How I Changed A Red Versa To STEEMIT-Plated

Since the car I introduced in yesterday's Finally Introducing Myself post became a bit of a wow, I wanted to share how I turned the Versa I bought into "Steemit Plated."

Tricky Start

When I bought the car, the dealer was good enough get the car registered in my name and to supply a new license plate free of charge. In Ontario, you have to jump through a few hoops after you buy a car to drive it. You not only have to get it registered in your name, you also need to buy enough insurance to comply with Ontario's mandatory-insurance regime.

If you're buying a car peer-to-peer, you have to see to both of these yourself. The Government of Ontario will not issue you a license plate for the car unless you have it registered in your name and you have proof of insurance. So, the dealer did provide me a real service by registering and getting a new plate through his own insurance.

So much of a service, I bobbled things a bit. :) Since this was my first car and I had never bought insurance, I figgered that the insurance company would take its time processing my order and getting the proof of insurance to me. (This proved to be right.) Until then, my plan was to drive the car home and let it cool its tires in the driveway until the insurance came through.

Turns out, I was doing it wrong. I was supposed to have my own insurance before I drove it off the dealer lot. The dealer informed me of this. I replied that I was only going to drive it home and not drive it again until I got the insurance card. He ended up cautioning me several times before I ended up driving it from lot to home.

I'm sure he was trying to be responsible - but part of my mind was smiling at the sound of the same guy who sold me the car telling me that it was dangerous for me to make that one drive without insurance. :)

The plate he supplied me with was standard issue:

Getting The STEEMIT Plates

In Ontario, this kind of plate is a "vanity plate": it cost about three hundred and fifty bucks. Money well spent.

Given that the wheels of government grind slowly, I had to wait about two weeks before the plates were delivered: a little bit longer than it took me to get my road-legal proof of insurance. Because I live in my parents' basement, and because my dad has the same first name as me, there was a bit of unintended comedy when Purolator delivered the plates.

Getting The Plate Changed: I Thought I was Clever...

Before I could put them on, I had to exchange the CDKV plates for the STEEMITs at a branch of "Service Ontario." Having had to go there before, I remembered very well how long the line-ups were.

So I thought I was being clever by selecting a nearby one that opened its doors at 9 AM on Saturday. I would set off at 8:40 AM, get there early, whip in and whip out. Who else would show up at such an early hour on the day after Friday night?

As my luck would have it, a lot of people. Before the doors opened, the lineup stretched the width of the parking lot! I didn't get a pic of that line, but this pic after the doors opened gives you some idea of the crowd:

A Pleasant Surprise

When the doors opened, I was in line at the other side of the parking lot. I had stiffened my jaw in anticipation of a loooong wait. Blessedly, that proved to not be the case. Even though the line was packed, it moved swiftly. That picture above, I took at ~9:15 AM. At that time, I was nearing the front of the line. I hardly had time to rue the fact that the line would have been a lot shorter had I showed up at ~9:30.

When I got to a clerk, I found out why. She was really quick:

So quick, I'm sure she didn't notice me taking the picture. :)

As it shows, she was in the middle of registering the STEEMIT plate to my Versa. Since I handed in the standard-issue plates, I got a sticker for my new plates free.

Not long afterwards, I was using a screwdriver to screw on the new plates. The drive home from Service Ontario was the first time everyone saw:

And the rest is bound to be history!