Some of these stories are so funny i'm laughing! Some of these stories are so sad I'm laughing! One of mine was in 1993 in Tucson when I went to DMV to register a 1968 Ford pickup I had bought & had put in a rebuilt trans & brakes and a bunch of other stuff as it had been sitting for a few years. They had a inspection guy go outside to check my truck. It was a beater work truck & this guy gives it the check & I failed because the horn did'nt honk. I was in a mood by this time & he opens the drivers door to cross check the serial numbers. Of course they matched - but - he goes and opens the hood then gets out his penlight - official penlight - and a knife and starts to scrape the top of the frame rail until he can verify that the frame has the correct serial number on it. Of course by this time I am laughing because "do you think I would go to all the trouble to put a beater body on a beater frame and then bring it down here just to get caught?" Anyway that is the short version. Gary 4T950 Chevy Guy
I've only taken one driving test: 1974, Kingsport Tn Highway patrol office (on the circle). I'm 14. Got a motor. Honda XL 100. Police woman says: Get on, drive down to the American Legion pool, turn around and drive back. I say: You riden on back wid me? Police woman: No. 3 minutes later, I'm licensed. And its transfered ever since.
Great stories,my turn now. About 25 yrs ago I bought a 53 ford truck,got the title & didn't really look @ it much until a yr later after I fixed it up I went to get the title work done & seen the the guy who signed the buyer on the back wasn't the guy I bought it from..so I called the guy & he says he ain't doin nuthin,I said you have to it's the law you have to put it in your name,then sign it off to me.he wouldn't do it.So I went to his county seat left my wallet in my car (so I wouldn't have to lie about not havin it) tell the clerk &I want to put this in my name & they never asked for my id got it done & signed it off to the guy I sold it to. I'll tell ya I now check the vin# & everything else. That's another story about 2 -41 Olds on a Army base in MI I bought one & it had the wrong #,a machinist friend stamped out a new one.I sold the car to a friend,he did alot of work to the car,had a fire that leveled his garage.the car was outside but the vin# plate got smoked. I still haven't told him. Bob
back in my younger days, my buddy and me decided to swap cars. We both go to DMV together, walk up to the counter together, and the old guy behind the counter takes our titles and damn near faints. "Oh my God" he says, "You two know one another?" We nod. "Shit," he says. "I've always prayed you two would never meet." Seems between me and my bud, we were single-handedly jamming up the system. I went in a couple days later with more business, and the counter person told me the old guy retired. Guess he couldn't take the stress.
My wife totalled her car. We found a suitable replacement through a private party deal. Cashed the insurance check, bought the replacement car, had enough CASH left to take care of the title transfer fees. Paid the DMV lady in CASH. Waited several months for our copy of the title. Didn't show. License tabs came due, no billing info. Called the DMV, and asked about the paperwork. DMV asked which location I used, I told them. They asked if I paid CASH. I said yes, but have my copies of the paperwork. I was informed that the lady I delt with was no longer employed by the DMV, as she had been taking the money when people paid CASH and then throwing away the paperwork to pay for a gambling problem. Therefore I had to start all over at the beinging with dealing with an asshole original owner who didn't want to be hassled going to the DMV office again(which was less than a MILE from his house) all the way through the transfer process.
I would have just signed her name to the paperwork on this one, forged it so it was close. As long as it looked good it probably would pass muster. Short of that, you would have needed a power of attorney over your mother so you could sign for her. DMV here if you go in right after lunch you usually have a short wait, except on Fridays and Mondays. Took me two DMV's to get my last one registered, but the second one it was easy and because signatures were required I had to go back the next day - but I got plates on a car with no registration in about 5 minutes. Now 15 years ago, you had to have so much crap to do the same process - every time we went in with what they told us we needed, they told us we needed something else, sign this and have it notarized, have last owner sign this and have it notarized, blah blah blah. I finally bought another registration and tag for that truck only to have the piece of crap start knocking and I sold it for junk without ever using the registration - I may still have that somewhere. But that's the only time I ever got a really huge hassle from them on anything. One time, the clerk thought the weight on my car's registration was too heavy, so she looked up a couple others and reduced it by a couple hundred pounds. Lowered the fee a buck or two. I didn't object - On my driving test, I got marked off for not looking long enough at an intersection, I guess you needed to look for 15 seconds to be certain no cars were coming - but I had no problem spotting at a glance the customized '59 Ford we passed parked in someone's driveway and remarking on it enough to know what it was.
Ther's a local hot rod running around these parts with the Chevy firing order as the vin! They wanted the number off the engine and took it right off the manifold! I shit you not!
