Lee.org

I now have a California driver’s license, California license plates on my car, and I’m a registered Libertarian (After hanging out with the guy who ran for Congress on the Libertarian ticket last year, I was reminded that a large number of Libertarians are insane. No matter, the ideals of the party are closer to mine than the two bigs. So I checked the “Libertarian” box)

I made a reservation to get my license in Oakland yesterday. Turns out that making a reservation doesn’t get you much (read: “anything”). I ended up spending 1 1/2 hours waiting outside for a guy to spend 60 seconds filling out a form verifying my odometer reading. Then another hour waiting… then… blah blah blah. Well, I got to the car registration part and the lady said my car needed a smog test and she needed $211 from me. I was a bit suprised at the price so I went onto the California DMV web site that evening and they had a little form where I could figure out how much my registration would cost…. $110. I went to the San Francisco office today, told the lady what the web site said and she… … … agreed! She reduced the bill by $101! That more than paid for the $40 street cleaning parking ticket I had gotten that morning!

Bring a printed copy of your California Vehicle Registration Fee Calculator results to the DMV. It could save you money.