Car registration--AARRGGHH!!!!

Hi Onik'a

Sorry to hear about your bad experience...

Thanks for the advice...Where can you find people to pay to take care of the registration process...Also, what island are you on? Is the process of registering your car easier on STJ vs STT?

Thanks, Pete

Onik'a,

I know your frustration and have heard it form so many others. Now let me tell a funny story....

When I took my drivers license test in the VI.... everyone told me I would fail - just because almost everyone fails a couple times before they "pass" ... I passed the first time, got my photo and license in like 5 minutes. No problem. The tester only yelled at me once - I think to make me more nervous then I was, and he tried to trick me by telling me to speed up in a school zone. They also tell you to go down one way roads just to see if you will - and if you do you fail.

Each time I registered my car I would drive in say good day, hand them my license and registration... honk the horn, reverse and all the other stuff they have you do and be on my way. Only once I got stopped for some crap they said was wrong with the car.

In terms of inside the office, get in line, check for tickets, get in the next line, wait for your number to be called and out of there.

Maybe I have always had good luck with who I bump into there.

But I have gone with others that didn't have the luck and got very frustrated, took a long time.

I wouldn't pay someone to do it for me. But I knew lots that did. After having gone through registration many times I knew what to expect and it is fine.

My theory was that the people who do the work for you are freinds with the inspectors, so paying them to do it the short way only serves to feed them to treat those who do it themselves worse so they want to pay someone to do it for them. Not sure if thats true.

Know what to do so they don't have to ask you for anything and you don't have to ask them anything - it works well that way.

I can go through step by step what is done - if anyone is interested. 🙂

--Islander

Pete--
I am on STT. Since literally 95% of the people I have met use a third-party, you can pretty much ask anyone that you work or socialize with and/or see who they use. Also, I was told today that the going rate is maximum $25 over the registration fees. It is just "easily-duped statesiders" that pay the increased price. Unfortunately, I don't know anything regarding the procedure on STJ. Good luck with having yours done!

Pete--
I am on STT. Since literally 95% of the people I have met use a third-party, you can pretty much ask anyone that you work or socialize with and/or see who they use. Also, I was told today that the going rate is maximum $25 over the registration fees. It is just "easily-duped statesiders" that pay the increased price. Unfortunately, I don't know anything regarding the procedure on STJ. Good luck with having yours done!

Islander,

After my experience yesterday, I am willing to say that I have surrendered. They won. Yes, I too feel that paying someone who gives the inspectors, et al, kickbacks perpetuates the system and encourages the corruption. Nonetheless, I was so stressed afterwards that my mental health cannot sustain battles like that anymore. No amount of good mornings was going to change this man's attitude about me. In fact, it was so personal I wondered if I resembled an ex-girlfriend or something!

In all honesty, it could have happened anywhere (that you get a gov't employee with a sh**tty day). My problem was feeling powerless to correct the abuse or make him accountable for it. If I had stood there and demanded to speak with the supervisor, his response would have been either "I am the supervisor" or "Sure, let me get my uncle for you."

Absolute power corrupts absolutely.

Onik'a, wow sounds terriable, was this the first time you inspected your car?? I have been with other people who had shouting matches with the inspectors because the inspector said or did something. They really are not the frienliest bunch AT ALL. I try to say nothing to them but Good day and thats it, no questions nothing. Its a power trip for them....

And yes you are right they probally would say I am the supervisor or let me get my uncle for you - LOL, not funny but I thought it was funny that you said that.

In any case did you get your car registered ???

--Islander

I have had miserable experiences registering my car on STJ only because I refuse to pay all the money to get a VI drivers license for the 4 weeks a year that I am on island. To me it's just a money making scheme. I checked with a lawyer and read the VI rules and regs. and there is nothing that says that you have to have a drivers license to own a car. Called STT motor vehicle department and they confirmed this. One man in the inspection lane in STJ yelled and screamed at me. Gave me a ticket and then I took it to court where the judge told him that he was totally incorrect. He then had to apologize which he did grudgingly. I now have one of my local friends take the car in for inspection and registration. He is no longer there. In my estimation when you give some people who are not qualified for much a position of power they go completely overboard. They have few people skills. I also think that statesiders get a harder time.

