Registration
What this domain tests
Registration covers how a vehicle becomes legal to drive in Manitoba: ownership documents, plates, the registration certificate, annual renewal, transfers, and what changes when a vehicle is sold or brought in from another province.
Core rules
- Every vehicle driven on a highway must be registered and insured. In Manitoba you buy registration and Basic Autopac in the same transaction through an Autopac broker or MPI service centre.
- Plates are issued to the registered owner, not to the vehicle. When you sell, you keep your plates and may transfer them to a replacement vehicle; the buyer registers and insures the vehicle in their own name.
- Keep the registration certificate in the vehicle and produce it on request.
- Renew before the expiry date; there is no grace period, and an expired registration means an uninsured vehicle as well.
- Trailers need their own registration.
- Private sales: obtain a bill of sale and the signed transfer document, then complete the transfer before you drive. Vehicles arriving from out of province, rebuilt vehicles and some older vehicles must pass a provincial safety inspection first.
- New residents must register within the period MPI allows, with proof of ownership and an inspection where required.
Worked example
You buy a used pickup on Saturday from a private seller and he leaves his plates on so you can drive it home. That is wrong on both sides: the plates and the insurance belong to him, and in your hands the truck is unregistered and uninsured. The correct sequence is bill of sale, signed transfer, safety inspection if the vehicle requires one, then registration and insurance in your name and your own plates fitted before the truck moves.
Traps that cost marks
- Believing registration travels with the car rather than with the owner.
- Driving home on the seller's plates and assuming you are covered.
- Letting registration lapse and continuing to drive; the penalty is compounded because the vehicle is also uninsured.
- Forgetting that a trailer, camper or utility trailer needs its own plate and registration.