DMV? I know, you already feel my pain but you've not yet heard this part of the moving tale.
If you don't actually know, we have to move. Our landlord is getting a divorce and well... he has to sell the house and we have to move. So we've been trying to do just that- move. And it ain't cheap. And it just got more expensive.
We have two cars that weren't working for one reason or another and it turns out they just needed new batteries. Batteries, that's easy right? heh.
The other night we call AAA to have them come and tow the cars to my dad's house where we were going to house them for a few weeks until we could get them up and running or, at the very least, towed back to our new place. Whichever was most feasible. The only problem is that AAA doesn't tow cars that aren't registered. And you can't register cars that aren't insured and it's pointless to insure cars that aren't working.
Well, a battery guy with AAA came out, put in new batteries in both cars and now they're working just fine. I'm still not sure if the green car has a flat tire because it sounds flat. And it also needs to have the windshield fixed. Fun.
So, yesterday morning I got up nice and early-ish and got myself to DMV. My biggest question was: what do I need to do to get these cars street legal. It took me 20 minutes standing in line to get my number to wait to see a person. Oh, fun. When I asked the very nice woman that she gave me a look and said, "street legal?" She then did some computer fu and asked me if they were insured. I said they would be as of today.
So here's what we had to do
1. get them insured
2. go online and pay $14 per car to register them as insured with DMV
3. pay the registration and show proof of insurance
4. get them smogged
5. then they can get their stickers
great.
So all three of us head over to AAA and we get the cars insured again. And then George- the amazing insurance guy calls DMV for us so we don't have to do the registration suspension ourselves. Thank you George! And, did you know that if you are a AAA member you can do things like register your car at AAA? Oh, yes you can. So we did. Only, DMV is backwards and does the only cash or check thing. Well, if you go into an actual DMV branch they will take debit cards. But no Credit Cards- really? uhg. So we pay the soul rushing registration fees for the two cars (and we're going to have to do it again in Sept. for the green car).
With all that done it's time to get them smogged. Happily it's only about $68 to get it smogged- including the certificate they automatically send to DMV. Now, for an additional $25 they'll give us a sticker too. Um... no... I'll go to AAA for that. Or DMV. Either or.
Well, I took the blue car over and it didn't pass. But then, it's been sitting for a while and the computer needs to be driven a bit before it's ready to pass. So I need to drive both cars around a while before they'll be ready to be smogged. But once they've been driven I think they'll be good and I can get the stickers. Let's just hope it works as I hope!
Admendum: After a full day of looking at houses and putting in an application for a place, we got some food and then we took the car to get smogged. And he passed! Happy day! Babe passed so now all we need to do is get the green car smogged. So, if it's cool enough, I'll take Cooper to the dog park, maybe a couple of them, just to get the car going. And then I'll have some things I need to do tomorrow- like get the sticker for the blue car! Once I've driven that around for a bit then I'll go and get that smogged and, god willing, it will be all smogged.
Let's just hope the tires on it are still good. It feels like one of the tires is flat when I'm in it but they don't look flat when just sitting here. Oye, tires, be nice to us please!
If you don't actually know, we have to move. Our landlord is getting a divorce and well... he has to sell the house and we have to move. So we've been trying to do just that- move. And it ain't cheap. And it just got more expensive.
We have two cars that weren't working for one reason or another and it turns out they just needed new batteries. Batteries, that's easy right? heh.
The other night we call AAA to have them come and tow the cars to my dad's house where we were going to house them for a few weeks until we could get them up and running or, at the very least, towed back to our new place. Whichever was most feasible. The only problem is that AAA doesn't tow cars that aren't registered. And you can't register cars that aren't insured and it's pointless to insure cars that aren't working.
Well, a battery guy with AAA came out, put in new batteries in both cars and now they're working just fine. I'm still not sure if the green car has a flat tire because it sounds flat. And it also needs to have the windshield fixed. Fun.
So, yesterday morning I got up nice and early-ish and got myself to DMV. My biggest question was: what do I need to do to get these cars street legal. It took me 20 minutes standing in line to get my number to wait to see a person. Oh, fun. When I asked the very nice woman that she gave me a look and said, "street legal?" She then did some computer fu and asked me if they were insured. I said they would be as of today.
So here's what we had to do
1. get them insured
2. go online and pay $14 per car to register them as insured with DMV
3. pay the registration and show proof of insurance
4. get them smogged
5. then they can get their stickers
great.
So all three of us head over to AAA and we get the cars insured again. And then George- the amazing insurance guy calls DMV for us so we don't have to do the registration suspension ourselves. Thank you George! And, did you know that if you are a AAA member you can do things like register your car at AAA? Oh, yes you can. So we did. Only, DMV is backwards and does the only cash or check thing. Well, if you go into an actual DMV branch they will take debit cards. But no Credit Cards- really? uhg. So we pay the soul rushing registration fees for the two cars (and we're going to have to do it again in Sept. for the green car).
With all that done it's time to get them smogged. Happily it's only about $68 to get it smogged- including the certificate they automatically send to DMV. Now, for an additional $25 they'll give us a sticker too. Um... no... I'll go to AAA for that. Or DMV. Either or.
Well, I took the blue car over and it didn't pass. But then, it's been sitting for a while and the computer needs to be driven a bit before it's ready to pass. So I need to drive both cars around a while before they'll be ready to be smogged. But once they've been driven I think they'll be good and I can get the stickers. Let's just hope it works as I hope!
Admendum: After a full day of looking at houses and putting in an application for a place, we got some food and then we took the car to get smogged. And he passed! Happy day! Babe passed so now all we need to do is get the green car smogged. So, if it's cool enough, I'll take Cooper to the dog park, maybe a couple of them, just to get the car going. And then I'll have some things I need to do tomorrow- like get the sticker for the blue car! Once I've driven that around for a bit then I'll go and get that smogged and, god willing, it will be all smogged.
Let's just hope the tires on it are still good. It feels like one of the tires is flat when I'm in it but they don't look flat when just sitting here. Oye, tires, be nice to us please!
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