I just registered a vehicle this morning on St. John. We had no problems except the motor vehicle department being under staffed and they apoligized for this.They did forget to give us 1 paper to fill out but when we filled that out we were done in about 10 minutes. After hereing all the bad stories i was surprised at how good everything went.

Tom

the step by step info would be helpful for future reference

Onik'a: I hope you will consider letting Mr. Olive (the head of Motor Vehicles) know about your incident. There is one guy in inspection lane that I dread to see. He always finds something for me to do...windshield wiper, spare tire...last year he said the name on my registration and insurance didn't match. I wish that someone at the Daily News would do an undercover report of car inspections.... But I digress, Mr. Olive has always appeared to be interested in the perceived problems. I hope this won't send you back to California...we need Cailfornians to balance out all the Texans! 😉

Dito, step by step would be greatly appriciated!

Registration is not that big of a deal,people.
I did it.
It only matters that the paper work is under proper order and your vehicle is in working condition. If you have that, then they can't don anything to you. If they try to pressure you, come back another day.
At least on STJ.

Chris,

Islander offered a step by step for those who are interested, a couple of us happen to be greatful for the offer and would appriciate knowing what to expect. As you all have pointed out on one occasion or another, things operate very differently in the VI. I have registered many cars, but never have I heard of being ticketed during an inspection, so we all respect that your are registration savvy on STJ, but for those of us who aren't, yes, a step by step would be helpful!

Elle

well, go ahead Islander.....did you get your sheet from sid at connections?

Hey Guys,

(Sorry it took so long, been a bit tied up)

Ok Car Registration (this is on St. Thomas, but I imagine the other islands are similar. Here is what I do, others might have other tactics.

I wash and clean my car, so it is looks well groomed - this is not part of the inspection but hey.

I have a friend go through the inspection criteria with me, to make sure everything is working.

Things to Check
1. Horn works
2. Windshield wipers
3. no cracks in windows
4. tires are good
5. no excessive smoke out of muffler when you give the car gas
6. headlights work
7. right signal
8. left signal
both in the front lights and in the back
9. Brake lights work including the one in the back window if there is one
10. hand brakes work
11. spare tire and jack in place and good working condition
12. No excessive rusting or bondo or multi colored island car spots (if you have a true island car you should pay someone to get it through inspection for you, I knew a guy with an old Vokswagons bug, he worked on it, so there was bondo and paint spots - and a cop actually would stake him out at work and then ticket him until he gave it a complete paint job)
13. Seat belts work

and thats about it. If any light bulbs are blown you will FAIL!!! so change them before going down there if they don't work.

Then have your license, registration and insurance document in hand.

When you get to inspection area, there is a sign that says wait behind line, wait there even if there are no cars in the covered booths. Wait for them to signal you to come, drive in slowly, put the car in park, and stay seated, with the car on unless they tell you otherwise, say Good Morning and hand them your license/insurance/registration. They will ask your milage - tell them what it is.

Then they will in a mean way go through saying do this, honk your horn, reverse, windshield wipers. I try not to do anything they didn't tell me to do - like I don't get out of the car unless they tell me to open my trunk for them to see the spare. And try to be quick about doing the things they tell you, like if they say right signal (I once did my left signal instead and got yelled at - Oh well) and then they will give you back your documents and either say you need to fix XYZ and come back OR they will say Ok go inside. Then you say Thank You. And reverse out slowly and be on your way.

Now you need to park the car and go inside the office. Say Good Morning or Good Day when you walk in, to be polite to all the folks that are usually waiting to get their registration too. The folsk waiting for usually pros at registration and are helpful, if you don't know what window to go to ask one of the folks waiting. Stand in the first line, to check for tickets. Just say Good Day to the lady and hand them your registration form and she will look if you have outstanding tickets, then will send you along to the next line or next windwo. Where you will hand in your registration and will be given a number. Then you sit down and wait for the number to be called, then you go to the line they say to go to. Like numbers 30, 31, 32, 33 go to window 3. Then you go to that window give in your number, get your new registration (make sure its all right) and pay.

Thats it. The part that gets people frustrated is; the unfriendliness of the inspectors and two the slowness usually of the getting the tickets checked and getting the new registration.

