Welcome to California, Land of $700 Car Registration

"cardboardarmor" (cardboardarmor) 01/08/2014 at 23:24 • Filed to: California

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First off, results (and registration amounts) may not be typical. I'm writing this in as much to advise future Opponauts who might find cause to be moving to the fine land of California for whatever reason it is one might find to move here (a love of wildfires, active fault lines, and bears perhaps?).

My one take away from the registration process, and the one I offer here is, if you're moving to California and your car can make it from where you are to where you're going and last you, don't get a new car before coming to California.

Sure, in all fairness you might (maybe) be able to get the car cheaper where you're at but what California does is levy a little something called !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! on "tangible personal property" - like say, a car - at the time of registration charged at the current going rate as if you bought the vehicle within the state of California. This is applicable, from my reading anyway, upon the registrant's property if the car is registered in California within one year of being purchased.

As far as I can tell, this is to dissuade California residents from fleeing their state to purchase tangible personal property. Couldn't possibly imagine why they'd want to do that.

In all fairness to California, they do cut you some slack and they count any taxes paid at the original state/place of purchase of the automobile towards the Use Tax being charged. Still, even with the monies I already rendered to the state of Alabama (my previous place of residency, which I am told was awash in blood and tears, filled with anguished wailing and the gnashing of teeth after the latest college football season), my combined state and city Use Taxes for car registration came out to around $510.

Now, as I said in the first paragraph, results aren't typical. If your state or whatever charges at or around the same tax rate as California at time of sale, you shouldn't see Use Tax. If you're coming from a state that doesn't charge as much sales tax as California, prepare yourself.

For the curious, the rest of the nearly $700 in that registration cost came from the actual registration fee ($43), vehicle licensing fee ($84), CHP fee ($23), what I believe to be a new registration origination service fee ($19) and a whole slew of other fees ranging in cost from $1-6 ($13). Total fees due, plus Use Tax, $689.

Also the front license plate I now mount to avoid bored cops dinging me with a fix-it ticket makes my GTI look off. I'm not entirely sure if I'm more annoyed at that or the money.

heliochrome85 > cardboardarmor 01/08/2014 at 23:32

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South Carolina charges property tax on the value of the vehicle every year. As a result, to register my car here is 1300 this year, plus 300 dollars sales tax.

cardboardarmor > heliochrome85 01/08/2014 at 23:34

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I believe you may have bested me and my new home state for worst vehicle registration pricing scheme I've ever heard of.

It's a "Porch-uh" > cardboardarmor 01/08/2014 at 23:39

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Welcome!

Which part of this super-expensive state do you now call home?

cardboardarmor > It's a "Porch-uh" 01/08/2014 at 23:44

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Ventura County!

I live in Oxnard.

Unwound > cardboardarmor 01/08/2014 at 23:49

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Wow and here I'm griping about having to make my girlfriend's car smog legal when her registration comes due this year. My condolences.

It's a "Porch-uh" > cardboardarmor 01/08/2014 at 23:54

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Ah, been up there a few times when my buddy was stationed at Port Hueneme. Not a bad spot to live.

Did you get a ticket from the front plate, so you put it on? None of my cars have had one and never got hassled, though it was mentioned once when I got pulled over for speeding many years ago.

cardboardarmor > Unwound 01/08/2014 at 23:57

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Yeah I forgot to add in the cost of smogging my car to assure California that I wouldn't be dumping (too many) chemicals known to the state of California to cause cancer into the air.

So that should be good for another $40 which in the grand scheme of things doesn't really seem that much.

cardboardarmor > It's a "Porch-uh" 01/09/2014 at 00:00

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Nah, I didn't get a ticket, I just didn't want to deal with the Ventura cops finding something to fault me on. I've been told they're fairly notorious for already finding cause to pull you over and then start tacking on fees once they do.

I really wish they'd get rid of the front license plate requirement.

MR2_FTW - Group J's resident Stig > cardboardarmor 01/09/2014 at 00:03

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Virginia only charges like $50/year for registration and that's with a personalized plate fee. My personal property taxes are only $20/car too. How my station wagon is worth more to VA than my supercharged mid engine sports car is beyond me, but there it is.

