California Registration Fee Calculator...has something changed over the years?
How accurate is the DMV's vehicle registration fee calculator?
How accurate is the CA DMV Registration Fee Calculator?
Registration cost in California
Years ago, when you purchased a vehicle, the California registration fee schedule was set up so that when the vehicle was new, the license fee portion of the registration was roughly 2% of the value of the vehicle. Not the entire fee, but just the license fee portion was 2% of the value of the vehicle. So if you bought a vehicle for say $20,000, your license fee was about $400 (not including the other miscellaneous fees). When I key in a $20,000 new vehicle now, the license fee portion of the registration is now $131.00. Did they change the 2% rule? I notice there are also a whole bunch of other miscellaneous fees. The total registration fees (not including tax) looked like $317, which is still less than 2% of the purchase price. I was just wondering when that changed (my info is from the 1980's, so it's pretty old)....
I'm referring to California's DMV specifically for this question (https://www.dmv.ca.gov/wasapp/FeeCalculatorWeb/newVehicleForm.do)
Would it be reasonably accurate to use a non-OTD quote and just add the number I got from this calculator to get an OTD price?
The calculator includes sales tax based on your home zip code.
Edit: Some salesman have told me to just tack on 10% as a liberal OTD price; is this generally an okay estimate?