In Missouri, my tags cost about $25/year. The assessment is based on a fictional horsepower rating for cars and weight on pickups. Once maybe every decade you might find the highway patrol checking weights on pickups on back roads. You can license pickups as “local” limited to something like 30 miles from your residence.
Ah, but they do get you on annual personal property taxes. I paid $111 for a 2018 Honda CRV, a ‘97 F-150, and a 750cc Honda motorcycle.
It looks like, at the end of the day, you and I are paying about the same. I pay a total of around $250 for four fairly new cars. Looks like you pay around $186 for three.
I would love to have that “30 mile” law in my state. The only time my pickup goes more than 30 miles is the one time I went to Louisville to get new tires at Costco. I bought it six years ago with 106k miles. It now has 112k miles.