License Plate Time!

This past week we were able to experience the wonders of California vehicle registration in all its complicated glory.

By CA law, any vehicle purchased outside the state has to have a smog test before it can be registered in state. I thought this would be no problem as our car is a 2006 and the manual says it meets CA emission standards. Also, there's smog test places on nearly every corner around here. As I also needed an oil change, I went to an establishment that offered both services. I got my oil change buy the service tech informed me that their system couldn't synch up with our car's computer and that as all test stations used the same systems, I'd have to take it to a dealer to get the needed test.

So, I went home and contacted the closest dealer, who told me they don't do smog tests. Undetered, I called the next closest and they said they could take care of things. The problem was they charged twice what the average place charges for a smog test... :(

Hoping to save some money we did some research and found the best qualified mechanic in the area who said they were sure they could test our car. The next morning found us there by 8:30 in the morning but we got our car in and the mechanic said he could easily get the test done in time. Sadly there were no restaurants open in the area so we had to find a way to pass the hour or so the test would take. After exhausting the possibilities at the Walgreens, we just took a walk around the neighborhood. Over an hour later, the guy was unable to do our test because he couldn't synch up his system. He mentioned that a Referee might be necessary but didn't charge us anything and we had to hurry to get Christy to work.

After dropping her off I had just enough time to keep my appointment with the dealer. After some confusion as to where I needed to be to get things going and a wait of about an hour, guess what I learned? They couldn't synch up the sytems either!

I will say that the nice service guy at the dealership didn't charge me anything and got me the phone number for making a Referee's apointment. After lunch with Christy, I went home and made said appointment. The next day I was off to the far outskirts of San Jose to find Evergreen Valley College, the location of the closest post of the California Smog Referee.

The good news is that they were able to synch up systems and our car passed the test. The staff there were nice and professional. Best of all, the test was only the standard $38 and change rather than the $87 the dealer wanted or the $49 the mechanic was going to charge. So after about 5-6 hours of waiting and $38 we were ready to go to the DMV!

I should note that the CA DMV allows you to make appointments to get things done. Unfortunately, the first available appointment was three days after our plates expired. So we just had to try our luck and went in early. Thanks to being in early and already having our form filled out (Yay Internet!) we were able to get things done about an hour later and $260 lighter in the bank account. So we now have a shiny new California license plate on our car after about 7 hours spread over three days and a cost of about $300. Now, I should note that that cost includs penalties as we didn't get the car registered within 20 days of taking a job or gaining housing in state.

So, for anyone thinking of moving out here, be sure to check the State of California website to get all the legal requirements for setting up residence out here. I will say that the DMV experience was relatively painless despite not having an appointment. Just be ready for a bit of a hassle if your car is from out of state and especially if you've never had to have a smog test before. Even with all the hassle, I still got to explore some more of our new town and see what was there.