Mugged by California DMV?

[CoachPotato]

Pardon me if I'm covering plowed ground here, but I couldn't find any threads on this topic...

My annual registration renewal is to be $880! I've owned a couple of gas rigs in the past, the last was newer than our "new" diesel, and paid about half or less than the fees of this diesel!

Would some diesel owners from Kalifornistan please chime in here and let me know it this sounds similar to what you're paying?

Our coach is a 2004 (12 years old!) Winnebago Diesel 32T. It seems to me I'm being mugged and I'd like to know if our $880 mugging sounds similar to your experience.

Thanks for any info.

-Dale

Update 8-16:

Wow! What a blizzard of responses! I appreciate all who came back with helpful advice, especially to msmith1199 who nailed it! Thank you, sir!

He stated I must have paid around $120,000, which I didn't but which I just learned via phone call to DMV they showed to be the sale price. Again, as msmith said, it should have sold mid $50k and I did pay (and did report) $57k. The coach had 31K miles on it and I bought it from the original owner. It was in great shape and had all the good options.

The DMV call revealed that, somehow, they showed the sale price to be $121K. What the...?! I registered it in person at my local DMV office and showed my purchase price to be $57k. To register it they charged me the use (sales) tax and other fees totaling $4860. How they came up with $121K value for my renewal next month nobody knows.

So... that's the story. Instead of paying $880 I'll be paying $464 once I visit my local DMV a week from tomorrow and show them my sale documents. Again. Gotta wonder about CA DMV! But they do have a handy system when I called that let me leave my number and they called back in about 10 minutes. I wish the phone company, etc. had such a system!

Thanks again.

-Dale

[Bumpyroad]

the state is going to get whatever money is needed from some source. whether it is spent wisely is another discussion. when I considered Texas, the no income tax would about break even with the increased property tax I would have to pay, on IIRC a $250,000 home. that is unless some excessive MUD tax was also involved.

bumpy

[nevadanick]

Our 2016 Phaeton registration was a bit over $4k. We dont have state income tax but i have been looking at other states and it seems that i could pay income tax and have lower reg fees and come out ahead. We just sold our house and are going to buy another in a diffrerent state but trying to figure out what our costs will be.

[et2]

hanko wrote:
Michigan is right there with the rest of the A$$ holes

Yes they're. Ours would be 1200 a year. Michigan does allow you to purchase temporaries for 60 day increments. We usually can get by with 2 or 3 temporary tabs. Cuts the cost in Half.

Only problem is people keep asking if our 3 year old MH is new.

[Bumpyroad]

bukzin wrote:
I am among the group that enjoys what my California
tax dollars go to.

.

so who is the other person in your "group"?
bumpy 🙂

[bukzin]

I am among the group that enjoys what my California
tax dollars go to.

There are a few of us lucky to live in our state of choice.

[msmith1199]

hipower, just keep in mind all states have taxes of some type. You can't make decisions based on one of those taxes. There are some places that have low vehicle reg fees, but huge property taxes on real estate. California does in fact have huge taxes all the way around, but depending on your job, you can also make a lot more money here than in many other parts of the Country. I'm a retired cop after 30 years, and there are places I could move to where my California pension is more money than the Chief of Police in those towns make. Now if the politicians just don't bankrupt our pension systems until after I'm dead then I can still afford my motorhome!

[hipower]

Since the problem detailed by the OP has been resolved, I will just add my tidbit of info here for general kniwledge.

As PA residents we pay motorhome registration annually based on registered GVW.

Up to 8,000 lbs. @ $65.00 + $5.42 fee (for who knows what?)

8,001 to 11,000 lbs. @ $90.00 + $7.50 fee

11,001 lbs. and up @ $116.00 + $9.67 fee

There is no personal property tax or anything similar. Living in a more rural area of the state also keeps our insurance premiums fairly low @ $1,500 per year.

Obviously not the lowest registration fees in the country, but I feel pretty good when I see some reports of fees over $800.00 per year.

[msmith1199]

dons2346 wrote:

YC 1 wrote:
I am a business owner from Calif. When Arnold was in office he doubled the DMV fees. This killed me since I owned a fleet of vehicles and new personal vehicles and an RV. The RV registration was $1800 a year.
As a business owner and native Californian I left the pick pocket state and moved to Florida. My registration on the RV is now less than $90 a year. And I do not pay State income tax.
When the State was making a higher profit than me on sales tax alone I just gave up,.

You have it totally wrong. Back when Davis was in office, the vehicle license fee offset was going to run out which would have raised your fees. In my case the coach would have gone from $1500 to over $5000. Arnie was elected and the fees stayed the same.

I moved to South Dakota anyway.

