*sigh* The registration Gods are vengeful!

So I bring the form the border gave me along with my insurance and a title application to the tax office in downtown Houston. $8 to park. Lineup isn't too bad. They take my paperwork and read it over. Oh you're a foreigner? Yes. Oh well you have more paperwork to fill out.

They give me a stack of papers along with locations to get the rest of the paperwork needed. (2 separate addresses). Screw that. I'm downloading these forms. So I fill them out. About 6 pages worth of stuff.

I needed to get a VIN check by the Houston auto theft unit. It's "by appointment only" on the paperwork with a phone number to call. I phone it up on Monday afternoon. Get an answering machine that tells me they only do it on Monday mornings at 9-9:30AM. So I put that off until the next week.

I needed to get an official letter from GM stating that my GTA meets US EPA emissions (never mind that I've already passed an emissions test when I got my inspection window sticker) as well as US bumper and safety standards. The car has a sticker under the hood saying it meets US emissions. But my door jam says it meets Canadian bumper and safety standards. So I phone up GM. They ask me what kind of car it is and then say yes it meets all requirements. But to get TX DMV approval I need a form from GM saying so. That form costs $89 even though a simple verbal yay or nay should suffice I would think.

OK, so I'm finally set. Gather up all my paperwork. Skip the downtown tax office and go to the closest office to home (faster to get there and free parking)......It's a 2 hour wait in line there. I pass on that and go back downtown to the tax office I'd been to before. But since I came in on 59 instead of Memorial, I wound up getting lost for about 10 minutes.

Of course I left the detailed map of downtown with the tax office marked on it (downloaded that from the Harris County tax office's website) at home because I had planned on going to the closer courthouse rather than go downtown.

$5 to park this time. No lineup. I hand over all my paperwork. The lady takes it to another table. I can see 2 new Texas license plates sitting on the table next to my paperwork. She comes back. Do you have insurance? Yes I do. *show her the insurance paperwork*

Do you have Texas insurance? No. This is from Canada. Oh we don't accept that. I have full coverage, 1 million dollars liability, it's valid in all of Canada as well as all 50 states.....but it's not acceptable to get the car titled and registered. So now I have to get Texas insurance and go back downtown and do this yet again.......The inspection/emissions test place had no problem taking my Canada insurance.

I'm sure the fees charged for registration will make the electric company/telephone company fees look tame in comparison. Title fee ($33), registration fee (+ all their local fees, child's safety, county, large city, reflectorization... $60?), fee for the HPD VIN check ($2), New Texan fee ($90), license plate fee (don't know). If I opt for the 2 year or 3 year registration sticker it's going to cost extra. But I just might go for that.

I've never had to register a car before. Where I'm from, when you bought car insurance, the registration was part of it. An extra line below comprehensive, collision etc. So if you bought car insurance, you automatically were registered.

The things that irks me is that 1 in 5 cars in Texas has no insurance whatsoever. Yet my million dollar liability and million dollar under-insurance means squat.

My (Texan) wife added my name to her insurance plan for the married discount. They want me to send in my Texas driver's license. But I can't get a Texas driver's license until my car is registered in the state. Ah but of course.

 

Somebody gave you a line of BS.....You don't even hafta OWN a car to get a TX driver's license!

 

But you may need access to a car registered in Texas in order to take the drivers test.

 

DPS could care less, as long as the car is street legal & has insurance. Quickest way to do that is to rent one for the couple of hours, if you can't borrow a friends car. Of course, without a license, they wouldn't rent you one, but a friend could rent it for you.

And the insurance doesn't hafta be YOUR insurance. Just has to have insurance on the car, like in the case of a friends insured car.

 

That's what I thought.

But reading this it seems they want your car (if you own one) to be registered first. http://www.txdps.state.tx.us/adminis...ingtotexas.htm

My wife of course has a normal Texas vehicle. TX plates, stickers, TX insurance.

 

Nice to know California isn't the only state where the DMV gives it to you dry.

So glad we don't have safety inspection. Only smog every 2 years.

 

But...How would DPS even know you have an out of state registered vehicle, if you don't tell them?

If your wife's car is TX registered already, they wouldn't even have any reason to ask about another vehicle that is out-of-state registered.

 

I just looked at the TX driver's license application form. There are 2 spots where you have to answer about owning registered in TX cars.

Anyways, I wound up getting some car insurance here. They told me they'd count my wife's good driving record on my insurance......yet when I got a quote to join her plan (multi-vehicle discount) or get my own separate plan, it wound up being cheaper to get it on my own.

Having said that, now that I have the forms with all the coverage and legal stuff (that 30 page book they send you), I see I'm being charged a surcharge for: prior accident/no history. Guess I'll be taking the paperwork from my old insurance company that says I have a clean driving record down to a GEICO office and saying "where's my money?" Apparently there is a 15% discount for seatbelt use on MED/PIP coverage, but I don't see that listed on my discount area. All I have there is anti-theft discount.

