California Carpool Lane Stickers

[rufaro]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Lil Mo @ Jul 14 2006, 05:51 PM) [snapback]286503[/snapback]</div>

Wow - that is some rant. I guess the whole experience was pretty frustrating...
<snip>
P&G, Baby...
[/b]

Umm, yeah--but, living in CA, and listening to how bad the money woes are for the state, and looking at these hoops we jumped through, AND multiplying it by--how many license plate transfers?--It is NOT an insignificant amount of $ the STATE could save by streamlining just the procedure for the transfer of plates, and keeping the rest of the system just as inefficient as it is ...

I mean, everywhere else I have EVER lived and registered a vehicle (one other country and about 4 other states), when you buy a car from a dealer, you register the car and you get handed the plates...THEN the DMV or equivalent only has to say--fine, here is plate issued to this VIN and they are done--and you are done as well. When you sell a car, the plates stay with YOU, not the car, thus avoiding, as happened to DH when he sold '91 Honda Civic sedan and HE started HIS part of the paperwork, but buyer did not--WE got the notice for several parking tickets the SOB was racking up in LA. It was not toodifficult to correct the DMV's missaprehension--but we should not have had to do it at all!

It is just so WASTEFUL and STUPID the way they do it here...

[sunnysandiegan]

We had the 3M paint protection film applied shortly after buying the Prius. I asked for extra pieces for the stickers and they gave me what appeared to be two large pieces I could trim as needed. Well, fast-forward a bit... I applied the stickers recently and the 3M pieces were only big enough for the large stickers, so I applied the 3M film onto the vehicle in those spots and then put the sticker on top. (In hindsight, I should have trimmed the 3M film to the exact same shape of the stickers because it looks even more hideous now.) The front bumper little sticker is already on the 3M film due to the location, but the rear little sticker is the only one without any 3M film underneath. At least it is one of the small ones.

I am not thrilled to have these stickers on the car at all, as they do not benefit me personally one tiny bit. However, DH drives the car, too, and they benefit him for his commute home (not both ways, though). They seem to look particularly awful on our seaside Prius. We have a black Prius on the street and I think the yellow looks les offensive on the black. I see lots of white Prii, but have not noticed any stickers. Perhaps they look the least offensive on the white??? Or perhaps no one driving a white Prius needs the stickers???

I don't have all the dates, but our general timeline was:

2/9/06 - purchased Prius
2/10/06 - mailed off DMV Clean Air form with personal check and nothing written in plate number box (complete VIN was on the form)
3/1/06 - check was cashed

I failed to write down the date the stickers arrived, but I remember it was sometime when our child had a childhood illness and was "quarantined" between 3/11 and 3/19.

[Lil Mo]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Rufaro @ Jul 14 2006, 06:40 PM) [snapback]286524[/snapback]</div>

Umm, yeah--but, living in CA, and listening to how bad the money woes are for the state, and looking at these hoops we jumped through, AND multiplying it by--how many license plate transfers?--It is NOT an insignificant amount of $ the STATE could save by streamlining just the procedure for the transfer of plates, and keeping the rest of the system just as inefficient as it is ...

I mean, everywhere else I have EVER lived and registered a vehicle (one other country and about 4 other states), when you buy a car from a dealer, you register the car and you get handed the plates...THEN the DMV or equivalent only has to say--fine, here is plate issued to this VIN and they are done--and you are done as well. When you sell a car, the plates stay with YOU, not the car, thus avoiding, as happened to DH when he sold '91 Honda Civic sedan and HE started HIS part of the paperwork, but buyer did not--WE got the notice for several parking tickets the SOB was racking up in LA. It was not toodifficult to correct the DMV's missaprehension--but we should not have had to do it at all!

It is just so WASTEFUL and STUPID the way they do it here...
[/b]

I agree, but here in California, our approach to dealing with these issues is to start cutting school budgets... Go figure.

[Swingshiftworker]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Swingshiftworker @ Jun 27 2006, 11:38 PM) [snapback]277889[/snapback]</div>

Bought my 2006 Prius on 6/12, paid for the car in full on 6/15 and recieved my plates on 6/22.

Already had Fastrak but, since I live in San Francisco, I also had to obtain proof of the Prius' registration w/Fastrak today 6/27. They issued me a new transponder that they said could only be used w/the Prius and charged me an extra $40 (which was applied to my account) to get it.

Am sending in the HOV sticker application to the DMV tomorrow and, based on the responses here and elsewhere, expect to get the stickers w/in a couple of weeks.

I'll let you know if that happens or not.
[/b]

UPDATE:

Just got my CA carpool lane stickers. Envelope was dated 7/12/06. So, total processing time from submitting the application on 6/28/06 until DMV sent them out was only 15 days. Total time from submission to receipt was 20 days.

[mandargb]

27th June: Got My car in the night.
30th June: Got the plates from dealer. (She did a walk in registration in DMV on that day)
3rd July: Got my Fast-Track Transponder (you need that for bay area counties only). Walked into their SF office and was done in 10 minutes.
3rd July: Mailed the form to DMV.
17th July: DMV issued the sticker. (Date on the envelope)
20th July: Got stickers home (# 673XX)
that is 3 weeks and 2 day (with one public holiday in there)
Good experience so far.

[justin96039]

DMV received my application for HOV stickers on 07/10/2006. They were mailed to me on 7/19/2006. Eight (8) business days total turn around time. Thats awesome!!!! I mailed them on 7/7/2006 priority mail and gave a money order for the 8 dollar fee. Not sure if that helped, but issue date of 7/19/2006 is quick, I wish USPS was the same. I received them today in S. California. Bought car 06/30/2006 evening, license plates were received on the 7th as well. Very excited!!!!! JW



Number 672xx

[Tatania]

I called Sacramento today and spoke with them about the stickers. I was informed that they still had quite a few however, they were getting orders in daily.

The gal I spoke with said that so long as I got my application in by Aug 5th I should be ok. But that they anticipated the cut off date being around Aug 15th or earlier. She said that in the last 3 months they have seen an explosion of requests.

I mailed my form off today so will post my turn around time. I just hope I don't get the check back saying "Sorry we're all out".