Best and Worst U.S. License Plates

[1995hoo]

IMO, such a design is much more elegant than all these busy graphic ones we have (México has their share too....I'm talking to you, Nayarit).  Add in a small symbol or two out of the way, make sure the colors are decent, and you have something really neat.

I like having some sort of design that ties the plate to the state. The Mexican plate I've seen most often is Quintana Roo because all my trips to Mexico have been to Cozumel (with a couple of mainland excursions, though no farther than Tulum). I like the way theirs have Tulum in the background:



While the design could be considered busy, it's done in such a way that it doesn't come across as busy. I think it's because it's more like a watermark than a major graphic.


I have the style shown below on both of my cars (my wife's car has a different one) and I like it for the same reason–it ties into Virginia history but it's not a very busy design. There are a lot of other designs that have a lot more going on and I find those a bit befuddling to the eye. This plate is not mine, BTW; both of mine are personalized.

[Crazy Volvo Guy]

I rather like PA's current, though I could do with them getting rid of the damn website and returning to "Keystone State"...full embossing would be nice too, like Alaska.

Edit:// I'd also add debossed spots for the stickers.

[kphoger]

I rather like PA's current, though I could do with them getting rid of the damn website and returning to "Keystone State"...full embossing would be nice too, like Alaska.

Edit:// I'd also add debossed spots for the stickers.

I like Pennsylvania's older plates better, especially the 1977-1983 keystone plates.  It might just be that the current ones remind me of a sucky rental car I had once with those plates.

[Crazy Volvo Guy]

I agree completely, but the current plate is certainly not terrible.  Where I differ is that I like the Keystone base used until ~1995, childhood memory and all.  Along that line, New Hampshire's 1992-1998 base is a favorite as well.

[signalman]

I don't care for Pennsylvania's current plate.  I liked the older style where the colors faded (state.pa.us), sans the website.  I don't like the drastic color change on the visitPA base. 

[SP Cook]

Off topic.  Why do Mexican plates say "Mexico".  As in the USA and Canada, they are issued by the second-level jurisdiction (Mexican states).  Would not "Queretaro" etc be sufficient?  Expecially for states located far from the borders.

[1995hoo]

Off topic.  Why do Mexican plates say "Mexico".  As in the USA and Canada, they are issued by the second-level jurisdiction (Mexican states).  Would not "Queretaro" etc be sufficient?  Expecially for states located far from the borders.

The Mexican federal government has some involvement with the license plate system because they have a nationwide numbering system to prevent the possibility of the same plate number being issued by two different states. Presumably the federal government also directed that "Mexico" be included.

[agentsteel53]

The Mexican federal government has some involvement with the license plate system because they have a nationwide numbering system to prevent the possibility of the same plate number being issued by two different states. Presumably the federal government also directed that "Mexico" be included.

as far as I know, the plates are distributed from one source, in Mexico City.  this was the case in 1985, anyway, when a friend of mine visited the plate shop and ended up with a MEX MEX MEX plate: country identifier MEX, state identifier MEX (yes, there is a state called Mexico; it's just outside the D. F.) - and the letter part of the plate number was MEX.

[kphoger]

Things have changed since the 80s.  I doubt that's true anymore.

[OCGuy81]

I'd nominate THIS as one of the plates that couldn't die quick enough. 



IIRC, KY residents hated this one as well.  The current design is much nicer.

My list.

Favorites:

Oregon
New Mexico (the yellow ones used for a long time)
The old California sunset plate (or as my wife calls them, the 80s movie plates)
Utah

Least favorites:

Michigan
Indiana
New Jersey

[bugo]

You mean this style? I liked these better than the current ones.

I like the current one.  A bit more subtle.  Diplomats shouldn't be running around advertising how special they are - we've got home-grown politicians for that.

They're still pretty obvious–or at least, they seem it to those of us here in the DC area, but we see so many of them that they're recognizable as diplomat plates at a glance. I suppose in other parts of the country it would be a different matter, much like the tribal tags bugo mentions. I've never seen one of those, and I've never seen a Mexican plate in the United States (or Canada), but given where I live the odds of seeing them are far lower than they would be in a place like Texas or Arizona. (I did see a Texas plate in Cozumel once, however. You'd really have to be staying for a long time to make that worthwhile. The car ferry is a notorious nuisance.)

This morning when I drove my wife to the subway stop I was behind an SUV with a Mexican plate from the state of Querétaro. First Mexican plate I've ever seen in the United States (bearing in mind that while I was born in Texas, we moved when I was 1 year old). I had to look at a map because I didn't recognize that state name. I was quite startled when I realized what I was seeing.

