Registering a locost in Vermont is quite easy. I had been in touch with the DMV in Montpelier (you have to go there to register the car) by email and they told me what forms to bring. This information turned out to be only partially correct. I told them I had a completely home built, frame and all 1964 Lotus 7 replica with a Mustang engine and trans. They told me that you needed:
1) Registration Tax and Title Application,
2) Homemade MCO,
3) the title from the donor car in my case a 87 LX Mustang,
4) Vermont VIN Assignment Application,
5) bills of sale etc, i.e. all the receipts for the things needed for the build
6) Section 6 of the registration application the value of the vehicle, i.e. the cost of the build.
It turned out that there was some debate about what the Locost should be registered as. At one point I had three state employees debating as to what it was. We established that it was not a Street Rod, which was an early leader, quite early on in the process. Eventually my photo clinched it (even though I was told I did not need one, this was the part which was incorrect). I took along a photo of a S2 Lotus 7 from 1964, with my car staged to look like the car in the photo. This convinced the DMV team to call it a:
Make : Lotus, Model:Replica, Year:1964.
This is good as all the engine controls/emissions can be per 1964 not 2009! The other clincher was that part of the car (nose and fenders) were bought from Kinetic/Coveland and I made the case that those were part of a kit built to mimic a 1964 S2. ‘Why sure, they are parts from a kit, of course they are, cough, cough, mumble, mumble’. At that point I think I had won them over and the deal was done!
Tips:
-Smile a lot.
-Say Yes Sir and no Ma’am when talking with ‘your’ DMV person.
-Take a staged photo of your pride and joy to match an actual Lotus photo, and bring both with you. Color, glossy..
- Make a spread sheet of all your receipts, (and print it out to take with you), and take the originals in a big, oily stack which looks unappealing to the state employee, and hope they wont want to photo copy them all. Break out the tax paid, even tax paid in other states counts.
-Indicate that part of the car was from a kit, even a small part like the nose, the DMV procedure seems to be better defined if the build were from a kit (Coveland type), totally homebuilts dont seem to fit the standard template for the DMV system, hence the early confusion.
All in all, it cost me $60 for the registration. No title fee as it is too old, 1964
, no additional tax and about 2 hours, plus the drive time to the Golden Dome. Way to go Vermont DMV!
Seriously though, the people were great. Helpful, professional and very willing to work with the customer. I wish all customer service was this smooth.
