Billionaire heiress Jessica Pegula has no shortage of luxury wheels, with a Mercedes-Benz GLE 53 and a Ford Mustang in her garage. But even all that horsepower couldn’t make her 99-mile trip from her hometown of Buffalo to Toronto for the National Bank Open a straightforward two-hour drive.

After flying into Buffalo from Washington, D.C., Pegula planned to take a road trip to Canada. Luckily, a quick reminder from her husband, Taylor Gahagen, saved her from a potential travel blunder at the Canadian border.

Turns out, one of Pegula’s cars had an expired Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) registration, meaning that road trip could have gone very differently.

“Um, so I flew to Buffalo, and I was going to drive my car in Buffalo to here in Toronto. It’s like not even a 2-hour drive. And so I literally pack the bags in the car, and my husband Taylor goes, “Oh, you have your registration, right?” And I was like, “Uh, I can’t remember the last time I thought about my registration for my car in Buffalo,” said Pegula on the “The Players Box Podcast.

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As a resident of Boca Raton, Florida, Pegula only visits Buffalo about once a year, which could explain why the DMV registration on her Buffalo car has been expired for more than a year. To clear things up, she quickly checked her Florida Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles account and found that her Florida car has an active registration, while the Buffalo vehicle is no longer registered.

Pegula’s reaction was immediate: “Oh my god, I was like, ‘Oh.’ I was like, ‘Shoot.’” Her husband then offered to take the car to the DMV and get the registration sorted. But with time running short, Pegula had to skip the trip and simply told him, “Oh, looks like I’ll be driving your car, honey.”

Pegula even joked about making a vlog of her journey to the DMV, once she came back to her hometown, so she could renew her registration. That might be some time away as the American will be in action in Cincinnati and New York, after which she will have the hard-court stint in Asia.

Hearing about Pegula’s near mishap, the other players on the podcast were in giggles, including Desirae Krawczyk, Jennifer Brady, and Madison Keys. They praised Pegula’s husband, Taylor Gahagen’s, foresight to warn the American about the expired registration. Otherwise, the American star would’ve faced a traffic citation.

Notably, driving with an expired registration can turn a simple road trip into an expensive headache. Depending on the state, the car could be impounded or immobilized, while violations may also add points to a driver’s license. Rack up enough points and a suspension could follow. In Florida, for instance, 12 points within 12 months can trigger one.

There can also be registration holds and hefty fines, with the exact penalties varying by state and how long the vehicle has been unregistered. And to make matters worse, some major U.S. insurers may raise premiums after such violations.

Pegula may have dodged a travel headache this time, but the American usually keeps things simple when getting around the US, especially when she’s headed to Flushing Meadows for the US Open. Once, she even hopped on a train to Queens despite having luxury cars sitting in her garage.

Jessica Pegula picks trains over cars

Back in 2024, Jessica Pegula ditched her car to board a train to the US Open. Following this, the American shared a video of herself taking the metro to Flushing Meadows and explained: “Why am I taking the metro? I don’t like taking a car and I like trains.”

And there’s a pretty good reason for that preference. Pegula once traveled to Flushing Meadows by car and found the traffic so unbearable that she joked she was ready to jump out and walk to the venue. The subway ride back, unsurprisingly, won her over.

She later took the Long Island Rail Road from the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center to Manhattan before walking around 20 minutes to her hotel, and revealed that nobody recognized her along the way.

For Pegula, though, trains aren’t just a US Open thing. She said she used public transport even during her junior days and still takes trains to other sporting events, including Yankees games. Perhaps the New Yorker in Pegula simply prefers the easy route: hopping on a train rather than sitting in traffic just to get where she’s going.

Pegula’s car registration in Buffalo may have been expired for more than a year, but considering how rarely she relies on a car for intercity travel, the oversight is a little easier to understand. The American has often made it clear that when trains are an option, she’d rather take the tracks than hit the road.

And when it comes to those luxury cars sitting in Pegula’s garage, there’s one small catch: they still need valid DMV registration before hitting the road for everyday errands.