..and I was pissed when Illinois raised it from $78 to around $98 a year LOL, wow, they really know how to screw you out in Cali don't they. I'd buy a friggin house in another state before I paid those kinds of prices. I own several cars, trucks (non-comercial) and motorcycles, another mortgage would be cheaper than the registration cost and I'd have something to show for it. Hell, it costs me less than to register my commercial semis in Illinois than a personal passenger vehicle in California


...I see a new business opportunity, I'll let people use my Illinois adresses to register their cars, $98 for the state of IL and $198 for me, plus Illinois has pretty lax emmisions testing so you guys can all run with mods and not worry about it

You offer would be accepted instantly by many of us!!!

Der Peoples Republik of Kalifornia is way ahead of you on that one. If an officer of ze law notices a car with foreign plates with some degree of regularity (over a couple of weeks will do), they pull it over and ask for license and registration. If the driver is the owner, and he has a Kalifornia drivers license, he gets a ticket. The ticket requires that he register the car in Der State AND the driver gets a nice fat fee for trying to beat the system. You have 20 days to register zee kar in zee state.

Der Republik has all kinds of tricks to get your money. There was a time when if you bought a new car in California, moved out of state and registered the car somewhere else, and then brought the exact same car back, you had to pay a California smog equipment fee. It didn’t matter that the car had the correct equipment, you paid the fee anyway.

my brother paid $5500 for his Lambo registration talk about absurd!

LOL...ROLF So is that a **** accent or the Governator speaking? All those fees and the state is still nearly bankrupt SCARY!

Dot iz zee Governator, who tells us "Da peep-holes of Kahleefohnia ahre to pay their taxes and dats eet. Now stop whining like a girly man!"

Not that its all his fault. Much of the insanity pre-dates Ahh-nuld. However, he did initially run on the promise of reducing taxes, balancing the budget, cutting the fat, and a bunch of other stuff we'll never see.

Regarding the $700 bail for 85 in 65 . . . I haul cars in an enclosed trailer (18-wheeler). Those of you in California know that there has been a 55 mph speed for big trucks there for years. We used to be able to get away with driving 62 mph without getting stopped; however, with the revenue crunch, I've had friends get tickets for driving 57 mph. When I hit the California state line at Blythe (where I enter California the most), I set the cruise control for 55 and leave it there. I want to get a big sign and put it on the back door of the truck that reads "Tired of getting stuck behind this slow truck? Call Arnold at 916-XXX-XXXX <insert governer's number here> and tell him uniform speed laws save lives."

Regarding the budget woes of California . . . most of it comes from proposition (forgot the number) from years ago that capped property taxes at 1% of the sale price of the house no matter how many years you owned the house. This was voted on because of the expotentially raising prices of houses in California with the resulting increase in property taxes, which caused a lot of LOLs (little old ladies) on a fixed income to loose their houses because they couldn't pay the property taxes.

This one thing has probably done more harm to California than anything else. The state used to have one of the highest high school graduation rates in the country . . . it now ranks near the bottom. A house that sells in California for half a million will cost $5,000 in yearly property taxes (plus any special taxes passed by the effected property owners). That same house in NJ or NY will run you about $15,000 in yearly property taxes.

Because California can't raise property taxes, they have to raise the money by other sources . . . thus your $1,700 bill for registering a BS.

The California property tax issue came from Proposition 13, a property tax revolt that limited the tax. Unfortunately it has bankrupted the state and many local governments, and resulted in some crazy inequities. A few years ago Warren Buffet commented that the maid of his $4M house in Laguna Beach pays more property tax then he does. The WSJ tried to contain the damage, and here is Buffet’s response:

http://www.wealthandwant.com/docs/Buffett_Prop13.html

Please, the property tax has nothing to do with the states financial woes. Prop 13 is the ONLY sane financial measure still in existance in the state, as we have one of the hightest sales tax, income taxes, and our retired saftey officers at age 50 make inexcess of 100K. No where else are public officials so highly compensated at retirement. Which is a result of uncontroled spending by a car hating legislature.

I love it when billionaires like Buffet can postulate how others should live. What's he drive, a Caddy DTS after he sold his '91 Lincoln town car and he wants everybody to have electric cars.

The fact that my property taxes are so reasonable allow me to afford a BS.

Well until California's woes get balanced out, we're in the sh*t hole for some time. I checked in with DMV and my issue goes back to my dealer listing the price for msrp vs. what I actually paid in the 90s...so the correct reg amount is actually $1500. Oh well. Let the California gov bashing continue!!!!