A cautionary tale, of old car titles. Options

[gandalf_025]

I'll try to make this short...

I bought my 914 in 1973.. Since I was a kid, I registered it in my mothers name.
In 1975 I titled it in my name and I still have that title.
The car has been off the road since the late 80's and is now
sitting on a lift in my garage bothering nobody.
3 years ago I decided to put some sort of insurance on it just in case of fire
or some other loss. Car isn't registered.. Just an agreed value policy.
A month ago I got a notice from my Insurance Agency asking for a
copy of the registration.
I ignored it.. Yesterday came a more pointed e-mail asking for the registration within 15 days or the Mass Registry of Motor Vehicles will cancel my insurance.

Ha... Now the State is involved.. Sticking their noses where they don't belong.

I know what the underlying issue is. The State of Massachusetts purges Title Files over 20 years old that seem inactive. They can't find the 914.. So they want me to BUY a title and pay sales tax with compounded interest and penalties..
and I'm sure the car having a 10 digit VIN makes them even crazier..

I talked to the Insurance Company and they have no clue.. So I'm doing nothing till somebody make another move..

So, if you have a very old car title... you may want to check it is still active before
trying to sell the car... But then ... this is Massachusetts and they are known to suck
to deal with.

[fiacra]

Always fun to deal with the DMV. Here in California a vehicle can "fall out of the system" if it remains unregistered for more than four years, although that doesn't automatically happen at four years and it sometimes takes longer. A DMV employee told me it typically takes seven years, but (surprise, surprise) not everything I've been told at the DMV has turned out to be correct. If it falls out of the system you then have to have the VIN physically verified by someone authorized to do so (DMV employee, peace officer, etc.) and you have to apply for it to be electronically put back into the system. This triggers a reissue of the title AND you have to get new plates. I've been through this four times now, and given that the stickers on the B pillar often get damaged this can then trigger an enhanced verification that can only be done by the California Highway Patrol. Last time I used a private company to do the verification and they basically didn't care about any damage to the sticker on the pillar. They only cared about me paying the $100 fee, which was money well spent in my opinion. The upside to letting a car fall out of the system here is that any back fees and penalties are wiped away, and those can really add up. The big downside is that you have to get new plates for the car. We covet our blue/gold plates for these cars, or the black/gold plates for our older cars, and swapping them out for new style plates is painful. Now I make sure that I register any vehicle that is going to be stored long term as "non-operational." It doesn't cost any money to keep them on that status and once I was more diligent to do that I never had a car fall out of the system again. Thankfully at this point in my life I have no more project cars and everything I own is running, registered, and insured. Anybody interested in a bunch of cheap jackstands or car skates? (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)