Department of Motor Vehicles

My registration expires April 09. Today is April 30, 2009. The last day of April. Thankfully, I headed to the California DMV in Santa Monica on Monday to register my car and get a new California License. Even though I have moved from Virginia, I had Arizona plates. Why you ask? After returning to the states from Italy, I 'bought' my brother's car from my mom and shipped it to Virginia from Arizona. I proceeded to the Virginia DMV to register my car unknowing of the grief I would receive from the mean Indian ladies at the DMV counter. This is not intended to be a racial post whatsoever. I am just stating the facts. Before moving on to critiquing the Virginia DMV, I will mention that the Arizona DMV has a pleasant experience. There are many locations as well as express locations. They also have many online services which were available before Virginia DMV did. Also, your driver's license does not expire till you are 65 years old, so you never have to renew your license. The emissions tests are done at special locations, not gas stations like in Virginia. It is like a drive thru car wash. Quick and easy.

Moving on, I have waited in line at the Virginia DMV about four or five times to register my car. The first time I went they would not let me register my car because the registration was in my name and my mothers name. We kept it like this because the bank told us that we could do that so we could keep the current insurance on the car that was in my mom's name while the car was shipped to VA. Then I could go and register the car under my name only when the car arrived in VA. When arriving at the DMV, the mean Indian lady told me that I could not do that and my mom had to be present to sign the papers to take her name off. How was I supposed to do that when my mother was in AZ? In the end, I had to FLY my sorry a$$ to AZ, and go to the AZ DMV and reregister my car under my name only. I then make it back to the VA DMV. This time she (Indian lady again) tells me that I need to give them the title to my car. I do not own the title on my car because I have a lien. She also tells me that I need to pay sales tax on the car. WHAT? SALES TAX? Isn't that done when you buy the car? But I did not have any paperwork with me so I had no idea what I paid and did not pay. So I stomp off fuming. I call the bank. The bank would not give me the title, but required the DMV to fax a request for the title. The DMV on the other hand told me I had to bring the title and they would not fax a request. Does this make any sense at all? If both parties would not budge, what was I to do? The bank also told me that in Arizona when the car stays within the family, you do not need to pay sales tax on the car because the sales tax was initally paid when my mom first purchased the car. So the nice lady at the bank mailed me a copy of this law so that I could bring it to the DMV. I go back again with my letter to yet another Indian lady. More arguing continues. Indian ladies scare me because they are so stern and direct. I stomp away again. THEN I get a letter from the Arizona DMV saying that I do not have Arizona insurance and need to show proof of insurance or my registration will be taken away or something or another. So I am in panic and write a letter to the AZ DMV with a copy of my VA insurance and an explanation of my situation with the VA DMV. So even though I hate the VA DMV with a passion at this point, I head back scared that the AZ DMV will do something bad to me. Finally I get a NICE white grammy at the window! I explain everything that is going on and how frustrated I was and if she could please please give me a solution I would be happy to do it. She looked over all my paperwork and then explained to me that the reason I need to pay the sales tax is because in VA law if you owned the car under 1 year, then you need to pay sales tax. If you owned it over 1 year, you do not need to pay sales tax. Also, I do not have to do my title with the DMV. I can just REGISTER my car and let the bank keep the title. So she told me that if I have not gotten caught with an Arizona plate yet, I should just come back after I have owned the car for a year. This was about 4 months away. Yes this whole process took 8 months from my first visit to the VA DMV until I met the nice white grammy at the window. By the time the 1 year mark rolled around, I had basically decided to move to California. At this point, why would I visit the horrible VA DMV again. I forgot to mention that every visit to the DMV included over an hour wait before walking up to the window and a furious korean girl stomping thru the parking lot after.


Because of my horrible experiences at the VA DMV, I dreaded going to the California DMV. The only reason I finally went this week was because my registration expires today. You can make an APPOINTMENT at the California DMV. AWESOME! This is very quick. I tried making an appointment, but the available times were not good for me. So I decided to go in without an appointment. Boy, was this the BEST experience at any DMV! The employees have their own desks. It is mostly black employees who are lively, peppy, and friendly. The Santa Monica DMV reminded me of the movie Barbor Shop. The person who helped me even had garbage pail kids cards at his desk! I got my registration and plates right away. I did however have to take a written test for my drivers license. In california, you must take a 36 question test if you are from out of state and an 18 question test to renew your license. I did not study for this test because Dorothy and HY told me it was easy. I did look over HY and Will's tests because you get to take it home. The questions looked pretty simple. I was scared they would ask speed limit questions like when you get your permit. But none of those questions were on HY's or Will's tests. Unfortunately, they WERE on my test. I started sweatin' bullets while taking my test because they asked 2 speed limit questions and also they asked what is the maximum you would go to jail for a DUI? How in the world would I know that? There were about 8 or 9 questions I was unsure of. You could only miss 6. While I was sitting there many other people were finishing their tests. The lady checks your answers right there. Everyone failed. And she was MEAN! She would say..nonono you need to STUDY. nonono you FAIL. Of course, she was Indian. I am not joking. I was getting more scared at this point. I did not want to fail or go back to the DMV. I finally head up to the desk to get my questions scored while holding my breath. Luckily, I PASS! Only 2 questions wrong. She was not even happy for me. She was shocked that I got only 2 wrong. She kept looking at the paper over and over again to make sure she didn't miss a WRONG ANSWER. I think she LOVES telling people - YOU FAIL YOU STUPID.

So there is my critique of the DMV from three different states. Not that this post would really interest anyone. I am sorry for anyone who needs to visit the VA DMV. Oh, when I say VA DMV, I mean NOVA DMV. Mari also had a big problem at a NOVA DMV and went to Harrisonburg to go to the DMV! They helped her right away. NOVA=Snobby. Maybe worse than Boston.

My last task - put the license plate ON the car!!!