I've had my share of hassles (exponentially more since I moved to Indiana), but my favorite is the hassle my Dad went through to title his '28. He found the body and all the pieces in a farmer's trashpile, so the VIN was long rotted away. At first they wanted to title it as a '75 Chevy Station Wagon because he used a 454 out of a Chevy station wagon. Then they wanted to title it as a 28 Chevy. I seem to recall they later on wanted to try title it as a 28 White (his last name). Mind you this is over the course of several months... of him going to the local office and the local office sending wads of crap to Austin and waiting for a reply. FINALLY... he gets them to call it what it is... 28 Ford Sport Coupe. Then he gets the call to go down to the DMV and their answer? "We can't issue you a title." "Why?" "The rear tires are bigger than the fronts". <blank stare> <more blank stares> WTF does that have to do with anything? "It's a special interest vehicle. We cant title it as a 28 Ford, so the title request was denied." Ever resourceful, Dad goes home, rounds up a set of matching tires and wheels, reshoots the pictures... and FINALLY... after about 6-8 months of wrangling he gets the title. I bet he wishes he had been "plugged in" to the scene back then and just grabbed some "historical documents", but then he wouldn't have had as good of a story to tell. LOL
I was buying an out of state (Georgia) car off of Ebay. The guy said he had no title but GA. didn't require on for cars older than '78. I verified this at the DMV and bought the car. When I tried to register it they insisted that I needed a title. I explained that I had verified that I didn't need one - THEN they tell me that the car had been titled in Georgia at some point, therefore I needed a title. Had it never been issued a title I wouldn't have needed one. Clear as mud, eh? Around here it all depends on who you get at the window. You can either be in and out in a flash or spend your day there arguing.
My best DMV story is - joining AAA I do all my shit there, 20 mins max, never any problems fuck the DMV L
transferring my 65 Riv from Brooklyn (transferrable reggie only) to NJ classic... Each person you talk to gives you different answers... I finally gather that I need to register it as standard... then send in the paperwork to request classic... wait 6 weeks... have it sent to my house then take it to the office... wait another couple weeks, then go pick up the plates. Well, I might as well get the ball rolling... so I call, find out what night they are open late, leave work early and head over. They're fucking CLOSED! I turn on the radio to a local show... and lo and behold, the comissioner of the NJ DMV is on taking calls... I call, get on the air and start bitching about what a joke the NJ DMV is. She apologizes and the next day, her assistant calls, invites me down to the regional office... sits me in a room with some coffee... PERSONALLY takes all my paperwork to the back room... comes back 15 minutes later with my plates and registration. She even gave me plates with a 65 in the numbers. Apologized again and sent me on my way. awesome.
All great stories I've been telling Bobbleed for years now that I am just going to open my own DMV- ha ha -Jake
When I bought my Hup I called NC DMV to find out how to get it titled. They told me all I needed was a notarized bill of sale. I told the guy I bought it from this and he had it ready when I picked up the car. The car was in Connecticut. The notary seal was from Rhode Island. I get back to DMV with the paper and they tell me that because older cars aren't titled in Connecticut I have to establish provenance by furnishing another notarized bill of sale. This time not from the guy that sold it to me but from the person that sold it to him (long since deceased). Luckily my man in Connecticut "found" him (he looked just like his own wife). So now armed with 2 bills of sale I went back to DMV and everything seemed to go smoothly. 6 Weeks later I received a letter stating that my application for a title was refused because the VIN was not acceptable because it wasn't 13 characters long. So then I had to make an appointment with a DMV inspector and show him my engine block to verify the 5 charcter VIN. The inspector never saw the car. I just took the engine to his office in a trailer. Then it was back to DMV with the inspection form to get the title issued. Since Hups hadn't been built since 1941 there was no category for them in the state's computer system. They had to create one. Hey but it only took 9 weeks to get a clear title.
you join up with AAA for the year, you get 7 miles free towing or you can upgrade the account and get 100 miles free per year. The best thing is that you can do all your DMV shit there, you can register your car, insure your car, deal with all the license crap and you dont have to wait in those 3 hour lines, i went one satruday morning about 15mins before they opened, i thought it was gonna be a long wait, i walk in and its like the tellers at the bank [ but the windows/counters actually have people there ], she asked me what i need, i give her the forms and pay the fee, my car was in my name in less than 5 minutes - no bullshit !!! AAA are great, the 100 miles of towing is good too, especially if you own an old car L
I went to the DMV in Apple Valley MN with a bill of sale from the Tech school I went to which is run by the county in which I was trying to title a car. It was my 1947 caddillac that someone had donated to the school. The school gives me all this paper work and off I go,the problem is this car hasnt been titled in like 50 years and she hasnt had a vin assigned to her. When Im asked if the car is outside I tell her no we have to finish the engine and tranny she calls some one and then tells me she cant authorize a vin or put the car in my name because if it doesnt have a engine it isnt a car. I have to build it document everything I do to it ie: reciepts and pictures Bring the car down to some main building some where and then they will put it in my name, IF it doesnt have a engine it isnt a car, aint that some shit
I'm sold. I always wanted to join AAA, but never did, because all my regular insurance has roadside assitance, etc... I never knew that you could deal with the DMV through them. Good to know. thx! -B
Man, I'd have that put in writing on official DMV letterhead, so I could show it to the zoning board when they start whining about the car with no plates in my driveway...
The Jalopy Journal
