>That expectation seems to be at odds with everything I as a non car owner remember from my parents selling their cars. Selling and letting registration lapse

>That expectation seems to be at odds with everything I as a non car owner remember from my parents selling their cars. Selling and letting registration lapse are two very different things. Most states only criminalize driving a car with a expired registration. I have half a dozen cars with expired registration to my name and it's a non issue as long as I don't get pulled over driving them (which would be really hard to do since they either aren't complete enough to be drive-able or have long since been turned into tin cans).