Registration Mess: Will They Confiscate My Rig?

[Nutball]

people who say they won't impound your vehicle for expired tags obvious don't live in California. 

That isn’t quite true now. I got back to Cali in June in an old ugly pos truck with NM plates. I was license checked twice partly because of that... A Mono County sheriff told me that he received a notice from DMV to cut people slack on their registrations, because new registrations might take a month to process. I was lucky- the DMV people in Bishop are great and I was able to get new plates without an appointment, but the day afterwards I was pulled over by Mammoth Lakes pd because the officer claimed that my license “didn’t show up in the system.” The ML idiots didn’t get the message, apparently. (I told him that I thought he pulled me over because my truck is so old and ugly. He claimed that wasn’t true- yeah, whatever.)

 

[bullfrog]

I’m old and ugly and my vehicles are old and ugly. I never get pulled over. Just saying! Lol!!!

 

[tripper]

I'm in AZ, I just now received my May of 2020 tags. Could not register in person as MVDs would not allow it. Tried online, the computer rejected me over and over, said I need emissions test even though the paper renewal says none needed (I live outside metro area), I then mailed registration with a check, after 6 weeks realized check has never been cashed. I finally found a way by going to a 3rd party registration service, maybe $16 added on, but very nice, walked in no line, paid and got a receipt. However AZ insists on mailed the stickers as of this year so I had to wait another 6 weeks to get it. Now I have to mail the sticker to my son in Denver who has been using the truck. Crazy! Usually super ez in AZ. As far as California, HATE that place. I put my truck in storage as I had been sent overseas for 6 years in the mil, the state of California kept sending me all these nasty letters and sent my registration to a debt collector! My truck never touched a California highway since it was in storage, but the threatening letters were insane, like throwing a lien on my possessions. when I came back I live in a different state. I also once had a Cadillac from Nevada, the registration was a month expired as I was in San Diego, a meter maid took it upon themselves to REMOVE my license plate when it was parked on a street in San Diego for expired reg. which totally screwed me. I got constantly pulled over on the drive back to Nevada, tickets and searches all over, it was a black/ red top red leather interior 74 Eldorado that was lowered so every cop out there beelined for me without plates.

 

[Nutball]

I’m old and ugly and my vehicles are old and ugly. I never get pulled over. Just saying

Ummm, well Mammoth is a resort town where there are far more Lexus, Mercedes, and Sprinter vans around than ugly old vehicles, just sayin’. ML aspired to be the Aspen of the Sierras, hahahaha (snow is rightfully described as sierra cement, when it snows at all nowadays.) Mammoth used to be a great place to live before the McCoy family sold the ski resort to Interwest in the early ‘90’s. Now you have very wealthy property and business owners, a large primarily Latinx community of workers, trust fund rock climbers, and a handful of seniors that are fairly affluent. Indigent old white basura like me are the minority  .

 

[winterwanderer]

With many police departments using automatic license plate readers in their patrol vehicles, I wouldn't think of taking a road trip without valid plates, even if you typically never get pulled over.

 

[LERCA]

I use the Auto Club for everything in SoCal. Never the DMV unless forced to. They are open here. Just switched out my regular plates for disabled ones. I’ve driven with expired tags (due to illness and I forgot to put them on) and proof of insurance not inside my car for some reason and got nothing but a warning. I’m sure if my tags were months expired it would be a different story. But my DL matches my registration and my insurance. I read so much misinformation about California on here and there are individual experiences as well. The worst problems I’ve had consistently in California were seat belt tickets. I now wear my seat belt if I’m driving around the block.

 

[LERCA]

In California you can get a certificate that you own a vehicle that will not be driven. Sounds like you neglected to do that. We don’t register vehicles that aren’t driven. I did that with my mother’s car. I turn it on every couple of days and back it out of the driveway but it’s not driven.