For those of you who live in Connecticut, you are well aware of the annual Motor Vehicle property tax. This year the property tax on my Factory Five Roadster increased almost 20x to well over $1000!

My car is registered as a 2004 Composite Cobra, which I believe was the only available option at the time (no option to register it as a 1965). Since that timeframe, the tax has been relatively low on the car. Quite a shock this year.

I initially had my wife call the assessor’s office (she’s familiar with the car and taxes). He told her that it’s difficult to assess these cars, therefore Autotrader was used to assess it. He said these cars range in market value, many well above $60 - 80K, therefore the assessment on ours was ‘reasonable’. He gave no indication on why the assessment changed in 2019. He stated we could contest it in September at a session specific to challenging assessments.

Over the past few days, I’ve been researching CT DMV’s website and any information available. In addition, I looked on autotrader.com, which is where he stated he pulled the values. To my surprise, there are no Cobras on autotrader. Interesting.

Today I followed up with a call to the assessor’s office. He started out by saying that he already explained the assessment when I (my wife) called, and again repeated we could come in September to provide documentation of a different value.

I asked him where he arrived at the assessment value, and this time he stated Google. I questioned him on the use of Google as an assessment tool, and he said it’s in his right to use it and stands by it. I stated he told my wife he used autotrader, and he didn’t have a good response.

When I mentioned there are many different kits and build standards, he didn’t really acknowledge, except to suggest I should have put my brand (Factory Five) on the title in 2004. Such great guidance.

I asked him if he really thought it was reasonable to increase the assessment so much, and he stated yes. I asked if this was your car, would you think so? He said he’d never buy a car like this (note: I built mine ). He said if it was him, he’d just be happy to enjoy the prior years lower assessments.

The conversation didn’t improve from there, and he even said "do you think I’m going to change my mind after this 9 minute phone call?”. Nice, now the assessor can apparently assess cars based on emotion and Google.

I asked if there was a path for me to update the year of the car from 2004 to 1965, since that’s what is on the certificate of origin and the body style, and also that the DMV regs now allow us to title our cars in the year of the body style (1965). https://www.ct.gov/dmv/cwp/view.asp?a=804&q=244898. He implied it’s not legal, since my VIN is based on 2004, and the kit (car) is not from 1965.

Here’s what it says on CTDMV:
At the time of inspection a VIN will be assigned by the Inspector. The year assigned to the vehicle will be the year in which the vehicle was built or the year of a previously manufactured vehicle that it most closely resembles. On your registration and title documents, the make will be specified as "Composite."

I thought that this form was a potential option for updating the vehicle year, but he indicated no, based on the existing 2004-based VIN:
TAXPAYER'S APPLICATION FOR CHANGE OF MOTOR VEHICLE ASSESSMENT: https://www.ct.gov/dmv/LIB/dmv/20/29/L-4.pdf

I told him that actions like these are damaging the hobby and could potentially drive me to sell the car. I couldn’t help but also comment that these type of taxation actions are pushing people and companies (GE, UTC, etc) out of Connecticut.

“Any more questions?", and he quickly got off the phone. I called back, got his name and ‘deputy' position, and he quickly got off again.

So, I’m boxed in. I’m stuck paying half of the assessed amount before Aug 1, then attempt to contest it in September. When I asked if I will receive interest on money they are holding for the period between payment and reimbursement (assuming I can get it lowered), he didn’t know how to answer it. Kinda frightening, considering he’s in a financial-related position.

I’ve also reached out to https://www.ctccc.net, since their website has some good information on CT vehicle tax. Hoping they have some guidance.

Anyone else experience a change this year?