How do I get my vehicle situation back in order?

June 6, 2009 4:14 PM

I have been very negligent with my car situation, and bad things have piled up. How do I get myself back to having an operational car and the legal right to drive it?

I moved from Illinois to California a couple years back to be with my girlfriend (who has a car of her own). We barely ever used my car, so I didn't really keep on top of the paperwork for it. Never got my car registered here, and the Illinois registration expired, eh, probably a year and a half ago. More recently (end of last year) my Illinois driver's license expired and I haven't gotten that renewed either. Some time early this year, I started a half-hearted attempt to register my car, and got a state emissions inspection. Then, about a week later, someone broke into my car and stole the contents of my glove box, which among other things contained the little box I had in it with my insurance card and old IL registration cards. That discouraged me from getting CA registration because I knew that they'd want my old IL registration; I still haven't gotten the registration stuff replaced and I don't really know how. (I have current insurance cards though.)

Meanwhile, I haven't driven the car more than a couple blocks at a time in a year; and as of last week I hadn't driven it at all in probably a couple months. I needed to move it and discovered that (a) my battery was dead and (b) it maybe 1 gallon of gas or less in the tank. I jumped it, but didn't let it run the requisite 30 minutes due to fears of running out of gas, and sure enough the battery died again and the car won't start.

So that's where I am now: I have an expired out-of-state license and an expired out-of-state registration for a car that I'm missing important paperwork for and that won't even start. I could jump it, but I'm worried I'd get pulled over on the way to the gas station, or that the car wouldn't start after I bought gas. I don't really know how to deal with any of these problems, much less all of them at once, and I feel incredibly guilty about letting things get so bad. I really just need some advice on how to start digging my way out of this hole. Can anyone help?

posted by anonymous to travel & transportation (11 comments total)

1) Go to the CA DMV site and look up how to register your car and get a CA license.

2) Get license.

3) Get registration and plates.

4) Get insurance

5) Replace battery in car.
posted by zippy at 4:18 PM on June 6

How to deal with gas/battery: buy a 5 gallon gas container that meets CA standards, fill it up at the gas station, and put the results in your car. Then run for 30 minutes or whatever and see if the battery holds a charge. If it doesn't, then you will need to do zippy's step 5.
posted by advil at 4:26 PM on June 6

You could use another car, and fill up a plastic tank at the gas station. Really, I think you're having a little too much anxiety over this. Just take care of things one step at a time. Nobody is going to think you're a criminal, you'll just be another guy that moved and wasn't clear one the steps to take and got lost in the process.
posted by floam at 5:10 PM on June 6

Yeah, everything zippy said, in the same order, with one small addendum:

Don't drive the car until you do all of the above.
posted by Civil_Disobedient at 5:46 PM on June 6

I recently moved to California with an out-of-state vehicle, so the following is based on experience. You may also find value in the DMV's Information for Persons New to California page.

First go get a California drivers license. They'll ask how long you've been here and charge you back to the day you say you arrived. Since you don't have a valid out-of-state license now, you'll be forced to do both the written exam and the behind-the-wheel test (use your girlfriend's car).

Now get insurance for your car. All you'll need to buy it is your California address and your ViN -- the insurance company doesn't care yet about state of title, state of current registration, etc.

The car needs to be running, because now you need to take it with you to the DMV to transfer title and obtain CA registration because DMV must inspect it (mostly to see whether the VIN on car matches the number on your Illinois title). So buy gas and charge the battery.

Your car will also have to have passed an emissions inspection within the last ninety days -- it sounds like you'll have to do this step again.

Now: It may then be advantageous to get the car re-registered in Illinois first (I don't know Illinois, but in most states you can do it by mail, and they don't care if your drivers license is in another state -- after all, you're giving them money).

It's worth finding out what that would cost, anyway.

Then compare it to what California will charge you: They will ask when the car entered the state, and charge you registration fees back to that month. When they inspect your car, they will notice that you have an out-of-state registration that expired many months ago. That will make it difficult to claim that you just went back to Illinois to retrieve it last week.

Good luck! P.S.: Don't worry about the stolen expired registration card. California won't ask for it -- all they want is the Illinois title and your money to purchase a California registration.
posted by gum at 6:22 PM on June 6

First go get a California drivers license. They'll ask how long you've been here and charge you back to the day you say you arrived.

That's weird. Are you not allowed to live in California without having a driver's license? What if you don't drive? What if you only had (or only get) an ID card?
posted by hattifattener at 10:50 PM on June 6

Are you not allowed to live in California without having a driver's license? What if you don't drive?

I doubt you have to have a driver's license to live there (and probably every state treats things like ID cards as equivalent to drivers licenses for these purposes). But if you move there from out of state, you have to get a CA license within some time period (10 days?), and do all your registration stuff, or potentially face some DMV fines. For a while the DMV was trying to get people to report their neighbor's out of state license plates. Incidentally, I know someone who lived in CA for 9 years with an (unexpired) IL license and registration the whole time, without any problems.
posted by advil at 8:45 AM on June 7

Since you don't have a valid out-of-state license now, you'll be forced to do both the written exam and the behind-the-wheel test (use your girlfriend's car).

Yeah, I ran into this — and my problem was just that I couldn't find my valid out-of-state license. Didn't matter, they had no way to look it up. It is definitely worth renewing your old license to avoid this, if at all possible.
posted by smackfu at 1:18 PM on June 7

I doubt you have to have a driver's license to live there …. But if you move there from out of state, you have to get a CA license within some time period (10 days?), and do all your registration stuff, or potentially face some DMV fines.

So, er… I don't have to have a driver's license, but if I don't, the DMV will fine me? Or I'm only allowed to not have a driver's license if I was born in the state? This still makes no sense. (Keep in mind I'm assuming that the person isn't driving while not having a license.)
posted by hattifattener at 4:44 PM on June 7

So, er… I don't have to have a driver's license, but if I don't, the DMV will fine me?

I don't know whether you don't believe me or want me to defend the DMV (I'm not going to to that, CA DMV is no less crazy than any other such organization), but that's not what I said. Presumably the fines only apply if you are driving, I never said otherwise, and the OP is pretty clearly still driving his girlfriend's car (or that's what I was assuming at least).

In case it is that you don't believe me, see here. "If you become a California resident, you must get a California driver license within 10 days. Residency is established by voting in a California election, paying resident tuition, filing for a homeowner’s property tax exemption, or any other privilege or benefit not ordinarily extended to nonresidents."
posted by advil at 5:21 PM on June 7

No, California isn't forcing you to have a drivers license. It's forcing you to quit using another state's drivers license or official ID once you commit to being a California resident. Every state has a version of this rule.
posted by gum at 7:39 AM on June 8