Smacks you down. I was thrilled to get in to the San Mateo offices of
California DMV to complete registration on my Vanagon. Had everything
completed including smog, verification, etc. Three minute wait and
BOOM I'm at window!

The clerk looks over my paperwork. Perfect, she was the same one who
helped me on my last visit. Then it happened. There was one letter too
many on my vehicle verification form. The police officer who completed
my verification, wrote the vehicle type as 'VAN'. DMV said it must say
'VA' to mean 'various'. Whatever! They said because the Vanagon is
such a big box, they see it more as more of a commercial vehicle
instead of a 'sports van'.

It seems discriminatory that a Caravan, Aerostar, Sienna, blah, blah,
blah is a 'sports van' and can be called a van. The Vanagon has to be
called 'various' to qualify as a passenger van?! Ridiculous.

OK, rant off. They gave me a new form. Said bring the van here or have
a peace officer copy everything from the first form but put 'VA'
instead of 'VAN'.

Don't say I didn't warn you.

BenT