, or getting insurance for it…but make easy for crying out loud. Why the stiff regulations? I’m trying to cut down my gasoline usage (average MPG of a moped? About 150), so they should let me register the thing for free. I’d even be willing to get the thing inspected instead of wading through seas of red tape…..

Posted on 8 July 2003