My Life as a Motorist, Part 2

More on my 'written' test

My 2015-2016 journey from passenger to motorist necessarily started from scratch. I first downloaded the California Driver Handbook and (excepting the Minors material) read it twice from start to finish. Subsequently, I took all five of the California DMV's Regular Driver (Class C License) sample knowledge tests (this was very helpful, I encourage other would-be motorists to take them as well) and watched most of its How to Videos and Driver Education Videos.

I needed an official, from-the-DMV California Driver License Application (DL 44) form; my motorist brother drove to the DMV office in Oceanside and got me one during a visit back home in July 2015. I filled out the DL 44 form and lined up my passport (and perhaps also a bank statement as proof of residence, I can't remember) and then secured a 29 December 2015 appointment at the DMV office at 1706 Descanso Avenue in San Marcos via the California DMV's Online Appointment System.
N.B. There are a handful of places on the Web at which you can download a blank DL 44 form (e.g., here); the DMV won't accept that form although you can legitimately use it to make a personal copy of what you would give to the DMV.

I took the 305 Bus to my appointment.
I forked over a $33 fee (it's $35 now),
took and passed a vision test,
took and passed a knowledge test (this was a computer touchscreen thing versus a paper process),
was photographed and thumbprinted,
and was finally handed some paperwork that
permitted me to drive if I was accompanied by a licensed driver and
gave me a one-year deadline to complete my application by passing a behind-the-wheel test.

So far, so good. But now I had some car issues to sort out...

Registration blues

Car-wise my father had a 1988 Honda Civic DX sedan ("the Honda") at the time I returned to California; at the time of my 29 December 2015 DMV appointment the Honda's registration, smog certification, and insurance were all 'in arrears'.

The problems began in early 2015. My father had to smog-check the Honda as part of its 2015 registration renewal, and he didn't - this is something I learned well after the fact via the California Bureau of Automotive Repair's Find Vehicle Smog Check History tool. As far as I know, he did pay on time the registration/license/county/district fees that were due on 28 January 2015, but of course, just paying the fees isn't enough to register a vehicle if a smog check is also due, and the Honda went from registered to unregistered after the renewal deadline. I should note that the Honda's check engine warning light came on semi-regularly when we were out riding around and it's possible that my father put off a smog check for fear that a failed test would necessitate a costly repair, but that's not really like him, I think it just slipped his mind.

My father last drove on 20 March 2015 - I still have my Albertsons receipt from our shopping trip that day - meaning that he was driving illegally for the last two months of his driving history.

I intimated in my "Nontechnical Intermission" post that my father suffers from dementia. In October 2015 it became apparent that he was no longer able to keep on top of household bills; I've handled them since then. Not quite two months later he received a "Notice of Intent to Suspend" letter from the California DMV that in part read:

The Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) currently does not have a record of insurance coverage for [the Honda]. Unless acceptable evidence of liability insurance is provided by [01/08/2016], the Department will suspend registration pursuant to California Vehicle Code Section 4000.38.

The letter should have indicated that the Honda wasn't really registered and needed a smog check, but it didn't. Anyway, the insurance policy for the Honda had in fact been canceled on 27 September 2015 due to non-payment of premium. My father is not exactly an organized record keeper and I was unable to find the original insurance bill although I did find a subsequent expiration notice from the insurer. It would have been fair enough if my father himself had canceled the policy as he had stopped driving, but that's not what happened.

I called up Bill Ehrhart, our car insurance agent, to
discuss the situation and
see about reinstating the policy;
Bill was pretty understanding about the whole thing
and worked out a payment amount for a new, slightly downsized policy.
I didn't have the money for the new bill and was somewhat hesitant to ask my father for it because
I and not he
would be doing the driving from then on;
my brother stepped up to the plate and got him to write out a check for what we owed,
which I walked over to Bill's office as soon as I could.

The reinstated insurance went into effect on 7 January 2016. However, this wasn't enough to stave off a "Notice of Suspension" letter from the DMV informing us that
Your registration has been suspended ... you may not operate the [Honda] until this matter is resolved and that
in addition to providing evidence of liability insurance
we needed to pay a $14 fee
in order to reinstate the registration;
adding insult to injury, the letter was dated and postmarked before the 8 January 2016 deadline.

Although I had the paper trail to prove that we had met the suspension deadline, I went ahead and paid the reinstatement fee anyway. About a week later we received a "Notice of Reinstatement" letter from the DMV that in part read:

IMPORTANT: YOUR VEHICLE REGISTRATION IS REINSTATED EFFECTIVE: 01/11/2016
...
If your vehicle registration renewal was incomplete only because the registration was suspended, the Department will process the transaction and your registration and sticker will be mailed to you.
If your vehicle registration renewal was incomplete for another reason, such as smog certification, you must complete the requirements and submit any documents using one of the following options:
• Mail the required documents to [the] DMV at P.O. Box 942869 Sacramento, CA. 94269-0001, or
• Visit your local DMV office; please make an appointment at www.dmv.ca.gov.

Well, that sure cleared things up...not. I was still unaware that the Honda needed a smog check and I assumed (ouch) that the DMV would next send us a standard registration renewal bill. I waited several weeks for that bill only to receive...nothing. In lieu of going to a DMV office (ouch again) I then sent a letter of inquiry about the Honda's registration status to the DMV's Vehicle Registration Operations address (see the General Vehicle Registration Address, for USPS section on this page), but got no reply.

Bro to the rescue, once again

During a visit back home in July 2016, my brother
liaised with the DMV to see where we stood
and paid the Honda's outstanding registration fees
via a local AAA office (he's a member)
and then he smog-checked the Honda at Blue Sky Cielo Azul Test Only -
it passed, the check engine warning light business (vide supra) notwithstanding -
bringing us and the Honda into the good graces of the DMV at long last.

I'll continue my motorist saga in a following post.