I've just received a renewal notice from DMV! My 05 Prius will cost me $204! That's $40 Registration Fee, $143 License Fee, and $12 Smog Abatement Fee. What'd heck! :angry: California! My old Toyota Tercel was only $60 and Mercury Tracer Wagon was only $80 (or was it the other way around?). Did the dealer screw me up for this? :blink: Oh wait, is that the price to pay for using the bay bridge for free? :mellow: I don't even drive to San Francisco that often! I hope this is not another hidden cost for having a Prius... Oh, I just found out that my Prius bring me very little money back when it comes to doing my taxes. Still, everyone in my family is happy with the car. I am right about at the 10K service now. I'll see if I will get another bad sports car smell after the service.
holy crap. in wi we only pay $55/year no matter the make of the car. unless you have vanity plates. then it goes up to $65/year. that's freakin' expensive, man!
up until a few years back, the license renewal fees EVERY YEAR in WA State was based on the estimated market value of the automobile being registered... ya thats right, registration fees of $500+ were common for newer vehicles... that law was repealed a few years back and now its like $35 or so (not a big enough bill for me to remember to be honest with ya) ya...one of those referendums to repeal the state law. now most people would find it hard to believe that that bill past by a 4 to 1 margin...
In California, there is a fee called the Vehicle License Fee (VLF) which is like a property tax in that it is based on the value of the vehicle. That's why your new car is so much more expensive than your older vehicles - that would have been true for any new car. The registration and smog fee and the other little fees are always the same, but the VLF is 2/3% of the DMV calculated value of your car. If you paid $143 in vehicle license fees, that means the DMV thinks your car is worth $21450. If you paid $80 total for a different car, which would be roughly $60 for the standard fees and roughly $20 in VLF, that means that the DMV thought that car was worth $3000. By the way, if you itemize deductions (Federal Schedule A) the vehicle license fee, as a state property tax, is tax deductible. The other fees are not.
ooh, good insight jef. they do that in nc too, but the property tax is billed separately from the registration fees. which is why i'm glad i'm not a resident of nc
And you'd better pay the toll when you do! It turns out that, while you may drive in the HOV lane on the bridge (with the proper stickers), you HAVE TO PAY THE TOLL unless you have 3 or more people in the car. That's what the whole "fastrak" rigamarole is about. It stings you for the toll while you zoom by in the HOV lane on the bridge.
Is Arnold crazy? Here in FL annual reg. is $44.00. Driver's liscence is $20 for 6 yrs. No smog here- zero. They must be whacking you to pay for all the freeloaders in your state courtesy of the taxpayers.
My god almighty!!! $200+ dollars for a license renewal!?!?! Jeeze Louise here in Ohio it only costs about $35 or so for a little sticker for the rear plate (no sticker needs to be purchased for the front plate) More information here: http://www.oplates.com/Renewal_begin.asp
If you think the fees are high now you should have owned a new car before. The fees we pay in California are our lowered Fees. It The VRF had been temparaily lowered in the late 90's when the economy was good and had gone back up, by law. About that time Arnold ran for recall. One of the first thing he did was lower the fees, Unfortunately the economy was in the toilet and the state could ill afford the revenue reduction, great for indivisuals, losy for the state! It is the price we pay to live in California, As much as I envy $35 fees, Ill stay on the left coast. Just my Opinion,
I live in CA too and mine's $203, (obviously this is why some people try to claim residence in another state and have the car registered there). I went from $61 from my last car, but that one was a 1990 with 194K miles. I expected it to be higher, so I can live with it. At least you don't have to worry about a smog check until 2010. As jef said, the amount drops each year and the VLF is tax deductable.
My fees were about the same in AZ, and it was a huge relief! My Porsches are typically over $1000 per year depending on their age. Not a fun way to spend money.
Holy Crap~ combined Decal & registration fees. Im glad I live in Fla. $25 a year on standard plates $55 for specialty plates $65 for custom plates No other fees on vehicles & no vehicle inspections. houses here start at 55k - 5m & have property tax on them only. I used to live in a 900sqft mobile home ie a box car, cost $900 a yr in taxes LOL I just got lucky 3/3.5 2600 sqft, on 1acre fenced with 3 car garage for $55k! Now im happy to own a hybrid cause now the saved money will have somewhere to go now I pay $2500 a yr in taxes I think we suffer here with lack of good pay, goverment jobs start at 18k-45k Private industries 10k-65k Wow Bottom line is I guess you never think how others have it where they live! Amazing.... :blink:
The custom and specialty renewal stickers are about the same in Ohio... (and most of us think thats too expensive!) I am still waiting for my prius to arrive but wanted to get some clever speciality plate until I found out the plates would cost me twice the price of a regular plate each year.. Although I am still considering getting a Lake Erie plate anyway [attachmentid=2530]
The only freeloaders in California are homeowners in Orange County. They went and hired themselves a county treasurer who lost them billions gambling county funds and then, with the county in fiscal crisis, voted down a small sales tax increase and went hat in hand to the state and federal governments for a bailout. Everyone else works very hard and pays their fair share.
You're lucky you don't live here in Palm Beach Cty. We have an 1850 SF under air 3/2/2 1/2 on 1 1/4 acres. Hardley any shopping and no services. We paid these crooks $3300.00 for basically nothing last November 30th. You're sure right about the sorry nice person wages in this backward state. The only thing FL has going for it is warm weather, no smog, and nice beaches. Other than that it's nothing like back home- (CT). Of course CT was a tax happy state like all the other northern states. I hate to give my money to anyone without getting anything in return. Noe they're talking about putting our homeowner's ins. through the roof. Good 'ol Jeb- just like his brother!
Is age the only thing that dictates how you become a senior poster? I wondered how I became one so soon.
