I just moved to cali a few months ago and was a little surprised as to the registration fees. first there is the weight issue. my 2000 f150 has a title weight of 3800 pounds and this has its own fee penalty but also makes my truck a commercial vehicle which also carries its own fees. are there any advantages or benefits that come with having a commercial vehicle, like cheaper insurance, or tax write offs? i currently only use my truck for personal use. any thoughts or ideas would be awesome to hear. thanks.

 

I bought my truck out of state for a personal vehicle, it cost me $1750 to register it, this year (year 2) it cost me $3xx, there was a $175 late penalty fee for being late 2 months and boosted that to a $510 fee. F$*(@ taxes.

 

The only advantages that I have found is that in California commercial vehicles are not required to have front license plates and you can have your front windows tinted. You can be issued tickets for these items but if you fight the ticket you will win if your vehicle is truly registered as a commercial vehicle, you can check this by looking at your license plate. In California all commercial vehicle license plate numbers start with a number followed by a letter and then a series of numbers unless you have personalized plates. I recently fought a ticket based on this for no front license plate and won. While in court I was told by the judge that i would have to fix the issue and pay a fine since according to him an f150 was not a commercial vehicle, but once I showed him my registration and proved that I was charged the commercial fee by the state, he agreed that I should then also get the benefits of having a commercial vehicle.

 

If the cop can see your license plate and tint and no front license plate are allowed for a commercial vehicle, why should he give you a ticket to fight in the first place.... does not sound like a state I would want to live in with those kinds of things going on.

 

Ya i know it is really lame but has to do with a technicality in the ca dmv classification of vehicles in the vehicle code book.

 

Hey JRJ can you tell me where I can find the california vehical code for tinted front windows. I thought it was illegal no mater what you drive. Is that front side windows or windshield?

 

RJR,
It would be great to have that info handy in my truck in case I do get pulled over. I found the California Vehicle Code online (http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/cgi-bin/ca...=veh&codebody=) but couldnt locate that info specifically. I did however, find a lot of good info about lighting, types of tint allowed on windshields, and such.