I was driving through Muskogee and spotted a car I didn't recognize.  It had Mexican plates but I didn't look for the name because I was too busy trying to figure out what kind of car it was.  Turns out it was a Seat Ibiza.

[agentsteel53]

this morning I spotted a Jalisco.  it was on a Ford Explorer that looked basically identical to the US version.

[kphoger]

Off topic.  Why do Mexican plates say "Mexico".  As in the USA and Canada, they are issued by the second-level jurisdiction (Mexican states).  Would not "Queretaro" etc be sufficient?  Expecially for states located far from the borders.

FWIW, not all Mexican plates say 'México'.

See Chihuahua's current issue:  except for the screen printing on the serial, the word México is nowhere on there.
http://www.plateshack.com/y2k/Mexico2/chihuahua2009.jpg

The DF's current issue only says México because that's also the name of the city.
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3438/3352814942_79bf4517db.jpg

Tamaulipas' current plate doesn't say México at all.
http://www.plateshack.com/y2k/Mexico3/tamaulipas2010.jpg

[formulanone]

this morning I spotted a Jalisco.  it was on a Ford Explorer that looked basically identical to the US version.

Mexico has some interesting and odd imports like Peugeot and Renault, or other small cars that haven't been on the American menu for a few years. There's also some oddballs like the Dodge Ramcharger, which continued production long after it was no longer sold in the US.

[agentsteel53]

FWIW, not all Mexican plates say 'México'.

which ones have the accent mark on the "e"?  the new Jalisco plate I saw this morning does have it.  I snapped a photo in case anyone wants it.  JJR-62-91, for what it's worth.

I've never seen an embossed accent mark - did such a thing ever exist?

[kphoger]

FWIW, not all Mexican plates say 'México'.

which ones have the accent mark on the "e"?  the new Jalisco plate I saw this morning does have it.  I snapped a photo in case anyone wants it.  JJR-62-91, for what it's worth.

I've never seen an embossed accent mark - did such a thing ever exist?

That would take a lot more browsing than I'm prepared to do at this point on a Friday afternoon at work. 

[SP Cook]

Mexico has some interesting and odd imports like Peugeot and Renault, or other small cars that haven't been on the American menu for a few years. There's also some oddballs like the Dodge Ramcharger, which continued production long after it was no longer sold in the US.

Mexico used to have a highly protectionist auto industry.   You had to make at least some cars there to sell them there, and they (AFAIK, still have a strict ban on importing used cars).  In addition to the so-called US Big Three, Renault, VW, Nissan (as Datsun) and VAM, which was a version of AMC, were big there.  Recently Peugeot and M-B started there.  These remain the major players.

Weird stuff I have seen in Mexico:

- I have seen, deep into Mexico, US plated cars.  Driven by Hispanic looking people and apparently there for the long haul, not tourists on a short term permit. I have seen Florida, Alabama, and Mass plates in Cancun for example.  I cannot see how it would be cost efficient to drive a US plated car to southern Mexico and keep it there, for a Mexican.  It would seem more reasonable to sell the car in the US and buy similar.

- There is no GMC, but you see trucks and SUVs with both a (US) Chevy grille and those with a GMC griille  with a retangular black piece of plastic with a Chevrolet logo sticker on it where the GMC should be.

- Dodge trucks are still Dodge.

- Apparently they still make Lincoln Town Cars locally.  Rode in a limo conversion, happened to see the VIN, which was a "3".

-

[kphoger]

There's no ban on importing used US cars, just paperwork hassle and extra costs associated.  There's a neighborhood in Laredo where the streets are lined with US cars that are ready for Mexican plates, the dealers having already done much of the paperwork ahead of time.

Cars in the US carry a slightly cheaper price tag than cars in México.  So, yes, there is a market in driving down slightly used American cars to compete with Mexican-made vehicles.

For a list of cars sold in México, past and present, just check out Wikipedia:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automotive_industry_in_Mexico

Mexico used to have a highly protectionist auto industry.   You had to make at least some cars there to sell them there, and they (AFAIK, still have a strict ban on importing used cars).  In addition to the so-called US Big Three, Renault, VW, Nissan (as Datsun) and VAM, which was a version of AMC, were big there.  Recently Peugeot and M-B started there.  These remain the major players.