Now if this is a new car to the USVI, like you are picking it up from the shipping company the procedures are a bit different, since you have to get a document to move the car from the shipping yard to the DMV, which you have to get the insurance first to do.

The steps are not difficult for car registration, it is the unfriendliness of the workers that gets you. Try to go early, they are not open all day, I think they close at 2pm. Try not to go at lunch time.

Good Luck.

--Islander

Good afternoon Islander,

Thanks for the info. Very interesting what you said about the volkswagon stakeout. I remember reading in the moving guide that if you had rust spots etc to touch them up with paint the color of your vehicle as you may not pass vehicle inspection. I had no idea how in depth it is compared to the 1 time vehicle inspection the state of Washington performs. Do you have to do this every year? Do you pay fines for having blown lights, flat spare tire, window chips/cracks, etc? Is the police department in charge of inspection? (Washington state police here). Unfortunate that it seems to be such a surly bunch but its good to know. Thanks for the help!

Elle

Elle,

The guy with the volkswagon, the police officer didn't like him, she staked him out and gave him not one ticket but three.... one for the tires, one for the paint job and one for the exhaust and muffler being too loud. She told him to fix it all and come see her and she would not file the tickets.... so thats what he did.

You have to inspect and register your car every year. You are given a sticker for your windshield with a number on it, the number is the month of the year, 1-12 and a reminder of the month you must register again.... example if it says 1 then you register every January. Sticker is good for one year, and expires the last day of the month sited on the sticker.

You don't go to inspection if you have a blown light, flat spare, windows cracked - you will fail and they will tell you to go fix it and come back with it fixed.... if you don't want to fix them then you have to pay someone to do the inspection under the table sort of..... but I didn't say that and I don't know anyone that does it. 🙂 If a police officer stops you and your lights are all blown you might get a ticket, but never had anyfriends tell me of such happening to them, and never happened to me. Had a broken windsheild once, was after a hurricane, so the cops didn't bother me - lots of people had likewise damage to their cars. After some time one cop did ask, I said I had ordered one and it was coming and then shortly there after fixed it.

Yes Department of Motor Vehicles is a part of the police devision... I don't think the inspectors or police officers though - well they are never in uniform if they are. Not sure.... but the Department is part of the police department.

--Islander

Does anyone know the name & number of people who do this auto registration (on Saint Thomas) for a fee?

Hi All,
Sounds crazy. If I buy a car when I get there, and it is reg. until oct.04 I should not have to go through all this right? I read somewhere that you have about 90 days to get a VI drivers lic. is this right? will I have to take a written test and a driving test or just a written? What is involved in getting a car put in my name that i buy there?
thanks EB

From what I understand you have to have a VI driver license to register a car.

1. No, you don't need a VI driver's licence to register a car.

2. If you already have a valid licence from the States, you will need to take the written test only.

3. EB--I saw your post about buying a car that is registered until October '04. I believe that Parrot Head advertised his car for sale that way. Do you (or does anyone) know if the registration really carries over from one owner to the next? That sounds very strange to me.

FYI--One of the reasons why my registration experience went so terribly wrong is b/c the officer at inspection insisted that I needed a VI license in order to register the car. Notwithstanding the fact that the law does not require a VI license (and I informed him of this), he did not allow me to register my vehicle.
This was not an issue after I employed someone else to expedite the registration.

EB: If the car you are buying is registered until a later date, you will have to register it when the registration runs out. You need to transfer it to your name when you purchase it. This protects both you and the seller. If you do not do it, there could be unpaid tickets or other liens that you would not know about until you try and transfer it after the seller has left the island. You will have no recourse. Now, to not have to go back to the MVB, you can ask to have it inspected when you transfer it and you won't have to go back for a year! Hopefully it will pass inspection!
Also, to protect the seller, it's best to transfer ir right away should, by chance you kill somebody or have a major accident, the seller will stil be liable as it's in their name!

Coming Down: There is a person I recommend nicknamed KJ, his phone number is 771.2469.

Good luck,
Ronnie

Thanks for the heads-up Ronnie I'll give him a call. Does he do Custom's clearance too?