Anyone Else Getting Drilled by Car Registration Fees? (calculator, income)

[oldtrader]

I am glad I live in Montana, when it comes to licensing a motor vehicle.

They allow you permanent registration and no fees, on cars 11 years old or older. Our F-150 Pickup is a 2002 with very low mileage as we only keep it to go to the dump (outside the city limits must do that and that is Free) and when need to haul something home from the big stores in other towns. No annual registration or license fees for 3 years now.

Our 2012 Ford Explorer with every upgrade option, presently worth about $26,000 only costs to license about what the OP is being charged for that much older vehicle. It does not even have a nick or ding in the body or paint, or inside, and for all practical purposes it is like a brand new one condition wise, always garaged. I sure don't miss the registration fees, and those smog checks we had when we lived in the Silicon Valley.

[Ultrarunner]

I own 50 vehicles with about half insured... thinking of getting an occupational license because between smog checks and license fees it has gotten out of hand...

Only 5 are currently road registered and most of the others are registered Non-Op which also has a fee... I believe California is the only State that charges NOT to operate your car.

At one time California was the car Mecca of America... not very car friendly now.

[davidt1]

Originally Posted by Ultrarunner

I honestly still don't know how large a hit property owners will take but almost across the board the voters approved just about everything...

......

I have a theory why these tax measures almost always pass. There are two voting groups that are so influential that their votes will decide the outcome.

1. Government employees at all level -- federal, state, county, and city -- are a powerful voting bloc. For them the math is simple: more taxes = more job security, more money for their departments, more money in their pocket, and more money for their pensions.

2. Then there is a group that want other people to pay for what they want. The tax measures promise them all that and more. The reality doesn't work like that. Most of the tax will be spent on the first group.

That's CA politics, folks.

[expatCA]

Originally Posted by oldtrader

I am glad I live in Montana, when it comes to licensing a motor vehicle.

They allow you permanent registration and no fees, on cars 11 years old or older. Our F-150 Pickup is a 2002 with very low mileage as we only keep it to go to the dump (outside the city limits must do that and that is Free) and when need to haul something home from the big stores in other towns. No annual registration or license fees for 3 years now.

Our 2012 Ford Explorer with every upgrade option, presently worth about $26,000 only costs to license about what the OP is being charged for that much older vehicle. It does not even have a nick or ding in the body or paint, or inside, and for all practical purposes it is like a brand new one condition wise, always garaged. I sure don't miss the registration fees, and those smog checks we had when we lived in the Silicon Valley.

Here in TN I pay $24.00 per vehicle including my Toyota Tundra truck. I registered 4 cars when I moved here for less than 1 in CA. In fact this year I had 6 cars registered at that price and still less than 1 in CA.

On the other hand I may be moving back to SoCal next year, so I am now selling off a few cars to save a bit.

[Ultrarunner]

Curious as to why you might again call California home?

Anything special you need to do to get California Titles on the cars brought in?

It's been awhile, the last time I had to have the VIN verified and a smog...

I know some States limit how many owned cars you can bring before having to pay tax...

[aewan68]

In SoFla, I would pay roughly $250/year for both our cars, when I registered both cars here it was around $500 total or so, thing was I paid over $3,600.00/year for Car Insurance for both cars in SoFla and it went up every 6 months (safe drivers, excellent credit, no points, accidents or tickets, that is none of the "red flags" one would associate with higher rates)

Here I'm paying $960/year for Car Insurance, (identical coverage) so the cost of registration here is moot.

Of all the states I lived in FL was the easiest in terms of not having anything to worry about other than registration fees, they use to have a drive through smog check but did away with it around 2000 or so, caveat is you will see a lot of unsafe cars on the road, bald tires in a state that get's a lot of rain, cars expelling smoke and emissions, smelly vehicles in general and worn out brakes. I rarely have to use my Recycle function on my A/C when driving, in SoFla I would use it daily.

In PA they have mandatory annual inspection requirements with that lovely window sticker in the lower left corner that have to be done at state certified garages and they can fail your car and force you to get things fixed, much like not passing the smog test here, but worse because they check tread depth, brakes, cat convertor, exhaust and etc. They also have annual smog checks in some counties within PA on top of the regular test. Cost is around $40 to $80 for the inspection with smog tossed in. Plus is, it only cost $36/year to register your car in PA.

GA (Atlanta) had annual smog checks, that's about it.

I don't find the higher registration fees here to be a problem in relation to getting raped for car insurance fees in SoFla for a very long time.

[steel7]

Originally Posted by cb73

And your next renewal will be $75 higher, or did everyone forget about that already?

My next renewal should be $10.00 higher. $93.00 for a 32 yr old is absolutely crazy & pathetic. If you can post the article about the $75.00 hike please do.

[brb going fishing]

I paid abt $90 for permanent registration here in Flathead Co, MT for an Audi A6.

[Ultrarunner]

I loved the system for car registration when I was working in Austria...

You could have 3 vehicles on a single license plate and you paid for the most expensive one... that is it.

So if you had a seldom used antique of a camper all you needed to do was transfer the plates to the car you plan to drive... liability insurance was again based on the most expensive... if you wanted the car insured for damage that was extra for each...

I have vehicles licensed and fully insured that might not see the road in an entire year...

[cb73]

Originally Posted by steel7

My next renewal should be $10.00 higher. $93.00 for a 32 yr old is absolutely crazy & pathetic. If you can post the article about the $75.00 hike please do.

It was signed into the last budget as a Road Tax, listed in the budget as part of the Dept. of Transportation ("who shall direct the DMV to collect") rather than in the DMV section.

We had a thread about it--I linked and quoted from the budget proposal. Everyone ignored me. I can guarantee next spring when it starts it will magically be "those people at DMV's fault" and no one will remember it was in the budget.