The Department of Motor Vehicles

they make you get a fucking LICENSE around here to drive!

licenses used to be really cheap and then zell raised them to like 35 dollars i think but they were still cheap if you checked 'organ donor' and then that fucker perdue came in and said 'no discounts for organ donors' cuz republicans are against organ donating so i'm waiting at the dmv and there's no fucking discount and the paperwork for 'free driver's license for life for veterans' is somehow not at the dmn (?????) so two tears in a bucket i paid the 35 or whatever. i am wearing a tie in my license photo.

You have to pay property tax on your cars?!?

YES. In theory, you could have to pay property tax on your refridgerator and lawnmower, too.

When I lived up north, I somehow walked out of the DMV carrying two license plates with no money down.* It was that easy. Now I'm spending days just to get a little one-inch by one-inch sticker that says 07.

* (of course, I'm not mentioning how the next year I got a bill from that northern state for something crazy like $341. Too bad that I had already moved to another state.)

Wow. My grandmother's husband had to pay property tax on HIS FISHING BOAT, TOO!

(He had it appraised for $10, but nevertheless!)

Most annoying thing about car tax* in the UK is that you have to show your insurance certificate when you pay it. Apart from that it's straightforward - just go down to the post office with the right forms and a wodge of cash.

Most annoying thing about it if you had an old car: the tax amount is based on your car's emission rating. For a car that's, say, ten years old, you might have to pay twice as much tax as for a new one.

* well, it's actually called Vehicle Excise Duty, but everyone still calls it "car tax" or "road tax".

Here in Ohio its:
Pay 50 dollars a year for your tag.
Pay 20 dollars every four years for your license.
Pay 20 dollars every other year to have your emissions tested.
The emissions test will be free the next two years because they're using the money won in the tobacco settlement to cover the costs.

We used to have car inspections, but they got rid of those. Private mechanics permitted by the state handed out the stickers. Make friends with one of those dudes or just slip him a twenty, and you could get a sticker even if you had no windshield.

That doesn't sound so bad in Ohio. I like how Arizonans don't have their licenses expire until they're sixty-five.

Oh, we have to have inspections too once your car is over three years old. I forgot about that.

(and, on the other hand, you don't pay road tax if your car is old - I think it has to be at least 25 years old)

British driving licences don't expire until you're 70.

Virginia = $15 safety inspection every year + $30 emissions test every two years + $30 plates every year + $?? license every five years + car tax at $4.57/$100 of assessed value (with some tax relief from the state).

They are sticklers, too; local cops will ticket you if you are parked in public without the current year's tax sticker on.

Am I understating correctly that Britishes get their cars licensed at the post office? I don't even want to imagine what a combined DMV/USPS office would be like in the States.

"understanding"

You pay the tax at the post office, but the actual work is all done at a big office somewhere in South Wales. All the post office staff do is check your paperwork, take your money and give you a stamped tax disc.

If you move to Vermont and already own a vehicle, you will have to pay 6% sales tax respective to its current book value. When we moved here (from NH) my wife and I had to take the licensing exam as if we were 16 year olds all over again. Thankfully, that requirement has now been dropped.

So, it now $50 for annual registration and though liability insurance is required by the state, they don't ask for proof at this point. The transaction can be done by mail.

Annual inspection is $20.00 and is done at most any place with a living mechanic. This is when you provide proof of insurance. In theory, you could cancel it the next day and no one at DMV would be the wiser. I would expect that if my insurance is about to lapse, the carrier would notify me, but yet they don't send a cc to the gov. Weird. Oh, and no emissions checkups - yet. Probably because we have to breathe all that crap that wafts our way from the rust belt so it wouldn't really matter.