FlimFlamMan > cardboardarmor 01/09/2014 at 00:05

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We moved to LA in August of 2012. Prior to that, in May, when we lived in Ohio, we purchased a new Outback. Obviously, this happened before we knew we were going to move to Cali (that's for you pretentious bitches up in northern Cali... like San Fran... suck it!). Like yourself, much to my dismay, I saw that we were going to have to pay the additional tax you mentioned. I mean... we're talking $1,300 more! I was miffed but what can ya' do? I told the wife when she went to the DMV to expect to write a hefty check. Well... again... much to my surprise the guy that helped her did not charge us for said tax. She said she shmoozed him (an older gentleman) with her hillbilly accent (she's from southern missouri). I was like... whatever... as long as you didn't have to give him a BJ. Hand-job? Okay... oh I suppose (I kid..). Anyways, I guess it depends who helps you and if they think you were trying to game the system or not (like purchasing the car in Vegas probably wouldn't work). I mean... who would go all the way to Ohio to game the system? Not many folks I'd imagine.

Milky > cardboardarmor 01/09/2014 at 00:07

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Holy shit, why so much? As in what system do they use to get you to pay $510? Here in Michigan its a (small) percentage of the cars original price. For example my old SC400 had a 40k sticker price, & I paid $150 bucks for registration.

FlimFlamMan > heliochrome85 01/09/2014 at 00:08

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Kansas is the same way. The bottom line is that just about every state gets you one way or another.

Simplify, then add beer > cardboardarmor 01/09/2014 at 00:11

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Move to Australia, it get worse. Sydney specifically.

Registration fees can be higher than your $700. Compulsory Third Party Insurance is about the same, and is on top of registration. Then there's your comprehensive, then the cost of a license, then if you live in built up areas you're paying for on street parking (6cyl car? Oh that's double).

Then $250 to get a new number plate, $400 for a nice looking one, $450 per year just to keep it if you have a personalised one...

Oh, and fuel is >$6 per gallon.

cardboardarmor > Milky 01/09/2014 at 00:13

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I think Use Tax is like almost 10% of the sales price of the vehicle, not inclusive of warranties, taxes, and other assorted add-ons.

It's a 2008 GTI that I picked up for $13k originally so the math the DMV was using to figure Use Tax works out to near 10% far as I can figure.

cardboardarmor > FlimFlamMan 01/09/2014 at 00:20

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I like to think that even the locals realize the Use Tax can get a little insane in some cases.

Milky > cardboardarmor 01/09/2014 at 00:21

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I was about to make a comment about how a percentage of the used price seems reasonable …. then I remembered the reason for this post. 700 bucks sucks, sorry man …. hopefully you moved for a better paying job!

BJohnson11 > cardboardarmor 01/09/2014 at 02:09

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Eh just throw the front plate on your dash behind the front windshield. I've had mine there for years now, been pulled over on a couple occasions for other things, and never had a problem with it.

BJohnson11 > cardboardarmor 01/09/2014 at 02:11

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I'm not sure if you can still do it, but if there is a California Smog Referee in your area, you can take the car to him to have smogged. Usually, you have to have a good reason, like having previously failed a smog test, but for awhile you could just tell them you were "curious how the smog testing happened" and they'd let you do it at the referee. The advantage to this? It only costs $8 or so.

INDYDFX- Daily FiSTer > Simplify, then add beer 01/09/2014 at 05:55

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Yup definitely, just registered my first car in Melbourne... $712. There is a "insurance duty" as a component of it. Why the fuck should I have to pay an insurance duty if it's a legal requirement for me to have insurance?

roflcopter > cardboardarmor 01/09/2014 at 11:58

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I live in Florida and bought a $400 car, between taxes(6% where I am), new registration fee(since I don't have a registration to transfer onto it), new plate fee, road tax thing, and whatever else they tacked on, I was looking at just north of $500 to get the thing legal. Couldn't believe it.

Squid > cardboardarmor 01/10/2014 at 01:14

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It isn't too terribly expensive to register an older car. My Miata is about $152 a year to register. the front plate law is bull shit, but since you are in Ventucky that plate is a necessity if you don't want to be hassled all the damn time. Welcome to the land of rape and honey, you know you will enjoy the move once march/april hits and the girls start losing their clothes, which is probably one of the best things about SoCal.

Ferrero1911 > cardboardarmor 01/11/2014 at 19:40

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That sucks. The good news is that you only have to do it once, so it should be way less next time. And you only have to smog it every other year.

cardboardarmor > Ferrero1911 01/11/2014 at 19:51

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Absolutely. Looking forward to only having to cough up a fraction of what I did this time around.

The Tag Stop > cardboardarmor 03/09/2015 at 19:07

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When paying your registration, smile. Just think your paying for the nice weather and one of the top places to live! Stop by the El Cajon DMV or contact us today and we can help get you the best deal possible on your registration fees.

pip bip - choose Corrour > cardboardarmor 02/28/2019 at 03:58

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Welcome to Victoria Australia.

$700 dollars every year, and it goes only one way, up!