Nothing is more expensive than being alive— but maybe except being alive with a car, one man found out.
TikTok creator Stephen Rigatoni (@stephenrigatoni) recently posted a video about his sticker shock over a vehicle registration renewal notice. The video has more than 250,000 views.
@stephenrigatoni i’m sorry… hello??
♬ original sound – stephen rigatoni
“Nothing on this planet pisses me off more than when I have to pay an absurd amount of money for stuff that shouldn’t even cost that much money, if any,” Rigatoni said in the video.
As he explained, he got his vehicle registration form in the mail and wondered why he had to pay to renew it every year.
“Why do I have to pay $336 to let you know my car exists and I’m still operating it?” he said.
Rigatoni broke down the line items, including a license fee, a smog abatement fee, a county/district fee and the $157 registration fee (“I’m not signing up for summer camp,” he quipped).
The comment section vehemently agreed with his displeasure.
“Why do I have to pay for parking at my JOB,” one person said.
“All of our money just goes to being alive and existing!!!! It’s tiring and depressing,” another commented.
“Can we add a discussion around how much it costs to change your residency from one state to another? Are we not all the same country,” one viewer chimed in.
“I got pulled over for not having registration updated and when I told the cop I couldn’t afford it at the moment he told me to ‘pick up an extra job,’” one comment read.
The Daily Dot reached out for comment from Stephen via email and did not receive an immediate response.
Vehicle registration renewal fees and frequency varies by state, and it’s tricky to find data online that compares the cost by state. Insurance agency Insurify, however, tabulated basic vehicle registration fees across the country. Some are calculated by car weight and age; some are as low as $12 in Hawaii or as high as $316 in Oregon.
Update June 16, 4:19pm CT: “I made that video for comedic and relatability purposes, and it just so happens people felt pretty strongly about it! But that was the goal so.. I’m patting myself on the back,” Stephen tells us.
