Last Sunday morning when I went out to walk the dog, I noticed a card on the windshield of my wife’s car. She had been shopping with the girls the day before at Freehold Raceway Mall. The card said the car’s registration had expired and a summons had been issued.
That had me scratching my head. My wife’s 2012 Honda Accord is leased. And typically when you lease a car, you automatically get a registration that runs for four years.
On Monday, I called the people at Honda. They informed me that the dealer had installed the plates from my prior three-year Accord lease, so I could take advantage of the fourth year of registration. That was nice. But when the registration ran out, the state was supposed to send Honda a renewal application. The people at Honda told me they never received it.
I believed them, and for a simple reason: If there is a mistake to be made, the New Jersey Motor Vehicle Commission will make it. I found that out when I went to renew the registration in person. The nice lady behind the counter informed me that I couldn’t renew because I had surrendered my plates.
That again had me scratching my head. If I had turned in my plates, then just why the heck would I be ready to write her a check for $59 to renew a registration that I couldn’t use?
I asked the lady to check the computer and remedy the error. That was impossible, she said. She handed me two sheets of paper and told me to come back with a pencil-tracing of my plates.