HONOLULU (KHON2) — Thousands of Oahu drivers are still waiting on car registrations and some dealerships said it is hurting their bottom line.
The Honolulu Department of Customer Services said more than 6,700 registrations are still pending after a surge in demand in March and April of 2025. Wait times surged to five weeks at their peak.
“We have reduced the wait time by a week, and we should be able to return back to our goal of 10 business days within the next few weeks, if not sooner,” said DCS Director Kim Hashiro.
Hashiro said they have reassigned more workers to help clear the backlog and added that they are looking at other upgrades as well.
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“And we’re looking at technology to enhance our efficiency and streamline procedures, to better ensure effectiveness in the future or longer term efficiency,” Hashiro said.
Some dealerships said they haven’t noticed much improvement and it is costing them business.
“Sometimes like customers do back out of, out of deals because they’re like, ‘Oh, why is it taking so long?’ They think it’s like our fault, but it’s like, we tell them, ‘Oh we’re waiting for the DMV,’ so it’s like, nothing we can really do. You know, they go elsewhere,” said Auto Galaxy mechanic Jesse Chen. “We’re doing our best, only thing we can do is wait.”
The DCS said help is on the way and they hope to clear the backlog in just a few weeks, whether the resident is buying a new car or waiting on an updated emblem.
“We’ve been experiencing this unanticipated spike and have addressed it. So we are going to work very diligently to ensure that moving forward, that we’re able to more quickly resolve this if it were to reoccur,” Hashiro said.
The DCS said the most convenient way to get registration renewals figured out is through its various kiosks statewide. Click here for a map of those locations