Virginia has a parallel system with an added little twist: Once you sell a motor vehicle, you're expected to get on line (I assume there's an alternative for the computer deficient) and register the selling date of the vehicle. This not only handles the DMV, but is also passed to the counties since VA has a personal property tax (aka, the despised 'car tax').

It's incredibly encompassing. About five years ago I got taxed for two vintage motorcycles that I hadn't owned in three years, from a county I'd moved out of five years previously. Turns out I just hadn't gotten onto the DMV site to remove them from my listing, and of course it's my fault, so the tax was still due. When I insisted on fighting it, they just quietly took it from my state income tax refund check - plus administrative costs, of course. Which were ten times the tax bill, of course.

It can get nastier. A number of years ago when my wife took over ownership of her father's 1930 Indian motorcycle, I was a week slow in getting in touch with the insurance company that handles my vintage bikes. Suddenly we're getting threatening notices from the DMV. Wrote back that we had insurance. They pointed out that it was listed a week after the registration was done, and that they were going to take her license, put her in a high risk insurance pool and lots of other nasty sanctions - all because of one week, for a bike that hadn't left the property! Fortunately the insurance provider was happy enough to backdate the policy and write a nice note telling the DMV to shut up.

Virginia can be fun. Legally you cannot register a motor vehicle unless you have insurance on it first. However, insurance companies expect to see a title or at least an owner's card before they cover the vehicle. And neither side gives in, at least not officially. Of course someone does (the insurance provider) or everybody would be getting arrested.