Re: Ask the man who owns one

Posted by Loyd Smith On 2009/6/14 15:07:12

I do not know what California's licensing fees are. Here in Florida the license (tag) fee for my Mercury Grand Marguis was $97 for two years when last I had to renew the plate on it. It is my understanding that the fee is to go up by about half this year.

I was using figures from one of the commonly available inflation calculator sites on the 'net. They all seem to be pretty much comparable to each other in calculated inflation figures (I've tried five or six of them to compare the results).

The most expensive place that I have ever had to tag an auto was Oklahoma in about 1977. The plate for my personal car (active duty military) only cost 19 dollars and some odd cents. I discovered the disparity betwixt this (reasonable) fee and "regular" license tag fees when I bought my wife an El Dorado and found that, alas, military dependants did not qualify for the same consideration. By the time the lady at the tag agents office got through punching numbers into her calculator, I was tired. Almost had a coronary arrest when she read me the figure. Of course it included the 7% state sales tax as well as the licensing fee but, even so, was a shock to someone who'd been licensing cars in Texas and Arkansas where the "normal" yearly cost was between about $18 and $25. If memory serves, the tag fee alone was about three times what I expected without the sales tax (which I did expect).

It was, in fact, about this time that there was a major scandal in the state regarding county tag agencies and more than a couple of county commissioners wound up being sent to the penitentiary for, in effect, selling tag agencies to the highest bidder. I remember thinking to myself, at the time, "Well, I can certainly understand that."