Check your car registration: Drivers are paying wrong fees

By Keely Arthur

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    North Carolina (WRAL) — The DMV is making changes after 5 On Your Side found a problem affecting tens of thousands of car, truck and SUV registrations. In hundreds of cases, the problem caused people to pay too much in fees.

WRAL’s investigation into this started after a viewer told us the dealership put the wrong fuel code on his new truck’s title application.

“When I got the registration in my hand, I saw the letter ‘E’ for electric,” said Dan Webb, a recent NC State graduate.

His first new vehicle purchase since graduating was a red Ford Maverick.

“I got it because I’m Wolfpack ride or die,” he explained.

The truck is a hybrid, but when the dealership marked it electric Webb was charged electric vehicle fees that don’t apply to his truck.

“Marked for $180 for EV [fees] and some municipal [fees] for $70,” Webb said.

He told 5 On Your Side it took about six weeks for a DMV inspector to look the truck over and adjust the fuel code.

“I’ve got this one that shows gasoline, that’s the fixed one,” Webb said as he showed the multiple registration cards he’s been through. “There’s the original one, this one up here says ‘E’ for electric.”

The DMV told 5 On Your Side that a program called VINtelligence reads a car’s VIN and auto-populates details like the fuel code into the title application. When we asked them to look into Dan Webb’s case specifically, the DMV said the dealer overrode VINtelligence and forced the wrong fuel code onto the title application.

We asked the DMV how many times that’s happened. They searched through their data and found 26,440 incorrect fuel code assignments in 2023 alone. More than 500 of those errors caused people to pay too much or too little in fees.

The DMV is now trying to figure out how to square up with those car owners.

In most cases, 22,836, the DMV says online dealers entered the incorrect fuel code as gas when it should have been regular hybrid. That does not affect fees because there is no extra charge for non-plug-in hybrids.

A DMV spokesperson told 5 On Your Side they are reviewing previous years for the same problem and updating programming code to prevent dealers from being able to change this going forward.

If the fuel code on your title is wrong, it will be corrected when you renew your registration.

If you don’t want to wait until that happens, you can reach out to the DMV. They will confirm the appropriate fuel code and issue a refund if necessary.

Here are the fuel codes that North Carolina uses on title applications:

C – GASOLINE COMBINATIONS AND MIXTURES

D – DIESEL

E – ELECTRIC

F – FUEL CELL

G – GASOLINE

H – HYBRID-ELECTRIC ELECTRIC AND GASOLINE

I – PLUG-IN HYBRID

M – METHANOL

N – LIQUID/COMPRESSED NATURAL GAS (LNG/CNG)

O – OTHER

P – PROPANE

R – HYDROGEN FUEL CELL

U – UNKNOWN

Y – ELECTRIC AND DIESEL HYBRID

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