How Are Iowa Vehicle Registration Fees Calculated and Why So Expensive?

The American dream of rolling that new car off the dealer lot.  Or even a slightly used, but much nicer car than you currently own.  But in Iowa, they don't want you buying a new car.  In fact, Iowa wants you driving something old and more dangerous.  And this...is just dumb.

Around 16 million new cars are purchased every year in America.  Or about 4.68% of the total population.  Around 130,000 of those are bought in Iowa...or about 4.01%.  So slightly below the national average.  The only bit of a surprise is that this percentage isn't lower.  But then again, I don't like giving the government more of my money.

Newer Cars Are Safer Than Older Cars

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If you have an older car, like me, does your car have Automatic Emergency Braking?  How about Direct Driver Monitoring Systems?  How about something as simple as Blind Spot Monitoring?  That's been around for a while now, but it's now in my car.

And as much as I'd like to get an upgrade, I was just very happy opening my car registration and seeing it drop to $50.

Iowa Registration Fees Shouldn't Punish New Car Owners

If you have a new car, you will be paying 1% of the vehicle's weight plus 1% of the base list price.  This rate depreciates in stages over the first 11 years of the vehicle's life.

MEANWHILE...vehicles 12+ years old register at a flat rate of $50 per year.

How has the Iowa Automobile Dealers Association not fought against this?  Or maybe they don't have to cause people just buy new cars, and the extra $300 or so a year doesn't bother them.  But when you see that price change, like me, it suddenly changes your thinking of fixing the front end and holding onto it a bit longer.  Yeah, talk about safety, at this point, the front end might just fall off my car!

Oh, and another random tidbit I discovered about Iowa registration fees while looking up these stats: if you buy a battery electric vehicle or a plug-in hybrid, your registration will be, respectively, $130 and $65 higher.  That's right, you aren't paying gas tax, but they're still going to get you to "help fund road maintenance."

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I hope you own the perfect car to get you from point A to point B and feel good about yourself doing it.  If not, the state of Iowa would love for you to buy a new one to give them more money.