He knows that now. And correct, this new tax was going to "triple" the VLF portion of your registration. I think at the time my motorhome was about $800 a year and would have gone to well over $2000. Had this new rate taken effect, it would have served to actually collect less revenue for the state. It would have worked just like the Luxury tax did. People would have quit buying motorhomes and other high priced vehicles. The money lost to the state in sales taxes and other lost revenues because of lower vehicle sales would not have been made up by the increase in the VLF. Car dealerships were already reporting huge drops in sales because people were anticipating the higher fees.

[dons2346]

YC 1 wrote:
I am a business owner from Calif. When Arnold was in office he doubled the DMV fees. This killed me since I owned a fleet of vehicles and new personal vehicles and an RV. The RV registration was $1800 a year.
As a business owner and native Californian I left the pick pocket state and moved to Florida. My registration on the RV is now less than $90 a year. And I do not pay State income tax.
When the State was making a higher profit than me on sales tax alone I just gave up,.

You have it totally wrong. Back when Davis was in office, the vehicle license fee offset was going to run out which would have raised your fees. In my case the coach would have gone from $1500 to over $5000. Arnie was elected and the fees stayed the same.

I moved to South Dakota anyway.

[msmith1199]

YC 1 wrote:

YC 1 wrote:
I am a business owner from Calif. When Arnold was in office he doubled the DMV fees. This killed me since I owned a fleet of vehicles and new personal vehicles and an RV. The RV registration was $1800 a year.
As a business owner and native Californian I left the pick pocket state and moved to Florida. My registration on the RV is now less than $90 a year. And I do not pay State income tax.
When the State was making a higher profit than me on sales tax alone I just gave up,.

[COLOR=]Wow, when I have a senior moment it is a doozey. Sorry Arnold. I think my tongue was over my eye teeth and I couldn't see what I was talking about. Yes I do remember the Recall of Davis. Sorry folks. And to think I am a native Californian. Wow, when I have a senior moment it is a doozey. Sorry Arnold. I think my tongue was over my eye teeth and I couldn't see what I was talking about. Yes I do remember the Recall of Davis. Sorry folks. And to think I am a native Californian. I need to do better proof reading.

All is good. I just hope you didn't close your business and move solely because of the VLF fee since nobody ever had to pay the higher rate. Or if you did pay you got it back. But if you have a business that can be moved, then anyplace but California is a good choice.

[YC_1]

YC 1 wrote:
I am a business owner from Calif. When Arnold was in office he doubled the DMV fees. This killed me since I owned a fleet of vehicles and new personal vehicles and an RV. The RV registration was $1800 a year.
As a business owner and native Californian I left the pick pocket state and moved to Florida. My registration on the RV is now less than $90 a year. And I do not pay State income tax.
When the State was making a higher profit than me on sales tax alone I just gave up,.

[COLOR=]Wow, when I have a senior moment it is a doozey. Sorry Arnold. I think my tongue was over my eye teeth and I couldn't see what I was talking about. Yes I do remember the Recall of Davis. Sorry folks. And to think I am a native Californian. Wow, when I have a senior moment it is a doozey. Sorry Arnold. I think my tongue was over my eye teeth and I couldn't see what I was talking about. Yes I do remember the Recall of Davis. Sorry folks. And to think I am a native Californian. I need to do better proof reading.

[Bumpyroad]

I have purchased vehicles out of state, paid nothing to the state it was in and registered/titled/licensed it in my home state. if Kalifornia wouldn't let you do that being military even they did mug you.
bumpy

[msmith1199]

mabynack wrote:

msmith1199 wrote:

mabynack wrote:
I was stationed in California about 25 years ago and they charged me about $800 a year for registration on my F-250 as a non-resident. That's almost 10 times what it costs me in Florida.

Stationed in California? As in the Military? If so you could have keep the registration of your home state.

We bought it in California, so it had to be registered there the first year - at least that's the way I remember it. We transferred the registration to Florida as soon as we were eligible.

I thought that if you were military you could buy a vehicle in California and register it in your home state, but I'm not sure. What you should have done is take a trip back to Florida and bought the truck there and then just drove it back to California.

[mabynack]

msmith1199 wrote:

mabynack wrote:
I was stationed in California about 25 years ago and they charged me about $800 a year for registration on my F-250 as a non-resident. That's almost 10 times what it costs me in Florida.

Stationed in California? As in the Military? If so you could have keep the registration of your home state.

We bought it in California, so it had to be registered there the first year - at least that's the way I remember it. We transferred the registration to Florida as soon as we were eligible.

[msmith1199]

Your question here is a very good lesson for the people who love to jump into these discussions with answers when they really don't know those answers. I'm glad I was able to help. If you had to rely on some of the other advise you would have probably just paid your $860 and been mad about it.