License Plate News

[PHLBOS]

How often have states changed from a one-plate state to a two-plate state? Or vice versa?

Circa 1977, when MA introduced the white & green plate (some of which are still around) it went from 2-plates to just the rear plate (standard registrations only; commerical & vanity plates still required 2-plates).

When the current Spirit of America design was introduced about a decade later (first for the commerical plates, then the vanity plates, then the standard plates); it reinstated the 2-plate requirement for standard registrations when issued that plate design.  Apparently, law enforcement complained about the single, rear only, plates.  They claimed that such hindered their being able to indentify vehicle owners.

[Pete from Boston]

The "rest of the world"  does lots of stupid crap.

Front plates are ugly and ruin the looks of most cars.

37.25% of the population lives in a state with the enlightened logic to only have rear plates.  Thus less than 2/3rds is far less than "the vast majority".

Front plates are ugly and ruin the looks of most cars.

Collecting of tolls by plate recognition is a stupid way to collect tolls.  Hire some toll takers and get an ez pass like system.  Places that won't do that deserve to be cheated.

Front plates are ugly and ruin the looks of most cars.

There is no study that front plates have any positive effect on law enforcement.

Front plates are ugly and ruin the looks of most cars.

Most reasonable people go their whole lives without one whit of care about the appearance of front plates. 

Most reasonable people go their whole lives without one whit of care about the appearance of front plates. 

Most reasonable people go their whole lives without one whit of care about the appearance of front plates. 

Most reasonable people go their whole lives without one whit of care about the appearance of front plates. 

(I figure there's something I don't know about repeating my opinion four times making the point better.)

States that have toll collectors deserve to have a full complement of elevator operators and surrender operator-unassisted telephoning, with all the associated costs.  Toll collectors are all but obsolete and anyone that isn't a compulsive contrarian knows it.

[vdeane]

What about rust?  By having holes in the front bumper, it's easier for moisture to get trapped.  When we switched the registration on my old Accord from Mom's name to mine and had to swap the plates, the bolts for the front plates were so rusted that they literally snapped in half when removed.  The front plate was also slightly warped and the paint had noticeable signs of corrosion.  Guess that's what happens when a car has the same plates for 13 years.

[Buffaboy]

What about rust?  By having holes in the front bumper, it's easier for moisture to get trapped.  When we switched the registration on my old Accord from Mom's name to mine and had to swap the plates, the bolts for the front plates were so rusted that they literally snapped in half when removed.  The front plate was also slightly warped and the paint had noticeable signs of corrosion.  Guess that's what happens when a car has the same plates for 13 years.

That's right. My plates were the previous gen NY plates and had experienced letter peeling, so I took it in for the new throwback plates. It turned my 2003 Nissan into a fresh looking car.

BTW,  why can't New York vehicles drive without a front plate?


iPhone

[bulldog1979]

Michigan dropped a front plate requirement on April 1, 1981, and when the venerable blue and white plates debuted in 1983, they weren't issued in pairs.

We now have a requirement starting this year to get new plates every 10 years after issue. That means my current plate I received in 2007 will have to be replaced in 2017, regardless of its condition. Of course I take good care of my plate, so it will be far from worn out or unreflective when it is forced into retirement. I only hope they continue to issue that design in 2 years.

[bulldog1979]

Do any other states have the option to allow the reuse of vintage plates on collector cars? Michigan allows the owner of a collector car to register an original plate from the same year as the model year of the vehicle, so long as it qualifies as an antique (26 years old). The car can't be used for daily transportation. So if my father still had his first car, a 1963 Chevy Impala, and if he had his original 1963 plates, he could use one of them on the car as long the plate was in good condition. People here even have old plates repainted so that they can be reused.

[SP Cook]

Do any other states have the option to allow the reuse of vintage plates on collector cars?

WV switched from a new plate every year to the current system of renewal stickers in 1972.  If you have a car older than a 72, and you can obtain a plate from the year the car was made (does not have to have any previous thing to do with the car, just buy it from some collector) you can register it and use it.  You will be given a letter from the DMV to show to the police.  Cost is the same as any personalized plate. 

The current numbering scheme, adopted in 73 is about exhausted.  When it is and those plates are all replaced, the same policy will apply to any car 30 year old.

[steviep24]

Do any other states have the option to allow the reuse of vintage plates on collector cars? Michigan allows the owner of a collector car to register an original plate from the same year as the model year of the vehicle, so long as it qualifies as an antique (26 years old). The car can't be used for daily transportation. So if my father still had his first car, a 1963 Chevy Impala, and if he had his original 1963 plates, he could use one of them on the car as long the plate was in good condition. People here even have old plates repainted so that they can be reused.

New York does.

[SidS1045]

Do any other states have the option to allow the reuse of vintage plates on collector cars? Michigan allows the owner of a collector car to register an original plate from the same year as the model year of the vehicle, so long as it qualifies as an antique (26 years old). The car can't be used for daily transportation. So if my father still had his first car, a 1963 Chevy Impala, and if he had his original 1963 plates, he could use one of them on the car as long the plate was in good condition. People here even have old plates repainted so that they can be reused.

Massachusetts allows it, but IIRC the plates cannot be restored.  They're called YOM (Year of Manufacture) plates.

[Doctor Whom]

Do any other states have the option to allow the reuse of vintage plates on collector cars?

Virginia allows that. If you want to use the car as a daily driver, as opposed to accepting the restrictions that come with antique registration, you still need to display current month and year stickers on the vintage plate.

[vtk]

Toll-by-plate doesn't have to require front license plates.  Just mount the cameras where they can capture the rear of the vehicle.

