Thanks for starting this thread. I guess it's as good a place as any to summarize my whole SB-100 experience.
Oh, wait, the important part: I have my number in hand!
707 was delivered to me in mid-October with two years' previous registration in Massachusetts, but no plates. I drove it for 15 days or so on the theory that "foreign" cars are allowed to drive for 20 days on their existing tags. I'm not sure that would have held up but it was my prepared excuse should I have been pulled over. It was never an issue.
On my first visit to the DMV (Carmichael office) I had no problems starting the registration and (despite being told TOPs were not usually given out for these vehicles) getting a 60-day TOP. On later inspection, there were several errors on the registration, but they were corrected by the CHP inspection and it was only a minor bobble.
The next week, based on favorable reports from local owners, I made an appointment at the Folsom DMV office. I went mostly to get the DMV inspection and to make contact with the crew there. It was a disaster. The vehicle inspector was so physically limited she may as well have been in a wheelchair - could not bend to see the VIN plate (or stretch to see the plate on the pickup truck next to me). She filled out the verification with so many errors and misspellings ("Corba") that it was worthless, and the supervisor I spoke with barely seemed to know what SB-100 was.
I got my brake and light checks at Kniesel's Automotive in Citrus Heights, no problems.
I got my CHP inspection at the Date Avenue office (Madison/80). The inspecting officer, J. Craven, was very polite and organized and emphasized that DMV might question some of his data, but he had carefully followed the procedures he had been using for three years and was certain he'd done it correctly.
I had ordered my custom plates (GUMBAAL -
) and they came in, so I had an appointment at the Carmichael DMV on 12/29. I went in - could not get plates with an incomplete registration. Almost as an afterthought, I asked about my SB-100 status. The clerk handed me over to the supervisor, Nancy, who went over my paperwork and found a major error - Officer Craven had entered 2006 as the model year and it HAS to be "0000"! To my absolute astonishment, she called Craven in and he came to the office for reeducation and to rewrite my verification. So I walked out, almost shaking because I was so glad I had decided to raise the issue - it would have been a disaster had I waited until today.
That killed any idea of going to the Folsom office for the certificate number. I went back and forth about how early to get to the Carmichael office and finally went at 6:30. I was alone there for 15 minutes, and then people started trickling in. By 8:00 there were 60-70 people in line. Nancy came out and round up the 5 SB-100 folks and took us to one clerk who took and organized our papers. (The clerk actually reached out to me at the back of the pack - never be TOO polite in these situations, grumble - and said, "Give me yours, I know they're ready to go." Then she fumbled with everyone else's pile of scraps.)
So at 8:15 I was waiting patiently. It was nearly 9:30 before Nancy came back with the packets - two of us had our numbers, the other three had problems ranging from no VIN (on a Porsche replica) to faulty titles. She told me she had gotten through to the desk in Sac right away, and then gotten cut off. 55 minutes of dialing later she was still not reconnected. I think she called a friend downtown and got the SB-100 desk to call her back.
And I have SPCNS 2010-242 in hand - now all I have to do is wait for the original certificate in the mail. That number is scary-high to me, given how prepared I was and how early my processing started. I don't think numbers will be available past this week, this year.
Soooo...
- Read the SB-100 requirements carefully.
- Get your registration started early, no later than September/October.
- Get the brake and light certificates.
- Get your CHP inspection and VIN issuance (if needed - they used my prior MA VIN tag). You will need to make an appointment and it will likely be 4-6 weeks out.
- Make an appointment and take all your paperwork to the DMV by early December to get it reviewed and checked by an SB-100 expert. Make sure they say you are ready to go, that they would/will issue you your sequence number based on the packet you are holding.
- Get to your chosen DMV office as early as you can on the first business day of the year. 2011 will likely be a busy year given that 2010 is an amnesty year - so 6:00 may not be too early. If the office is savvy, they will collect everyone seeking an SB-100 and handle them separately, so your place in line is not too important, just be in line... and towards the head of the line wouldn't hurt. I could have been an hour later but it was worth the time to stand there and admire the clouds.
- Be polite to everyone - DMV clerks, CHP inspector, etc. - and it will pay dividends. I was prepared and polite and made some humorous remarks about being patient, and the clerk and supervisor went out of their way to do things for me. This, while snarling, full-fanged, at others who tried to be bossy or complain. I walked out with my wonderful, wonderful sequence number... and realized I hadn't asked for a new TOP. So I went back in, waited politely for the same clerk, and asked to see Nancy - who took about three seconds to tell the clerk to give me a TOP, chop-chop!
One important note is that my car's prior registration was neither here nor there - they didn't want the MA title, registration, anything and it was treated as if I'd just built it. So the warnings about mileage (too few miles to qualify as used, etc.) were irrelevant.
Happy to answer any questions. Even happier to recommend Kniesel's for the inspections, the Date Avenue CHP office for the VIN check, and Nancy at the Carmichael DMV for all questions and assistance.
2010-242. What a LOVELY number.
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