Jeep Cherokee Forum - My gold-plated 95 XJ SE "Special edition"

So here in taxachusetts, we have an excise tax that is levied every year on every vehicle you have registered in the state. The amount of extortion - er.. excise tax is based on your vehicle value.

So when I got my first tax bill for my 95 XJ SE that I bought for $800, I was taken aback by how much it was - nearly 2x the tax on my 2010 Corolla.

Now I had a 2000 TJ - Sahara with many options, and the tax bill was a bit higher, but right about the same as the Corolla. I am certain this can't be right so I go to my town hall to ask how I can refute this obvious over-evaluation.
I start to ask and by the time I can say "So I got the bill for my 95 base model regular..." the girl jumps in with "And you want to know why it's higher than your like 6 year old vehicle"

Great, so I'm not the first person with this problem. So the girl explains to me that the way that MA extortion tax works is that the valuation is based on the original sale price of the vehicle and it goes down over time but at minimum is 10% of the original price. (then made a comment about people with classic cars paying virtually nothing since the original price of the car at the time it was purchased was a few hundred rather than 10's of thousands of dollars.)

Ok, even better, so by that math, the state of MA is taxing me as if my XJ's original sticker price was $31,000.

So I tell her that per their own math, the valuation is definitely wrong. She starts to repeat that it's the original msrp -- so I tell her, I understand AND since I've done VIN decoding and build sheet lookups, I know for a fact the original MSRP was $16,500.
Unfortunately, the MA DMV sets the extortion valuation, so there was nothing the town hall girl could do. The town hall was good enough to give me the DMV department number to call.

So I double check the VIN online and yep, MSRP16,500. Just to be totally sure, I call the local Jeep dealer to confirm before I go off on the DMV and they were very willing to help, but due to the age, couldn't find the exact sticker price, but were able to tell me that the MSRP of the 95 XJ sport (so the next trim level UP) was 17,200. Perfect, so I'm now absolutely confident that 10% of 16,500, or 1650 is the max valuation the state can extort from me under their own rules.

So I call the MA RMV excise department. I am put on hold - for over an hour.
When I finally get someone on the line I explain that my town hall people said the excise tax valuation for an old car is supposed to be 10% of the original sticker price, which she confirms, and therefore they have grossly overvalued my XJ.
The RMV lady takes my plate and Vin and can't find a value. So she checks the NADA, and can't find a value. She says she has to check the book.
All while she's doing this I'm telling her - I researched the price, it's 16500, or 16499 to be exact. I tell her I called the dealer to confirm.
She repatedly asks me if it's an SUV, if it's a station wagon. (I had to wonder how someone who works at the RMV can't seem to grasp that there are Grand Cherokees and Regular Cherokees - the regular ones are the cheap ones and are boxy SUVs.)

So for context I explain that it defies logic if I bought a top of the line trim on the higher priced model 5 years after for 23k, that the base model XJ can't possibly be over 7k higher.
She tries to tell me that you can't go by that. (Actually, yes, I can - I tried to buy the XJ manual I6 which would have been 20k.. they didn't have, nor could not get one, so I went with the Wrangler which they had, but was more expensive.)
I jokingly say, yeah, but this is the base model of the regular -as in NOT a grand - cherokee - and I was a sophomore in 95, but I'm pretty sure they didn't have a gold plating option.
She tells me that 16500 is in the range for that time but she can't find my VIN number for some reason.... maybe it was a special edition.

So in other words, you are trying to tell me that you DO think my SE XJ is the gold-plated special edition (but also the base trim, of course)!!!

Finally she accepts the truth, that 16500 is much more valid than 31000 and she'll update the records - but she is going to research it some more and call me if she finds something different.

Being that I know my XJ is no more special than the thousands of other SE Cherokees made in 95, I'm very confident that you'll not discover I'm trying to pass off my super special edition SE with gold plating that cost 2x the normal price, as a typical XJ.