To renew your car with the LTO you'll need several things.
1) A copy of your car insurance
2) A copy of your old car registration
3) A copy of your car emission test.
Car Renewal in the Philippines and Costs
For car insurance, our 2004 vehicle costs us 6,000 PHP. Your car insurance cost will vary depending on your car's model and coverage.
For the car emission test. It cost me 600 PHP. Rappler says the cost for Jeeps is 300 PHP while the price is 500 PHP for motorcycles.
Before going to get a car emission test. Have a photocopy of your OR/CR ready which they will ask from you.
There are usually car emission test centers near LTO offices but I used the one near our house (BOHER Emission Testing Center). You can go there in the morning and get a slot number with a time from their attendant who hangs out near the street so you can come back when it's your time. Mine said to come back around 12-12:30.
IMPORTANT INFO! The car emission test is only good for two months. I had to redo my car's emission test because it was already expired when I finally had time to go to LTO to go through the process.
LTO Car Renewal Process 2021
Before heading to the LTO, have a copy of your car's insurance and the car emission test. There will be an information booth at the front where they'll check your documents and give you a number. Wait for your name to be called and they'll just tell you the price you'll pay for the renewal at the cashier. I paid 1,780 PHP to renew the registration of our 2004 sedan.
IMPORTANT TIP! You don't have to bring your car with you. It can be hard to find parking near an LTO office so just ride your bike or take public transpo to the LTO and don't forget your documents.
How Long Does it Take to Renew Your Car Registration?
I went there around 1 PM and the whole process took about 1 and a half hours.
When to Renew My Car?
The schedule for your car renewal deadline depends on your plate number. The table below is from the LTO. Based on the table below a car with the plate number XRF 765 has a deadline of May 14th.
The LTO has extended the deadline several times due to the Covid lockdowns so please check the news for any announcement for any deadline extension.
| LAST DIGIT OF THE PLATE NUMBER (Monthly Schedule) | |
| 1 - January | |
| 2 - February | |
| 3 - March | |
| 4 - April | |
| 5 - May | |
| 6 - June | |
| 7 - July | |
| 8 - August | |
| 9 - September | |
| 0 - October | |
| Note: Vehicles may be registered one month in advance | |
WEEKLY SCHEDULE IS BASED ON THE 2ND TO THE LAST DIGIT OF THE PLATE NUMBER
| 2ND TO THE LAST DIGIT OF THE PLATE NUMBER | SCHEDULE / WEEKLY DEADLINE |
| 1 2 3 | 1ST TO THE 7TH DAY OF THE MONTH |
| 4 5 6 | 8TH TO THE 14TH DAY OF THE MONTH |
| 0 7 8 | 15TH TO THE 21ST DAY OF THE MONTH |
| 0 9 0 | 22ND TO THE LAST DAY OF THE MONTH |
How Can the Process be Improved?
This is more of a rant section. I do hope they allow online car registration renewal now that we're in 2021 and still in a pandemic. The car emission test is the only step where you need to bring your car and the LTO would also have a copy of the car emission test results in their system that they could check.
My suggestion is for there to be a code included in the car emission test result that the car owner can just enter in the LTO website to renew their car's registration. People should not have to take a day off from work just to renew their vehicles.
