<VV> Florida registration questions

[Arjay Morgan]

All of the previous information on registrations/plates in Florida is substantially correct, but there are two additional items that may be of interest.

Florida allows "year specific" plates on cars that otherwise qualify for "antique" plates.  What this means is that if your car is a 64, as mine is, you can use a Florida plate that was issued in that year. And, if you hit the right car show you will find a man who is selling for about $20 plates from just about every year your heart may desire.  After you pay the man his money you go to the tax collector's office for a special form which you fill out and send along with the plate to Tallahassee (our state capital which is closer to Georgia than it is to the rest of the state) with a check for $31 for "authentication". If you're smart you'll use a magic marker and put your name and address on the back of the plate -- they lose things in Tallahassee. Eventually, you'll get your plate back with a new registration and year sticker. That's why my car is running around with a perfectly legal license plate that was first issued to a pickup truck in Duval
 county in 1964.  The best part of this loophole is that the state won't ding you for an additional $20 or more every five years to replace your physical plate which isn't in the least worn out. You just pay the yearly fee for the decal.

The second quirk in Florida vehicle law deals with that pickup truck you may be importing to the state. Your original title states the weight of the truck as determined by the manufacturer. Manufacturers like to inflate that figure so they can sell a truck as a "3/4 ton" rather than something else. Florida charges pickups in various weight classes and the state will be more than happy to accept the weight listed on the title since it puts you in a higher and more expensive class.  Smart pickup owners empty out their vehicles, drive them till the gas tank is almost empty and pull into a scalehouse where, for $1 they will get weighed and more importantly get a weigh slip that shows the actual (and most assuredly lower) weight. Scalehouses are all over the state especially where they grow citrus. Don't go to the DOT weigh station along the Interstate.  But I digress.  You then go to get your new registration and when you present your old title also
 present the weigh slip. I saved $48 a year, every year, when I moved down here with my 3/4ton Dodge pickup which wasn't. The weigh slip dropped me down two classes.

One final caveat. Don't ever, ever say to a Floridian, "that's not how we did it up north."  You will be immediately be invited to return to "up north."

Arjay Morgan
64 monza convert
asleep in central Florida



Message: 11
Date: Tue, 6 Jan 2009 15:28:52 -0600
From: "Edwin D. Lindsay" <wfcc at juno.com>
Subject: Re: <VV> Florida registration questions
To: virtualvairs at corvair.org
Message-ID: <20090106.152852.2524.0.WFCC at juno.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii

 Actually, You get your tags at the Tax Collectors office not the license
bureau, The license bureau only does Drivers Licenses-When I came back
down here from Virginia I had to take both the written and driving tests
to get a Florida DL. I took the test in a ratty 64 sedan, The inspector
gave it the Evil Eye at first but by the time the driving test was over
she asked me if it was for sale .
When you bring a car in from out of state, you have to have the VIN #
verified by a cop, notary or a Tax Office employee.
  There used to be a substantial "Impact Fee"  but I think they have done
away with it now.
 I am pretty sure that the initial purchase of a Florida plate carries a
$100 fee-
                                                                         
          Ed

West Florida Corvair Club
(Ex Tidewater Corvair Club)


              On Mon, 5 Jan 2009 16:06:35 -0600 "Bob Saunders"
<upnorth1 at gmail.com> writes:
> find the local license bureau, bring in your title, fill out 
> paperwork and
> pay the  fees.
> 
> that's all I ever had to do down there.
> 
> Avoid Mondays and Fridays, closing time and opening times. sometimes 
> lunch
> is busy too.
> 
> wait till the snowbirds leave. {ya, I was one of them...}
> 


 
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