Weird stuff I have seen in Mexico:

- I have seen, deep into Mexico, US plated cars.  Driven by Hispanic looking people and apparently there for the long haul, not tourists on a short term permit. I have seen Florida, Alabama, and Mass plates in Cancun for example.  I cannot see how it would be cost efficient to drive a US plated car to southern Mexico and keep it there, for a Mexican.  It would seem more reasonable to sell the car in the US and buy similar.

- There is no GMC, but you see trucks and SUVs with both a (US) Chevy grille and those with a GMC griille  with a retangular black piece of plastic with a Chevrolet logo sticker on it where the GMC should be.

- Dodge trucks are still Dodge.

- Apparently they still make Lincoln Town Cars locally.  Rode in a limo conversion, happened to see the VIN, which was a "3".

-

[CentralCAroadgeek]

I'd nominate THIS as one of the plates that couldn't die quick enough. 



IIRC, KY residents hated this one as well.  The current design is much nicer.

Reminds me of how Maine residents hated this design:

This was the plate that preceded the current chickadee plates. All the hatred of this was the fact that this plate only represented southern Maine and left the north out.
They resorted instead to this specialty plate:

[agentsteel53]

All the hatred of this was the fact that this plate only represented southern Maine and left the north out.

that's a pretty stupid reason to hate a perfectly good plate.

I live in southern California, and I wouldn't object to the state putting out a Golden Gate Bridge design as the default passenger plate.

[Crazy Volvo Guy]

Alaska: DoingItRight™ since 2006:



This is what a plate should look like.

[Scott5114]

Could do without the yellow, but it is a tasteful plate.

I take it you would have liked Oklahoma's old base... about the same, just white with green embossing with "Oklahoma" printed at the top, "Native America" at the bottom, and a printed Osage shield from the flag in the middle. It was designed well enough but it got pretty boring after a while.

[CentralCAroadgeek]

Could do without the yellow, but it is a tasteful plate.

The reasoning for the yellow is that it would be easily visible in the Alaska snow. Also why they switched to an all-embossed plate instead of having the state name screened. This is why I really like Alaska plates.

Also, an honorable mention:

[Scott5114]

Sure, but you really only need the digits visible, not the background. Why not yellow on black or something like that?

[mgk920]

I see more Sinaloas than Bajas, which is sort of surprising. In limited border-area  travel, it seems like the Mexican strategy with the US is just to drive north until you hit a city, never moving east or west.

I wonder, then, why so few out-of-state plates in Baja.  Are there onerous travel restrictions on Mexicans with Mexican-registered vehicles attempting to drive around in Mexico?  I don't know of anything beyond the occasional military or internal-frontier checkpoint, at which I figure a Mexican citizen could say "soy Mexicano", and not have any further questions once his car was deemed free of contraband.

The entire Baja peninsula is in what Mexico calls their 'Border Zone', where a whole lot of rules are different than they are in the interior.  Crossing those border zone/interior checkpoints, especially going towards the interior, is like crossing into the USA.  Note that crossing from the USA into Mexico is ridiculously easy.  It's when crossing the checkpoints farther inland that the customs hassles begin.

Also, the Baja Peninsula is very separated from the rest of Mexico with only a couple of very out of the way highways connecting the two by land within Mexico.  An analogy could be Alaska v. the rest of the mainland USA.

--------------

Anyways, I have always liked Wisconsin's 1987 (and more recently revised) standard-issue plates.  They are simple, have a little bit of artwork to add some color and interest, easy to read and are pretty unique.

Illinois' current standard-issue plates, OTOH, just don't cut it with me.  When I first saw one of them a few years ago, I was left wondering 'What state is THAT one from???'.  It wasn't until my third or fourth one that I was able to make out the fancy script state name as being 'Illinois'.



I also agree, California can do better with theirs.

Also, I have always wondered about the county name thing that many states have.  I much prefer leaving it at the state name and not narrowing it down any farther.  Wisconsin has never assigned plate numbers based on county.  For many years, though, you could tell what month they expired from the letter ranges in the number, but that got unwieldy for numbering.  Besides, WisDOT's internal record-keeping can easily keep those things straight.

As for Indian Tribes, The fairly local Wisconsin Oneidas issue their own plates and they are decent, but only within the past couple of years have they been including references to 'Wisconsin' on theirs.  Do the New York or Ontario Oneidas issue their own plates?  (I was often thinking a few years ago, before they started putting the state reference on their plates, how things would go with the state police guy if a Wisconsin Oneida-plated car were to be pulled over on the New York State Thruway in mid-upstate New York....)

Of the Wisconsin tribes' plates, I like the Menomonees' plates the most.

Of the non-USA plates that I have seen in recent years, I'm most partial to Alberta's.

Mike