While I had been planing to do it for a while anyway, the fact that our license plate was stolen which make’s the car sorta useless for trips further then around the block, I went down to the DMV this week to try and get the car registered in NYC and get new plates.
Note my use of the word TRY.
Given that NYC is the huge city it is, with somewhere around 8 million people, the DMV is obviously only going to be open Monday through Friday from 8:30 am to 4:00 pm. Because you know, no one is actually working then or anything.
So to start the situation is this. The car is Meg’s but the title was in her Mom’s name. So when we left FL last year her mom signed us over the title as part of a private sale using the whole “sold for 1$ trick”, at the time we put both mine and Megs name on the title which made sense given that it IS her car. So anyway I go on line, look up all the stuff I think I will need on the DMV’s website on transferring an out of state title and registering the vehicle in NY. I printed and filled out all the necessary forms, got the title, registration, and my insurance card, and went down to the DMV near work Tuesday morning, after telling work I would be an hour or two late that day (for which I have to use my own saved up time). Get there at 8 and wait in the already long line outside, get inside and wait in the inside line when the open at 8:30. When I finally get to the counter the DMV drone tells me that my insurance card is no good. I look at it and see that it doesn’t expire until Aug 11, which I say. He tells me that the card has to be issued no more then 45 days ago to be used for registration. Huh? So given no other options I go back to work defeated. Now my insurance CO HAD sent me a new set of cards for the next six month period Aug 11-Feb 11 but I didn’t take those because they don’t kick in till Aug 11 when the old ones expire. So I call the DMV phone number, wait on hold 20 minutes or so, and talk to a woman who said I should go back with both sets of cards which will show I have a full year of coverage. Mind you I called to be sure that I wouldn’t have any problems this time. (I bet you can see where this is going already)
So today I go back, again in line at 8, go in at 8:30, get to the counter. This time the woman working looks at my paperwork and tells me “this one card isn’t valid and the other one doesn’t go into effect until Aug 11, you need a card issued with in 45 days”. Trying my best not to scream and kick the drivers license photo camera across the room I explain to her that I had called the DMV and was told by their own people that this was the correct thing to do. Her response was “I don’t know why they would tell you that, thats wrong”. Still trying not to flip out at this point I ask her how exactly she recommends I go about getting my car legally registered in NY because apparently actually having proof of a full years worth of car insurance (which probably puts me in a minority of car driving New Yorkers) is for some reason not good enough. She says I can call my insurance company and get a card with todays date on it faxed to me at the fax machine they have at the coffee stand in the lobby (2$ a page) and could come back with out waiting in line again. I thanked her, went, called geico who was helpful and got the card faxed with todays date on it. Went back, she looked at it and gave me my number that let me go wait on the benches for yet another clerk to help me.
Amazingly enough my wait is only 10 minutes or so. I go up with all my paperwork and she looks over it. This is where the second problem comes in. Because Meg’s name is hand written in pen on the title she not only has to sign the title but also will have to fill out all the same forms as me and come in to the DMV with me, bringing 6 points worth of ID (her FL divers license which is like the only form of ID that she has it only worth 2 points). Say a birth certificate would work but the passport people still have that (a passport is actually worth 4 points but again don’t have those yet, which is a problem in it self given we have a cruise/wedding in a month but one issue at a time).
So right now we have a car with no license plate other then a piece of paper in the back window with the old plate number and indicating that the plate was stolen (which was reported) But not having a real plate means that the car is really sort of useless for drives longer then a few blocks. We were going to drive up to CT in 2 weeks so Meg could dog sit for my mom but now we will have to take the train or something because driving the car from NY to CT sans plates is not likely the best of ideas. In a word we are stuck. Can’t register the car with out more ID or a new title from FL, can’t really fly down to FL to get some temp tags for the time being (though I may end up seeing if her mother can do that for us just for now so the stupid car is drivable.) I worry that even if we get Meg the ID she needs and stuff they will say “now where is HER insurance card” or take issue that she doesn’t have a NY license or that it is a full moon out.
The whole thing has been such a mess I would of just left the damn car registered in FL but in order to get a parking pass at work the car has to be in my name. Though being able to drive into work on the weekends really doesn’t seem to be the great motivator it once was.
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