d4,
The dealer in Reno will happily sell you a new CDI. However, he won't register it for you without an NV address. I've only brought one car into the state but yes, the DMV person actually came out to look at the car. She told me they do that so they can be sure there is a real car (registering and selling phony cars is a good way to launder money) and to see if it had the proper DOT stickers. My guess is that they would just refuse to reregister your new CDI unless it had the right amount of miles on it. You can register the car out of state and drive it here (ever wonder why there are so many people from Oregon here all the time) but if you get stopped by the CHP and they see your out of state registration and in state driver's license you better have a good story or it's a big ticket.

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LRG
1987 300D Turbo 175K
2006 Toyota Prius, efficent but no soul
1985 300 TDT(130K miles of trouble free motoring)now sold