[fintubi]

Thanks for the primer, Evan.

My experience at the Los Gatos DMV was pretty similar; a few differences:

- they went ahead and called Sacramento for a sequence number, and received one even though I haven't done brake & light or CHP yet.

- they issued me 3 moving permits - one for brake & light, one for CHP, and one for my own purposes. These have a 60-day expiration, so I'd better get going and finish the car. I may use the third moving permit to get the car aligned so I feel better driving it around to do the other stuff on my new Avons.

Some other observations:

- my DMV person didn't want to see the engine and transmission receipts at all - she said the CHP will be more interested in those when they check for stolen parts.

- my DMV person didn't check or keep any of the materials used to substantiate the total declared amount subject to use tax. I was extremely thorough and honest with these, but there was no real check of my total.

- I brought both originals and copies of everything. The "appointment triage" person when I arrived was pretty hardnosed and told me that I'd have to surrender all my original documents, and that photocopies were good for nothing. But as it turned out, I walked out with every scrap of paper I walked in with (except a big check). All records of my SPCNS process were directly entered into the computer. After talking to the first lady, I expected they were going to send a big dossier of original papers off to Sacramento and I'd never see it again.

B