Why the heck can't you buy 1 year's car insurance? 6 month max term kinda sucks.

So now it's back downtown to the tax assessor's office to try yet again to register the car here.

 

The 6-month thing must be a carrier specific thing. My current one is a 1-yr policy & most companies I've had offer both 6-mo or 1-yr policies.....Never had Geico though. I've always found better rates than Geico could offer.

 

Who do you have for coverage?

$177.30 later, I have a registered car.

That's for 1 year with the basic license plate. No custom logo, no custom slogan. I opted against the 3 year sticker and custom license plate. Maybe next year. But it's cost too much money so far this year.

The $90 New Texan fee is listed as "sales tax: New resident." How can I pay sales tax on something I already own?

Why do I get the feeling I'm going to get Sam Kinison as a driving test guy tomorrow?

 

http://www.electricinsurance.com/ is who I have.

 

id be in jail!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


my tags are only $32 for the camaro
$120 for a 05 accord
$34 for a 94 dodge van

on the down side my box truck was $450
and the motorhome was $360 for a 12kGVW tag, it should have a 28kGVW so it should be even more

my car trailer had perminate trailer tags that all i did was pay taxes
and my "lil tyke" 4x8 utility trailer is $22

FYI its an extra $50 for a custom tag

 

Thanks for the link. I tried a quote, but they're a $200/year more for me.

Here is the bill:

Title application fee $13
Texas mobility fund $15
Terp fee $5 (??? maybe this is the license plate cost?)
New Texan fee $90
Windshield sticker $40.50
Registration fee-DPS $1
Reflectorization fee $0.30
County road bridge add on fee $10
Child safety fee $1.50 (what the heck does this go to?)
Automation fee (large county) $1
_____________________________

$177.30 total

I think it normally runs about $60/year.

 

HUH?

My annual registration is like $54/yr. Which is why I don't have personalized plates....I don't wanna double my yearly cost.

 

I don't write the rules. I just pay for them.

 

I just wonder what "Reflectorization" means.... 30 cents isn't gonna get you anything on the highway & I'm sure they didn't add anything to your car, so??????

 

Must be the coating for the license plates.

Well, it's all done. I'm 99% legal in Texas now (darn, how did I manage to forget to put my front plate on?)

Amazing really, that it's $177 for registration + $89 for the GM letter, yet I got a driver's license today that's good until 2015 for $24. No road test needed. No written exam needed. Just handed over my BC license, showed them my green card and social security card. Registration receipt and insurance paper. That was it.

While driving today, it took awhile to get used to having the blue sticker in the windshield. Even though I've got the stickers as far down in the corner as I can, my peripheral keeps noticing the stickers. Oh well, I'll get used to it over time. I'm extremely picky. I must have sized up juuuuuuust the right spot for the registration sticker before putting it on. Probably 5 minutes worth.

One thing I noticed tonight coming home with my wife is that my new license plate is darker than my old BC license plate. Both are white plates with blue writing. But the TX plate doesn't shine in the dark as much. A tad duller.

 

If your picky about the stickers....Your gonna HATE it come inspection time, when that high school drop out "inspector" scrapes your old one off & puts the new one on, crooked as hell & 3" higher than the Registration sticker!

 

^^^ Ain't that the truth.

 

Just had my Camaro inspected and the "Inspector" ran out of razor blades so he was going to scrape off my old sticker with a screwdriver! I told him if he touched my new windshield with that screwdriver he was going to find out why my friends call me Badman. LOL. So they sent an employee down the street to get some blades. It was then removed correctly.The manager(Lube Express)asked me(after I paid) to never come back to his store because I "threatned" his employee. I explained to him in a calm manner that I never make threats,just promises. He was not amused. So next year I guess I'll go to Penzoil Quick Lube. But first I'll make sure they have razor blades in their scraper.

 

Shoulda just said "Pain is temporary......" & "Lawsuit.....Property Damage.....Pain & Suffering".........

 

OK, I'm definitely taking my own stickers off next year.

esc has got to be smiling reading this thread.

 

You know it!
But I waited a LONG time for my time to come. I've paid my dues.

 

Humbug. You had license plate stickers for the majority of the time.

What came first in Texas? Vehicle inspections or registration stickers on the windshield? Just wondering what windshields used to look like here.
----------
I like your style Badman.

 

Inspection stickers were first on the windshield.

I remember when the windshield only had the inspection sticker & the plate got 2 stickers...month & year. So every year, they only had to give you the month year sticker.

 

For the first several yerars I got new plates every year with the year embossed into the plate, but I had a windshield inspection sticker to go with it. Later they changed to the plates with year and month stickers, like bikes and trailers still have. It wasn't until MUCH later (in the 90's think) that they started using a widshield registration sticker.