The long wait continues for the Carpool Lane stickers

As wonderful as the ActiveE has been, a boondoggle at the dealer and DMV has put a halt on my plans of cruising in the carpool lane. For whatever reason, it took almost 8 weeks for the DMV to show anything in their system in regard to our ActiveE that we picked up on 1/16/12. Then, once it showed, the VIN # was associated with a 1981 gas powered BMW, lol. I finally was able to speak to someone today who explained how that most likely happened. In my VIN#, 8 characters back from the end is a letter, "B". The "B" means "1" in DMV lingo....an "A" would be "0", "C" would be "2", etc. This number represents the year. As the computer systems are a little behind the times, when the VIN# is typed in, all the info will autofill and if the person doing the entering doesn't catch it, the year 1981 will autofill in as the year. This is what happened to me. Whether this happened at the dealer or DMV headquarters, who knows. Getting this fixed takes time, like up to 30+ more days time. Once this is resolved, hopefully the "E" (for Electric) wil be entered into the box for engine type. If not, that will require even more time to fix.

The above brings me to a suggestion for BMW before the i3 rollout begins. Insist that each dealer who carries the "i" brand have a dedicated person or persons thoroughly trained in handling DMV paperwork related to an EV. All DMV related paperwork from EV sales/leases will be handled by that person or persons and no one else. Ideally, this person would be able to process this paperwork either electronically or in some other quick manner so that the new owner can apply and receive his/her carpool stickers ASAP. This last step in the vehicle sale/lease process is a crucial step and one that I never even thought about until I was boondoggled.