Owning a car in Cary: Fees and taxes, one-time and annual

[frankpc]

Originally Posted by SFspiderman

Good question...I can't figure out their site. All I know is that I've got a '99 Corolla and a '00 Mountaineer, and I pay $33 per year for registration on each of them.



As noted by others, it's one or the other depending on what your car needs.



There's no actual sticker provided for either registration or the municipal "decal" fee. Registration is handled electronically, and the decal fee is simply a tax surcharge that varies by municipality. Most cities and towns in Wake County charge $5-$15 for the fee, although Raleigh now charges $30.





Emissions testing is only required for 1995 and newer cars. On top of that, cars 35 years and older are exempt from both inspection and emissions testing.

Correct concerning emissions testing. Might be worth noting that "emissions" testing is really a check of the OBD-2 computer system. The tail pipe sniffer test was done away with a few years ago. Since the vast majority of cars switched from OBD-1 to OBD-2 in 1996 that drives the cutoff date for "emissions" testing. I've actually seen a few discounts ($5 off) on the emission/safety tests.

Frank

[wkrick]

OK, I'm finally living in Cary as of Dec 31 2011.

So far, I've gone to the DMV and went through the process to get a NC driver's license. It took about 30 minutes total and cost $32. I should be getting my new license in the mail shortly.

I switched over my car insurance (GEICO) from NJ to NC and the price dropped from over $1000 a year to a little over $400 a year.

I'm not sure what's the next step. Do I need to inspect my car first, or get the registration first? The DMV site isn't totally clear on this.

This whole process really needs a flowchart.

[j-mart77]

The site seems pretty straightforward. It says that if you are moving here from out of state you don't need the inspection to register your car initially, but will for the following annual inspections.

NCDOT: New to NC or Moving?