---
title: "What’s Your DMV Horror Story?"
date: "2024-02-05"
modified: "2024-02-05"
authors:
  - name: "Andrew P. Collins"
    job_title: "Executive Editor"
    link: "https://www.thedrive.com/authors/andrew-p-collins"
url: "https://www.thedrive.com/news/whats-your-dmv-horror-story"
categories:
  - "Culture"
  - "News"
  - "QOTD"
---

# What’s Your DMV Horror Story?

![](<https://www.thedrive.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/05/DMV-sloths.jpg>)
*\<em\>Zootopia\</em\>*

"Any trip to the DMV is a time-sucking nightmare" is such a deeply established cultural cliche that it was even [parodied in a darn Disney movie](<https://zootopia.fandom.com/wiki/DMV_sloths>). I'm going through a particularly awful saga with New York's DMV right now, so obnoxious that I will eventually write a blog about it when it's all over. Meanwhile, I'd like to know; what's your DMV horror story?

Look, no personal offense intended towards those of you who may be employed by our nation's various government agencies charged with regulating road travel. Sitting behind a sneeze shield stamping papers and passing license plates does not look particularly fun, and I'm 100% sure there are plenty of DMV *customer* horror stories, too.

I'll also concede that I'm an atypical car registration customer... moving vehicles between states, having ancient cars with non-standard VINs, buying stuff for cash with bills-of-sale written in crayon on bar napkins. Surely the DMV folks roll their eyes when I walk in the door.

But here's a horror story I'm embarrassed to say I've encountered twice: Trying to register a new-to-me car in the state of New York, where the insurance information has me as "Andrew P. Collins" but other documents simply have "Andrew Collins." As a result, I had to do the paperwork all over again and make a second trip.

The first time I was truly annoyed. The place I live in NY is quite rural, so making the journey to a DMV outpost (in the middle of a work day because they're not open outside typical office hours) is a whole thing. The second time I was even more upset because a year had gone by and I'd forgotten the middle-initial discrepancy from my last visit! Never had such an issue in another state, but alas.

I'm here to hear your stories this time. I'll have a better (worse) one for you soon. And if you missed the Disney DMV sloths from the 2016 animated gem *Zootopia*, enjoy:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ONFj7AYgbko

Let us hear your horror story in the comments.

## Author
As Executive Editor, Andrew touches everything on the site from daily news coverage to feature stories, sponsored content, product reviews, road testing vehicles, ecommerce, and more. He's held pretty much every role there is to have at an automotive news site and has been with The Drive's publisher Recurrent since 2020. Andrew's a lifetime gearhead and longtime writer with a particularly strong penchant for road trips, off-road adventures, and archaic vehicles. His passions outside of the automotive world include skiing, obsolete video games, and his dog Bramble who occationally helps review cars.

### Author social links  
[Instagram](<https://instagram.com/andrewatlarge>)  
[LinkedIn](<https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrewpetercollins/>)