Howdy folks, I'm going to be moving to Durham from Austin TX late this summer or early fall, my girl got accepted to Duke to get her PhD in microchemistry!

So anyways, I just wanted to see how the laws in NC compare to TX, I'll bet it's mostly the same but hopefully some of ya'll can help me out:

1. In TX you can take a Defensive Driving course to get most moving violations dismissed and removed from your driving record (things like speeding up to 24MPH over the limit, red light running, etc... as long as they're not considered 'reckless' driving).

There is also a limit that you can only do the DD course once a year, if you get two tickets in a year you'll have to go to court and deal with the second one. I've been super-careful to NEVER get two or more in one year, but I know a couple people that have, and the state sent them letters that basically said they need to pay more fines in addition to the tickets themselves because they racked up some 'points' or something.

2. In TX you must maintain a minimum 25K/50K auto liability insurance policy, and carry proof of this insurance in the car.

3. Seat belts are required for driver and front-seat passengers, as well as any back-seat passenger under like 13 I think (adults in the back seat don't have to buckle up). Also a helmet must be worn on a motorcycle unless you can prove that you took a motorcycle safety course or have a $10K personaly injury insurance policy.

4. You have to update the registration ($75) and get a vehicle safety inspection ($25) once a year.

Just wondering if all of these are the same or similar in NC, thanks for taking the time to read this and offer your input everyone.

Joe

 

The biggest thing you need to be aware of is insurance points vs. license points. NC has a policy where they give you pretty good insurance rates based on your lriving record. Basically, they use cheap insurance rates as incentive for driving "safe".

The thing is, you get license points to play with, but if you pick up one insurance point, you get nailed with a 25% rate increase for 3 years, and that's a nice chunk of cash. They base your insurance rate on your driving record for the previous 3 years. My record was clean when I registered in NC, so I'm not sure how yours will transfer over. You might call a company like progressive and geico and get two quotes for comparison.

Assuming you have a clean record, NC also gives you a freebie. If you get a ticket for 9 over or less, then your rates will not go up. However, if you get another ticket within 3 years, regardless of speed of violation, you're gonna get nailed with at least an insurance point. I'm not sure if the second violation will go back and penalize you for the first as well at that point, but I believe it does.

The bottom line is, you really don't want to be getting speeding tickets in NC. If you want to speed, go out and pick up a good detector like a V1 and save yourself some headaches, or, drive the limit.

I've also noticed that most state cops will give you around 10 over, anything over that and you're flirting with trouble. If I'm speeding, I usually keep it around 9 over.

I know this is a lot of info, but I had 2 tickets in a year before I got my g, and I did a lot of research. There's a lot of info online as well, so you should do some more research. Most of the time, NC wants you to appear in court for your ticket. You aren't even allowed to speak, you just show up, walk down front, and the DA reduces it to 9 over. Or you can get a traffic lawyer to go to court for you, and they will usually try to get your ticket reduced to improper equipment or something like that. But for the first ticket, it's really 50/50 whether they pull that off for you. They either will, or they'll get the same verdict for you as you would if you showed up yourself, but you'll still owe them $200 on top of your ticket. So it's really up to you whether you want to take a chance on that.

NC also has what's called a PJC. Which is prayer for judgement continuance. This is some type of free pass you can use for certain moving violations. Speeding is one of the minor one's that you want to use it for, but I had to burn mine for my second speeding ticket. I got my first ticket, went to court myself and got it reduced. No big deal. But I got a second ticket a year later, and hired a traffic lawyer. They got my ticket off by using my pjc. You get one every 3 years. I had to take a 4 hour traffic class, pay 200 for the lawyer, around 100 for the class, and the court costs as well. Not cheap, but cheaper than a 25% increase in insurance for 3 years. So I'm basically in a situation where I'm screwed if I get another ticket within 3 years of my last speeding ticket.

Once 3 years have passed from my last ticket, my record resets to clean. This is basically everything that I know about speeding tickets in NC.

One last thing, make sure you include a policy for protection against uninsured drivers. I'm not sure how texas is, but we have a ton of illegals on the road, and this portion of a policy is highly recommended.

 

Sweet, thanks for the detailed reply, of course anyone can find info about the laws on the intarwebs... I was looking for personal accounts from people who have been put thru the hassles of dealing with "the man" personally, and your story certainly qualifies.

Oh and yeah uninsured/underinsured coverage is a must here too, especially since it only costs about $40 for 6 months.

Well I did some research on the other questions I had, for anyone interested:

2. NC requires 30K/60K liability

3. NC requires ALL passengers to buckle up, and ALL motorcycle riders to wear a helmet

4. NC also requires yearly registration and inspection... registration seems about the same price, inspection looks like it'll be about triple what it costs here in TX, plus I'll have to pay to rip out the rear window 20% tint and get 35%. Awesome.

Edit: ARGH!!!! Motor Vehicle Property Tax???!!!! The NC DOT website isn't very descriptive on this, but it appears to be a yearly hassle as they say they'll block your registration if you don't pay... how much have you usually had to pay for your G?

 

I paid $280 on my car last year. They valued it at $25k. Unreal. If my car was worth 25k, I'd sell it right now. I tried to fight it on principal, but they wanted me to jump through 20 hoops to do it. I might have got $30 back. I ended up saying eff it.

As far as tint, I'm torn on what to do. I've heard you can find someone to inspect it and slip 'em a $20 and they'll pass it. But if you get pulled over, you might get hassled. I just posted a thread on tint. We'll see what we can find out, keep an eye on that one.

 

Cool, that's not so terrible at just a little over 1%, thanks man. I requested some recommendations on the tint inspection, because 35% in the back windows is pretty lame - that's going to let a lot of light thru and fade the hell out of the rear interior.

 

in the back windows or back side windows? i thought tint on the very back window isnt allowed.. can someone confirm this?

 

from www.ncdot.org/dmv:


There's no mention of front side, back side , or rear. I take this to mean ALL windows.

NC is retarded - in TX you can do 0% on rear and back side windows if you want, and 35% on front side windows.

 

No offense man, but I think Texas pretty much let's you do whatever the Heck you want to do to your cars and trucks, at least in comparison to the majority of other states.

 

Hehe, no not really. In Texas you still have to have catalytic converters, red reflectors in the back & amber in front, license plate on front and back, exhaust can't be louder than like 80 db, all the usual stuff you'd expect from a legislative body meant to dream up a set of apparently whimsical laws to keep the "driving public safe".

Keep in mind, our DMV is called DPS - Department of Public Safety - of course safety is the LAST thing on their minds... it's all about the revenue man, CHA-CHING!. So don't get me wrong, I mostly hate the state and local goverment here in Austin too, it's just that this tint stuff really is retarded. That seems to be the only real difference.

 

Inspections in NC cost no more than $30... Also, the inspection process in NC i very un-organized for a state program, because it seems like every garage is capable of performing an inspection. I moved here from OHIO, where there were state run places that Only did inspections, and they were ****'s, with emission devices hooked up to your exhaust and everything... But here, it is pretty relaxed IMO...

I think you will like it here, the people are nice for the most part. Also, be careful where you live in Durham , there are some SEEEDY areas, do your research!