Man am I glad I don't live in TX I don"t even understand what a bond is for. MY insurance is cheap Through my regular agent. I just Had to bring her several pictures of the truck and I asked to insure it for 18K It was a done deal.At the time I bought it, it was worth considerably less. I had to pay sales tax on the purchase price. Plates on historical vehicles(25+old) cost
$35.00 and they have no expiration date..
The bond title process is separate from full-coverage/liability auto insurance and registration... Once I have a clear title, an "antique car" registration for a licence plate, and antique car insurance, will be pretty low cost. (As low as any insurance for a 16 year old male would be, that is...)
When you purchased your truck, did you go through your insurance agent in order to get Michigan license plates and registration in your name? And if so, what kind of paperwork did you need to provide to your agent? Bill of sale only? Is Michigan a no-title state? If you bought a truck with no-title and it was that easy, then it does make Texas sound complicated.
What the bond is for, in Texas and many other states, is ultimately to insulate the state from the liability of an ownership dispute while providing a process to establish a new original chain of ownership for cases where the previous chain of ownership was lost or broken. In Texas, only the current legal owner can request a duplicate/replacement (complicated at best in cases for a deceased legal owner...) for a lost title. When a vehicle has be parked in a garage/barn/field for 20+ years, loosing the title, not to mention the owner, is easy to do.
The bonded title provides a clear legal resolution if an ownership dispute does come up, and sets a "statute of limitations" of sorts on how long a previous owner has to notice they have "lost" a vehicle and want it back... The bond in question is a surety bond... Essentially a cash value insurance policy. The state approves eligibility for a bonded title, and declares the bond amount required, based on 1.5 time the amount of a licensed appraisal if provided, or without an appraisal, and in my case, NADA is the source they use, and regardless of condition, they use the "average retail" value.
To get the actual title, I purchase a suretey bond, at about $15 per $1000 of value, and provide proof of the bond with the title application. The cost of the title application license plate registration itself is not expensive, but the price of the surety bond to go with the title application is what can run into several hundred dollars, if I have to insure the thing for $18000.
