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[jakeroot]

Arizona's newest standard plates are a random mix of letters and numbers. Some people have reported seeing new plates in a format of "A1B2C3D". I haven't seen any of those in the field. The plates I have seen have the format of "ABC1DEF". The only way to tell these are standard is there's a purple cactus to the left of the seven characters.

As for the latter combination, that may take the cake for the most number of letters in a non-custom alphanumeric licence plate. Even if it is 'random'.

I would think Arizona is keeping a certain format for their plates, even if they switch to random characters.

Here in WA, we use 'AAA0000' (currently on 'BXX----'), similar to how Arizona had worked, but we don't randomize the numbers or letters, to the best of my knowledge.

[kphoger]

As for the latter combination, that may take the cake for the most number of letters in a non-custom alphanumeric licence plate.

I was thinking I'd seen a standard-issue plate from one of the Indian nations of Oklahoma that had all letters, no numerals.  But I'm unable to find anything like that online, so I must be mistaken.

[Scott5114]

As for the latter combination, that may take the cake for the most number of letters in a non-custom alphanumeric licence plate.

I was thinking I'd seen a standard-issue plate from one of the Indian nations of Oklahoma that had all letters, no numerals.  But I'm unable to find anything like that online, so I must be mistaken.

I know at least one tribe (I want to say it's either the Comanches or the C&As) issues plates with all numbers, which is in and of itself pretty unusual in this day and age.

Chickasaw tags use two letters, but the letters are always CN. This is because they contracted the issuance out to the state, and that keeps them from conflicting with any other Oklahoma tag.

[Roadwarriors79]

Today I did see a few newer Arizona plates in the "A1B2CDE" format.

SM-G975U

[route56]

Got a birthday present from the Kansas Department of Revenue:



I suspect this is the first Kansas "flat" plate to be printed as a whole image rather than black letters on a pre-printed background.

Technically, I was to take off the old plate and put on an interim "paper" tag until the new flat plate came in. However, as a practical matter, law enforcement wasn't going to run my plate on suspicion of an expired plate until after July 31, and the paper tag had an expiration date of July 12. Had I waited until, say, next week to renew my tags....

[In case you don't know my birthday and/or can't figure out 30 days before July 12 - I renewed my registration on June 12 and got my new plate in the mail on June 24. Incidentally, I had to renew my Driver's Licence this year as well. I renewed my Licence on June 10 and got my new licence/REAL ID in the mail on June 22]

[kalvado]

It was posted before, and it is actually discussed in NY thread - NYS new "excelsior" plates are actually on the road, starting with Kaa NNNN

[kphoger]

I had to renew my Driver's Licence this year as well.

I wasn't able to schedule an appointment for before my current DL expires.  It expires July 11, and my appointment isn't until early August.  But they're giving a 60-day grace period for DL expiration because of the COVID-related wait times.

[jmacswimmer]

I had to renew my Driver's Licence this year as well.

I wasn't able to schedule an appointment for before my current DL expires.  It expires July 11, and my appointment isn't until early August.  But they're giving a 60-day grace period for DL expiration because of the COVID-related wait times.

Maryland's approach is that all expiring drivers licenses & vehicle registrations have a grace period until 30 days after the COVID-19 state of emergency is lifted, whenever that ends up being.  I did recently renew my vehicle registration, which luckily doesn't require a trip to the MVA even during normal times.  Simply paid online, and a week later I received an updated expiration sticker in the mail to put on my back plate.  Could've put it off longer if I wanted courtesy of that grace period, but I figured I'd just get it over with since the next expiration date will be the same either way.

[kphoger]

This was the first year we renewed registration through the mail.

[vtk]

I believe as of today, front license plates are no longer required for Ohio-registered vehicles. I removed mine this morning. Now, if only I could find the conversation I had several months ago with someone who was interested in buying it…

[SP Cook]

While front plates are stupid, the Ohio situation is hard to understand.  As I understand it, Ohio is not reissuing single plates for the millions of cars registered there, and, in fact will continue to issues two plates to everyone.  It is just that you have the option of tossing the front one in a drawer.  Something that is mostly of interest to owners of sports cars and other nice cars whose looks are ruined by front plates (even the car companies think so, look at the sponsorship provided Dodge Charger in NCIS:LA, set in the PRC, or the Chevy Camaro in Hawaii 5-0, both 2 plate jurisdictions, but only a front plate).

Which is fine.  Except if you are a scoff law, the number of valid plates just doubled.  Some jack leg can just take the old front plate off the Chevy and toss it on the Ford and there you go.  Now, yes that is illegal and the cops could catch him with a simple check, but a person could probably drive around in that manner for months or even years w/o getting caught.

[mgk920]

While front plates are stupid, the Ohio situation is hard to understand.  As I understand it, Ohio is not reissuing single plates for the millions of cars registered there, and, in fact will continue to issues two plates to everyone.  It is just that you have the option of tossing the front one in a drawer.  Something that is mostly of interest to owners of sports cars and other nice cars whose looks are ruined by front plates (even the car companies think so, look at the sponsorship provided Dodge Charger in NCIS:LA, set in the PRC, or the Chevy Camaro in Hawaii 5-0, both 2 plate jurisdictions, but only a front plate).

Which is fine.  Except if you are a scoff law, the number of valid plates just doubled.  Some jack leg can just take the old front plate off the Chevy and toss it on the Ford and there you go.  Now, yes that is illegal and the cops could catch him with a simple check, but a person could probably drive around in that manner for months or even years w/o getting caught.

