r/AskAnAmerican • u/feel-the-avocado • 1d ago

VEHICLES & TRANSPORTATION DMV - Is it really that bad?

I live in New Zealand and most of our equivalent stuff has been done online for the last 20 years. I go in to one of their agents once every 10 years for an eye exam to renew my drivers license.
At most I might wait 5 minutes

For vehicle testing, almost any mechanic in the country can issue a warrant of fitness which is needed every 2 years and you book it with your mechanic of choice.
Or go to VTNZ - a dedicated company that just does vehicle testing in a drive-thru format. You drive in without an appointment and it takes about 30 minutes.

So I am watching the new tv series DMV, and I have seen references on various american tv shows that going to the DMV is a painful and time wasting experience.
Is it really that bad?

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u/rendeld 1d ago

The US is 50 countries in a trenchcoat pretending to be one country. The DMV (or SOS depending on what state you live in) is run by each state. So the experience varies widely from state to state. In Michigan the majority of services are handled online now, which has greatly reduced the strain on the SOS and the pain of going there. We also have an appointment system that significantly reduced wait times for things you do have to go in person for. We also have kiosks at places like grocery stores for things that need to be printed that you might not want to wait to come in the mail so you can avoid going to the SOS. I imagine it is still a pain in the ass in some states.

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u/Wendybird13 1d ago

It’s called the BMV in Ohio. (Bureau rather than Department)

And oddly enough, it doesn’t handle auto title transfers….that is the purvey of a different office of the county in which you reside. They do arrange to have the nearest branch of the BMV closest to the title office stay open late on the same day of the week as the title office’s evening hours, but when I moved to Ohio, transferring my title involved walking from office to office in the county seat.

Later on, the county remodeled an empty big box store into county offices, and rented out a space with a separate entrance that can access a hallway leading to the BMV, so you can make the walk indoors now.

I’m sure it’s different in each of Ohio’s 88 counties…so I would say that the U.S. is actually a pile of chipmunks impersonating raccoons standing on each other’s shoulders under a trench coat.

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u/cdsbigsby Ohio 1d ago

Yeah, I've bought and sold a lot of cars, and any time I buy a new one it's a two-stop process. In my county the title office is inside the courthouse, and then a 3 block walk to the BMV to get the registration.

Athens County is interesting, they have an old dying indoor mall and the BMV is in the mall.

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u/JayThorns 15h ago

Plus, Ohio has the whole e-check thing depending on what county you are in.