Purple HOV Sticker in California..

I started a thread on that here. The DMV hasn't even cashed my $22 check yet so it's not looking good.

 

It took almost 2 months before they cashed my check for the red stickers.

 

Mailed the forms in on Dec 15. Check cashed Jan 22. Purple stickers came in on Jan 26

 

I mailed my paperwork around December 23 and received the stickers January 31.


iPhone ?

 

Ugh. I mailed in something like January 10 and they haven't even cashed the check yet.

 

Seems like it took around 5 weeks if you mailed it in in December .Beginning of the year probably saw an increase so I'd say it'll be around 6-8 weeks if you sent the first few days of January .

 

Mailed application in on 12/31, and check was cashed on 2/7. It's now morning of 2/9 and I'm waiting for the stickers to arrive....

 

20190218_164920 by Godzuki posted Feb 18, 2019 at 6:23 PM

20190218_164920 by Godzuki posted Feb 18, 2019 at 6:23 PM

20190218_164902 by Godzuki posted Feb 18, 2019 at 6:23 PM

20190218_164902 by Godzuki posted Feb 18, 2019 at 6:23 PM

20190218_164945 by Godzuki posted Feb 18, 2019 at 6:23 PM

20190218_164945 by Godzuki posted Feb 18, 2019 at 6:23 PM

The stickers arrived on 2/9 - here they are applied...

 

Interesting. How did you end up with an older Prius that never had an HOV sticker on it before?

 

Why does it matter if you have the required number passengers and vehicle?

 

Got lucky! With the impending expiration of the green hov stickers affixed to my 2012 PIP, I figured that the most practical way for me to keep in the HOV lane was to buy a used 1st gen PIP in which the prior owner did not apply for stickers. The car pictured is a 2015 PIP and, in early 2018, I first saw it sitting in the used car section of a Toyota dealership while I had my 2012 PIP in for regular service.

As the car sat, it did not have any HOV stickers affixed to it, and it did not seem to have CA plates issued to it as it had the normal Toyota dealership advertisement plates as if it were a new car. The car was a lease return and only had 20,000 miles (my 2012 PIP has approximately 190,000 miles, and it still runs as new - I've had zero issues with the 2012 PIP since taking delivery of it in March 2012 with 7 miles on the odometer, so I considered the 2015 as just being broken in at 20,000 miles ). I decided to purchase the car, and during the purchasing process I found out that the 2015 PIP did have CA plates previously issued to it (based on paperwork I saw), but those plates did not come with the car, so new CA plates were eventually issued.

Though I had newly issued CA plates, and no stickers were affixed to the car, at no point was I 100% certain that the prior owner did not apply for stickers for the car until I had the purple HOV stickers in hand (the DMV cashing the $22 check was a good sign, too). The DMW uses a car's VIN (vehicle identification number) to determine whether HOV stickers were previously registered for the car. And apparently, in this case my assumption that the prior owner did not apply for HOV stickers was correct. And I waited to apply for HOV stickers for the 2015 so that I could get stickers that expired Jan 1, 2023, as I just continued commuting in the 2012 PIP till the very end of a good long run.

If I still have a need for HOV lane access by the end of 2022, and there is not another HOV-lane-qualifying car that I fancy better, I'll probably buy a 1st gen PIP from out of state - then I can be more certain that the car never had CA HOV stickers registered for it if I am able to determine that the car was first purchased outside of CA. Cheers and happy Plugin commuting!

 

That's pretty gutsy buying it on the chance it never had an HOV sticker before. Nice.

 

Yep, if I were to do it again, I would have purchased out of state to be sure.

 

You can just check here:

https://www.dmv.ca.gov/portal/wcm/connect/856076ee-592a-4596-b5a3-b70495a9904d/CAVVINList.pdf?MOD=AJPERES&CVID=

 

Still haven't cashed it. It's been 6 weeks. :/

 

They took like 3 months for me for a replacement from GREEn to RED. And now purple came out haha. Now I have to apply again in 2 years for a purple for an extra year -____-

 

Mailed my form yesterday, and will report back how long it takes.

 

I don’t think you can apply again.