[The Nature Boy]

What about rust?  By having holes in the front bumper, it's easier for moisture to get trapped.  When we switched the registration on my old Accord from Mom's name to mine and had to swap the plates, the bolts for the front plates were so rusted that they literally snapped in half when removed.  The front plate was also slightly warped and the paint had noticeable signs of corrosion.  Guess that's what happens when a car has the same plates for 13 years.

When I bought my new car, I asked the dealer to put a front license plate bracket on the front of my car to avoid this problem. There are still holes in my front bumper (which sucks) but at least there's a plastic backing to my front plate so I can minimize paint damage to the car itself.

[gonealookin]

Both bills relating to license plates which came up in the 2015 Nevada Legislature passed and have now been signed by the governor:  SB 229, creating a new specialty plate which allows the vehicle owner to express a "Protect the Second Amendment" sentiment via the license plate, and AB 484, which provides that a set of plates has a lifespan of eight years and must be turned into the DMV for reissuance at the end of that period.

I haven't seen any urgent need for the second one.  If my plates still look fine after eight years, it irritates me that I need an interaction with the DMV and payment of some reissuance fee to boot just because an arbitrary time period has expired.  I guess it does eliminate the stacked-decal problem discussed above.

[6a]

Both bills relating to license plates which came up in the 2015 Nevada Legislature passed and have now been signed by the governor:  SB 229, creating a new specialty plate which allows the vehicle owner to express a "Protect the Second Amendment" sentiment via the license plate, and AB 484, which provides that a set of plates has a lifespan of eight years and must be turned into the DMV for reissuance at the end of that period.

I haven't seen any urgent need for the second one.  If my plates still look fine after eight years, it irritates me that I need an interaction with the DMV and payment of some reissuance fee to boot just because an arbitrary time period has expired.  I guess it does eliminate the stacked-decal problem discussed above.

People sell plates (and stickers) on eBay. It's a problem for those of us who legitimately collect plates, but those out to make a buck don't care.

[route56]

Got my first look at the new Kansas sunflower vanity plate. I like it very much!

It looks better in real life. Especially on the sweet sports car it was on.

Are they going to be limited to just five characters or is the idea that plates that have five characters or fewer offset to the right so the sunflower is visible? I ask partly because if I ever got a personalized plate, I know what I want and that word, if available, has six letters.

* route56 should be getting a call from the county treasurer's office soon about re-upping on his "ROUTE56" vanity plate.

Picked up my new Vanity plate on Tuesday, with the full seven characters:

[jakeroot]

Picked up my new Vanity plate on Tuesday, with the full seven characters:

I love how some states still emboss personalized licence plates. They look so much better (though, in the future, I suspect embossing to be (entirely) replaced by some retro-reflective surface. I guess embossing is akin to button copy -- looks cool and has great readability but, technically, not the best option available).

[slorydn1]

I'm really like NC's normal plate (yeah mine are personalized but they are the same format as the regular plates).







Then again, I really loved the 1976 Michigan plates, too. My dad kept a set in a box for many years, but somehow misplaced them about 10 years ago. My wife and I have been tearing the attic apart looking for them but I cant find them anywhere.

[swbrotha100]

California's black license plates are back:

http://www.latimes.com/business/autos/la-fi-hy-california-black-license-plates-20150622-story.html

[Duke87]

What about rust?  By having holes in the front bumper, it's easier for moisture to get trapped.  When we switched the registration on my old Accord from Mom's name to mine and had to swap the plates, the bolts for the front plates were so rusted that they literally snapped in half when removed.  The front plate was also slightly warped and the paint had noticeable signs of corrosion.  Guess that's what happens when a car has the same plates for 13 years.

My front plate is mounted on a plastic bracket, not the bumper itself. Meanwhile the bumper itself is made of some composite plasticlike material, not metal, so what rust?

As for warping, I've had two Connecticut plates curl outward after a couple months with no frame around them. In both cases this only happened to the rear plate. I'm at a loss as to what physical mechanism causes this. Meanwhile, my current front New York plate has no backing on the bottom half and received a permanent warping this past winter when I bonked it with a snow shovel while digging my car out.

I wonder if CT drivers with pre-07 plates ever get pulled by overzealous out of state cops who see a 2007 registration sticker and jump to the conclusion that someone has a REALLY out of date plate.....

My father had plates with a 2007 sticker on them up until last summer and never had a problem.

[roadman]

I see this intense hatred of front license plates on a couple of car forums I hang out on as well.  I'm still trying to wrap my head around why some people consider this such a huge issue.

[PHLBOS]

I see this intense hatred of front license plates on a couple of car forums I hang out on as well.  I'm still trying to wrap my head around why some people consider this such a huge issue.

Many probably either have or want to place some type of novelty plate (example: my US Route 66 plates I have on both my cars) on the front or work (or have worked) at places that sell such. 

In states that require both front-and-rear plates for vehicles; there's a lot less demand (i.e. business) for such novelty plates (unless someone drills/tinkers with their front bumper to accomodate such).

[OCGuy81]

I was driving behind a car from Oregon the other day, and noticed the first three numbers were 666.

Not sure if I ever saw that combination used on California plates.  I know the DMV won't issue obscene or even possibly obscene letter combinations (KKK, ASS, FUK, etc.) but are there states that maybe don't issue 666?  I can imagine that more than a few people wouldn't want those seeing them being slid across the counter at the DMV.

[kendancy66]

I live in CA and I see 666 used on plates all the time

[OCGuy81]

I live in CA and I see 666 used on plates all the time

Guess I never paid that close of attention until now.  Curious if some states avoid that combo. Maybe bible belt states?

[SSOWorld]

Is California the only one I know of that allows the use of symbols on plates?