Archive for March, 2005
Adventures at the New Jersey MVC
As a new resident of New Jersey, I had to face the ultimate DMV triple threat: get a new driver’s license, get my car’s title changed to New Jersey, and get new license plates. Every last person I talked to said that the New Jersey MVC (Motor Vehicle Commission) was a nightmare.
To get ready for my adventure I brought two books, in case I finished the first book, some water, some snacks, and set out at 7:30 am on a Saturday morning. The MVC opens at 8 am in New Jersey on Saturdays, but closes at noon. I guess they just like to make themselves as unavailable as possible.
When I got to the Edison MVC I was 20th in line, waiting for the facility to open. When I had to do my title and registration in New York I had downloaded and filled out all my forms before arriving to save time. The New Jersey MVC website only lets you download forms that you’ll never use, things like applications for a blue flashing light to place in your car. So I was worried about the extra time I’d have to spend filling out forms. Turns out that wasn’t to be a problem.
At this MVC they have a central desk they send you to first. A very helpful woman got all the forms I needed together, took my passport, social security card, utility bill and other id’s and made me a packet. She then directed me around to the different windows to get photographed, pay different fees, fill out my title information and get my plates. By the end of the process it was 8:52 am! 52 minutes to get a driver’s license, new title & new plates for my car. Crazy! In New York it took me 45 minutes just to surrender my NY State license plates.
The next hurdle was to get the car inspected. In New Jersey, you can either do it at a private facility or a state inspection facility. At the state centers it’s completely free, so I opted for that. This is where the sucky part began. When I drove into the inspection center, there was a long line of cars following a long curving road. You take a ticket to raise a gate and join the line, and a sign displays the current wait time, which was 57 minutes. Then you sit in your car and inch forward towards the inspection garage.
It took me an hour and twenty minutes just to reach the inspection facility. Along the way a car behind me started burning oil, with grey smoke coming out from under the hood. She drove off and left, hopefully to a garage. Another car died just when it reached the front of the line and had to be pushed off to the side of the road by the inspectors.
My Civic had no problems with the inspection, so 20 minutes after it went into the garage I was driving out with my new inspection sticker in the window. Safe for another year from the MVC.
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