Rick Fisk wrote:
My brother in California owned a Toyota Landcruiser and stored it for 4
years. He didn't bother to follow the rules of the California DMV. Big
mistake. You have to obtain a Certificate of Non Operation and pay a fee
every year for the vehicle. You have to pay the state a fee for a vehicle
that is not being used on the roads!
This has changed in California. You have to get a Certificate of Non-Operation
if you don't get the car registered, but you pay a $10.00 fee once, until you
put
it back on the road. It doesn't matter how many years later. You also have to
have proof of insurance to get a car registered here in Kalifornia. At least
the
car does not have to be inspected, except for the vin the first time. My Bugeye
had been off the road since 1976 and had gone through 5 previous owners that did
not register it. They were just going to "restore" it first. None of them got
around to it. When I went to the DMV I showed them the paperwork with the 5
previous transfers and they said I had to pay for all five transfers! It was an
ungodly amount of cash. I told the lady I did not bring that much money and
left
saying I would come back later. I went out to the parking lot and tore off all
of the bill of sales form the original title. The title had the first owners
name on it. I just wrote a new bill of sale signing the original owners name to
it, stapled it to the original title and drove to the next town and another DMV.
I got in line to register the car again at the 2nd DMV and got the title
transferred with no problem. I only paid for the one transfer. The car had
been
off the books for so long they had no record of it. There were no computers
when
it was last on the road. The lady was so nice to me she even told me the name
of
a cop friend of hers that would come out to my house to verify the vin plate.
This is usually not done here. You are supposed to take the car to them. The
only problem I had was 7 years later after the restoration was finished. I
wanted to keep the original black California plates. I was told at the DMV that
I could not because I did not have proof they were assigned to the car in 1962
(all california cars re-registered in California in 1962 had to change to black
plates with gold letters). I told the lady I did not have proof because the DMV
took the original pink slip from me in 1993. They had the proof, not me. I had
to talk to a supervisor that promised to call Sacramento to have the original
pink slip located in a file somewhere that had been packed away in 1993. About
a
month later a registration form arrived with the Black plate license number on
it. It turned out O.K. for me. In California you can request "year of
manufacture" plates for any car prior to 1962. After that you have to be able
to
prove the black or blue plate you want was assigned to that car originally. If
I
wanted to get technical I could have requested year of manufacture plates for
the
Bugeye, then I would have to find a clear set of gold plates with black
lettering
like the ones issued in 1960. I kept the black plates because they have the
numbers that were actually assigned to my car. You also don't see too many of
the black plates anymore because of California's convoluted laws on this.
Mike MacLean-60 Sprite
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