DMV: Bicoastal Inefficiency

As mentioned in my rant about the Maryland Motor Vehicle Administration we need to have the title for our car reissued. The car was a gift to us from my father and we need to have the vehicle officially titled in our names and then registered in the state of Maryland (currently it is registered to him in California.)

Two months ago I sent the completed forms and required $16 check to the state of California requesting a duplicate title. I attached the invalid/mutilated copy of the title. And waited. La la la.

Weeks passed. My dad, eager to have the vehicle out of his name, went to the Ford dealership where he purchased the car and asked for their help. A very nice lady called her contact in Sacramento and discovered that . . . of course! Our request was lost in the mail. Or something. Whatever happened, they didn't have it.

Back to Square One. My dad obtained the forms (AGAIN) and filled them out (AGAIN) and sent them to us (AGAIN) to fill out the rest. We attached another check (this time for $31, since a replacement title is more expensive than a duplicate title) and waited (AGAIN.)

Incidentally: the registration is now expired in the state of California, and I cannot yet register it in the state of Maryland, lacking the title. The car is therefore unregistered. La la la.

Another two weeks passed. Tonight I receive a call on my cell phone from my mother, who is at AAA (their car insurance provider) seeking to clear things up once and for all.

So, she tells me, remember those forms the California DMV never got? Yeeeeah . . . .

Well, apparently they did get them . . . and were baffled. That a Maryland resident was requesting a California title was beyond their collective bureaucratic ken. Instead, they issued (to my father's California residence) a letter stating they had no fricking idea what we wanted of them. And it took them 6 weeks to articulate this.

I'll hate to learn of the ensuing confusion when the second set of forms arrive . . . though that's been 2 weeks, they still have no record of that ever arriving.

Thanks to the nice lady at AAA we hope to have our car titled in our names and registered in our state sometime in the next eight years or so. As it is, the car will need a repeat inspection . . . since the original was only good for so long, and thanks to those on-the-ball folks in Sacramento, we're way past that.