Fun With the CA DMV

[Carolina Vagabond]

My dealer did my tag/title paperwork BUT...after my 30 day temp tag ran out, I still didn’t have a regular plate. I did receive an envelope from DMV that I figured would be my title. Nope...it contained the Certificate of Origin which the dealer had sent in to DMV so a title could be issued. I go to the local DMV and the guy says “What the hell are you doing with that”. Anyway, he’s a good one and issued me a tag on the spot, and didn’t charge me because I showed where I had paid the dealership. I had my title shortly thereafter.

 

[dmonkey]

That's funny that the DMV mailed it to you. For out-of-state sales the dealership will often mail you the Manufacturer's Certificate of Origin (or let you leave with the document) for you to hand over to the DMV when you register it in whatever state you end up bringing the vehicle to. I'm waiting for the IL DMV to mail me a new title for a bike right now... in CO when you surrender a title from another state or with the purchase of a vehicle they print the new CO one for you right there and you leave with it.

 

[Carolina Vagabond]

That's funny that the DMV mailed it to you. For out-of-state sales the dealership will often mail you the Manufacturer's Certificate of Origin (or let you leave with the document) for you to hand over to the DMV when you register it in whatever state you end up bringing the vehicle to. I'm waiting for the IL DMV to mail me a new title for a bike right now... in CO when you surrender a title from another state or with the purchase of a vehicle they print the new CO one for you right there and you leave with it.

Mine was purchased in state, an hour from home. The dealer sent all the paperwork to the DMV as I paid for them to do it. The DMV then forwarded it to me without doing anything . It didn’t slow down the riding though, I just kept my receipt on me

 

[Reptoid Overlords]

This must be what it was like trying to get a Trabant in the Soviet union.

 

[SneakyDingo]

This must be what it was like trying to get a Trabant in the Soviet union.

But Comrade, if it were that easy we could bribe officials to make things move faster! Or we could employ the babushki network to "encourage" that the official expedite it a little or miss out on vodka, cheese, new fridge, etc.

 

[Kev250R]

Funny stuff guys!

So another update on the plight of my Trail (granted, a couple of days late). Friday I got a call from the people who are trying to unscramble this mess for me with the DMV. Now the DMV is saying that two digits on the Title which is in the National (except Hawaii) Database are backwards. Likely a clerical error when the Title was entered when the bike was first sold/registered. More fun

However they did make some progress: California has three types of Plates; a permanent metal one which stays with the vehicle basically for life, a paper temporary one (what you use while you're waiting for your permanent plates to arrive) and a "Transport Permit' which is basically a receipt which you attach to your vehicle to show that the fee's have been paid, but there is a problem with the registration which you're working-on. My Trail now has one of these Transport Permits which is a step in the right direction and means I can stop schlepping this thing all over town in my truck and can now legally ride it, which will be nice next week when I need to take it to the CHP to get a VIN inspection.

My hope is to have all this registration mess cleared-up by the end of the week. It's to the point that they know my voice when I call the Registration office which is working to untangle this mess for me LOL!

 

[SneakyDingo]

Now the DMV is saying that two digits on the Title which is in the National (except Hawaii) Database are backwards. Likely a clerical error when the Title was entered when the bike was first sold/registered.

This is such a prevalent issue in credit cards that the (very simple) Luhn algorithm was introduced to validate credit card numbers on the client (e.g. browser, iPhone, etc.) before it was pushed through to the bank. So 1234-5678-9012-3452 is a valid credit card number, but 1234-5678-9012-3425 is not. I did notice during testing that two digits two apart transposed, eg 1234-5678-9012-3452 and 1234-5678-9012-3254, still passes the check so it's not bulletproof, but it does help prevent some of those issues. Would be nice if VIN numbers took this approach. The biggest downside is you need an additional digit for the numbers as there's roughly one valid Luhn number per 10 possible numbers (e.g. for 1234-5678-9012-345x, there's only one valid Luhn number)

(This was also the very first algorithm I implemented into a form fill on my very first job out of college)

 

[Kev250R]

Yay another update and hopefully another step closer to getting Perm tags!

So the Registration office I'm dealing with reached-out to me earlier this week and said I no longer needed to get a my VIN verified by the CHP, they could do it at their office which is 10 miles away from me.

Today I finally had time to run my trail up to them. Since I have the Temp Tag mounted and now have insurance on the bike I decided to ride it up there. I wanted to get there before they closed so going was a straight-shot through city traffic but after I took my time and meandered around a bit (I rode ~30 miles). Every place I stopped (the gas station, a Diner) people wanted to talk about the bike. Both of the people who approached me had no idea Honda was making Trail's again (sure, they're making them, but good luck finding one I wanted to say!)

It's a fun bike, though way different from a 'conventional' MC. I still like it though. I spent 90 minutes riding it around (including stops at the Registration office and dinner) and toyed with the idea of going and playing in the dirt on some forest roads near me, but I had some things I needed to take care of at home so dirt will have to wait a little bit longer.

Oh and we're a step-closer to a perm tag! Should find-out what the next step to getting that will be maybe tomorrow. Stay tuned!

 

[Kev250R]

SUCCESS!!

Earlier today I got a call from the Title Service that the DMV had *finally* gotten all the issues with my Title fixed and on my way home from work today I picked-up my Trail's new Perm plate and a Title in my name! Huge win which took almost three weeks to untangle. The Title Service charged me $150. Now my plan is to bolt my new plate on my Trail and go for a ride!

For anyone in the So.Cal. area I used Auction Express Title Service in Placentia. They've helped me in the past with other issues I've had titling vehicles.

 

[SneakyDingo]

YASSS DO A WHEELIE TO CELEBRATE!!

 

[Kev250R]

YASSS DO A WHEELIE TO CELEBRATE!!

LOL I wish!

What I did instead was rode it to a Diner for dinner then took the long way home so maybe a 15 mile ride. It's a fun bike. I have a week-long dual-sport ride coming-up in a couple of weeks in S/W Utah which I had been planning-on taking my TW on, but I'm starting to think the Trail may be going instead...