[vloskota]

I was surprised when we received our registration that said the passenger van was commercial. According to the Calif DMV, this is not commercial. My former Astro Van was exactly the same size and was not commercial.
The Mercedes dealer said it's only about $80 more on the registration so why worry! We just rec'd commercial license plates in the mail. Were all of you out there, issued commercial plates?

 

[Styles]

How does CA define commercial? Where we are anything over 7000lbs gross vehicle weight gets to pay commercial registration fees regardless of actual use. The Metris is just under 7k but I still had to get the dealer to fix the order sheet and only paid normal passenger fees. Plates showed up last week with no issues. Commercial fees would be nearly double per year for me.

 

[DKTVAV]

I was surprised when we received our registration that said the passenger van was commercial. According to the Calif DMV, this is not commercial. My former Astro Van was exactly the same size and was not commercial.
The Mercedes dealer said it's only about $80 more on the registration so why worry! We just rec'd commercial license plates in the mail. Were all of you out there, issued commercial plates?

Yes, same here in SoCal.

I don't know how they assign the plate number for commercial, I have Y1 at the end so did they start with 00000A0? If so I just wonder what'll happen when they reach 99999Z9. For cars it's now somewhere at 7Sxxx and trucks at 9Axxxxx.

 

[Greenmanedlion]

Depends on your state. My NJ van is registered personal. In NJ it's anything used for commercial purpose. Over 26k lbs requires a CDL if used for commercial but not if used as a "toy hauler". It's weird.

 

[fishbe]

Same in Canada, it will under commercial categories and have commercial license plate, the agent told us the rate is no different.

 

[vloskota]

Follow up: after lots of talking with Mercedes help line and DMV and the DMV rep at the dealer, we learned that the Metris passenger van is not automatically considered a commercial vehicle. There is added cost if it is registered as commercial. The dealer took back our pink slip, our plates, registration and tags, promising to change it all to non-commercial and expedite all of the paperwork, get us new license plates and refund the overcharge. The lady on the Mercedes hotline in NY said they aren't considered commercial in her state.

 

[whosagrubb]

About to pick ours up tomorrow and there's no indication that NJ Motor Vehicle, my insurance company, or anyone else (besides MB) considers the Metris a commercial vehicle. There's a big differentiation between how MB markets it, and how it can be used.

 

[Greenmanedlion]

It's not the vehicle, it's how you use it. If you use it commercially, you are in pretty deep crap if you register it as personal.

 

[DKTVAV]

Follow up: after lots of talking with Mercedes help line and DMV and the DMV rep at the dealer, we learned that the Metris passenger van is not automatically considered a commercial vehicle. There is added cost if it is registered as commercial. The dealer took back our pink slip, our plates, registration and tags, promising to change it all to non-commercial and expedite all of the paperwork, get us new license plates and refund the overcharge. The lady on the Mercedes hotline in NY said they aren't considered commercial in her state.

How much did you get back? Is it a commercial vehicle in CA? Bought the van for family weekend not for doing business and hate to pay more for commercial license plate.

 

[PWRving2013]

In Florida, registration is based on GVW for vehicle. The registration tags don't delineate car/truck/motorhome.

 

[vloskota]

They gave us $80 back for "excess weight charge." Not a big deal but I'm guessing that's a yearly extra that I don't need to pay.

 

[DKTVAV]

Just paid $427 for registration: anyone in CA got a proof saying Metris is not a commercial van and paid less?

 

[Volvosrock]

In PA, ours is registered as a station wagon, as any other window van would be.

 

[JimmieJoe]

In states that take federal funding for roads are force by the Feds to classify light duty trucks as commercial. In California a standard pickup truck is commercial even if it is only for personal use.

 

[11977]

Not to be a necro-poster, but my 2017 Cargo was registered Commercial.
Seems that Ca doesn't care about usage, just bases it upon the VIN.

 

[Greenmanedlion]

Living in the state of California is known to the state of California to cause early age hair tearing out.