A Rather Pleasant Buggering

My loyal readers no doubt recall, when I purchased my 1996 Grand Cherokee last spring, I complained about the royal reaming Lord Fairfax was going to honor me with.

As I said at the time:

in all seriousness, I estimate the total cost to register my used 1996 Jeep Grand Cherokee Laredo to be $326.76.

Titling: $10
Sales tax (3%): $180
Registration: $29.50
Car Tax: $4.57 per $100 of assessed value on a $6000 vehicle (watch them try to assess me at a higher rate than I paid for it) is $274.20 minus my "tax relief (since we now know Warner lied and the state really is running at a surplus, shouldn't this dumb tax have been fully eliminated)" of 70% means I am out of pocket $82.26
Property tax sticker (they charge you to prove that you've registered your car and paid your tax): $25

This estimate, of course, was a bit off.

Turns out, while I was buggered by the state, my appointment with Lord Fairfax won't be until later this year. Thank god.

It was bad enough being hit for $221.50 plus 2 hours of my time. I showed up at 7:30 and the line was already wrapped around the building. I finally got my number at 8:20 and wasn't called till 9:35. Once called, it took them about 20 minutes to process everything.

The breakdown today was

$31.50 for registration fee
$10 for title fees
$180 sales & use tax

The time has finally come to pay Lord Fairfax . . . . and rather than $82.26 I estimated, my burden was a paltry $30.85 plus a Late Filing Penalty (not payment, but filing. Apparently, I spaced on sending in all the paperwork to Lord Fairfax. Silly me, I should have realized that when DMV told me everything was set and I didn't need to file anything else that, of course, I would still need to file other documents). Anyway, the breakdown on the tax came out as follows

Assessed Value: $4500 (I paid $6,000 and with the low mileage its worth more - as I proved to the insurance company this summer - but $4500 is right in line with what USAA valued it before I complained to them. I have no problems with this).
Months Billed: 6 (I purchased it in June)
Tax Amount: $102.83
Car Tax Relief: -$71.98
Tax To Be Paid: $30.85
Late Filing Penalty: $10.29
Total Due: $41.14

Not too shabby. Sure, I still had to pay taxes, but it wasn't really that obscene (not like when I got my "luxury sedan" in 1999). Almost as if Lord Fairfax sort of said thank you the next morning. In any case, you know see why I will never buy a new car as long as I live in Virginia.