OTOH, if there is a police car directly behind you, assume that you plate has already been checked to see that it is 'current' and that there are no outstanding warrants on it.  In many/most jurisdictions, an automatic plate reading camera is now standard equipment on their cruisers.

Mike

[Konza]

I would think Arizona is keeping a certain format for their plates, even if they switch to random characters.

Granted, my sample size is small, but a couple of weeks later, I still haven't seen one of the new sequence Arizona plates that does not have the letter "A" in the third, fifth, and seventh positions in the plate number.

[vtk]

Which is fine.  Except if you are a scoff law, the number of valid plates just doubled.  Some jack leg can just take the old front plate off the Chevy and toss it on the Ford and there you go.  Now, yes that is illegal and the cops could catch him with a simple check, but a person could probably drive around in that manner for months or even years w/o getting caught.

You only get one registration sticker. I'm sure if you don't have a current registration sticker on the plate that's displayed on the rear, that'll get quickly noticed by a cop who looks at license plates all day.

[Bruce]

Not news, but from the archives: Some rejected license plate designs from Washington's centennial in 1989.

First issued in 1987, the centennial license plate feat. Mt. Rainier was selected by @WA_DOL and WA State Centennial Commission. Over 1,300 designs were submitted and the design of Eric R. Booth, is still in use (w/minor modifications).
Here are three other options considered: pic.twitter.com/RwdzlyEPIG

— Washington State Archives (@WAStateArchives) August 11, 2020

[jakeroot]

^^^^
That's fantastic! Really cool to see alternative WA designs since I've only ever seen the Centennial design.

The middle rejection reminds me of the personalized BC plates, just with the colors reversed:



vs

[Konza]

Granted, my sample size is small, but a couple of weeks later, I still haven't seen one of the new sequence Arizona plates that does not have the letter "A" in the third, fifth, and seventh positions in the plate number.

Fast forward about eight weeks:  Now starting to see the letter “B” in position 5.  Still A’s in positions 3 and 7.  The other characters appear to be random.  So the sequence went from ##A#A#A to ##A#B#A.  What’s next?  It took about three months for that A to turn into a B, so let’s check back in November.

[STLmapboy]

I saw the newest Mississippi license plate on Highway 40 in St Louis today driving back from swim. I thought it was really dirty white plate that had been around for some time. It was only when I looked it up on Wikipedia that I found this series was from Jan 2019! Mississippians don't seem too happy about it either, as shown in this article ("it's ugly. Ugly, ugly, very ugly"). I don't really care about the stupid tiff over "in God we trust" but I like the previous version better.

On a semi-related note, MS's next-door neighbor Alabama has my current favorite design; I also really like my home state's current version and Montana's vintage style current version. For some reason I usually like seven-character plates better than six-character ones (barring the awful MS design, of course).

[kphoger]

I saw the newest Mississippi license plate on Highway 40 in St Louis today driving back from swim. I thought it was really dirty white plate that had been around for some time. It was only when I looked it up on Wikipedia that I found this series was from Jan 2019! Mississippians don't seem too happy about it either, as shown in this article ("it's ugly. Ugly, ugly, very ugly"). I don't really care about the stupid tiff over "in God we trust" but I like the previous version better.

On a semi-related note, MS's next-door neighbor Alabama has my current favorite design; I also really like my home state's current version and Montana's vintage style current version. For some reason I usually like seven-character plates better than six-character ones (barring the awful MS design, of course).

None of those links work for me.

[STLmapboy]

I saw the newest Mississippi license plate on Highway 40 in St Louis today driving back from swim. I thought it was really dirty white plate that had been around for some time. It was only when I looked it up on Wikipedia that I found this series was from Jan 2019! Mississippians don't seem too happy about it either, as shown in this article ("it's ugly. Ugly, ugly, very ugly"). I don't really care about the stupid tiff over "in God we trust" but I like the previous version better.

On a semi-related note, MS's next-door neighbor Alabama has my current favorite design; I also really like my home state's current version and Montana's vintage style current version. For some reason I usually like seven-character plates better than six-character ones (barring the awful MS design, of course).

None of those links work for me.

It's fixed. There's some dash clownery when dealing with Wikipedia links.

[Konza]

Fast forward about eight weeks:  Now starting to see the letter “B” in position 5.  Still A’s in positions 3 and 7.  The other characters appear to be random.  So the sequence went from ##A#A#A to ##A#B#A.  What’s next?  It took about three months for that A to turn into a B, so let’s check back in November.

So, it's November, and after a weekend driving around the Phoenix area going to and from the NASCAR races, I can report that we are, indeed, starting to see Arizona license plates with a sequence of ##A#C#A.

[democratic nole]

Several years ago, Florida was embarking on a redesign of its license plates, because they suck (official story). However, due to some complaints by the license plate vendor the state uses, the plan to change designs got scrapped and we have continued to be stuck with these shitty license plates. Is there a worse regular state plate in the country than this:

The MyFlorida.com crap is awful and embarrassing.

[mgk920]

At least they no longer have the county names on them.  What is Florida's plan for when six characters is no longer enough?

Mike

[Scott5114]

Several years ago, Florida was embarking on a redesign of its license plates, because they suck (official story). However, due to some complaints by the license plate vendor the state uses, the plan to change designs got scrapped and we have continued to be stuck with these shitty license plates. Is there a worse regular state plate in the country than this:

The MyFlorida.com crap is awful and embarrassing.

Well, yeah.


You have the tourism website, plus the hard-to-read black-and-blue color scheme, plain Eurostile font, and the silhouette is badly traced over one of the first results for "scissortail flycatcher" on Google Image Search. All borne out of a rush job to try and fill up the state coffers without officially raising taxes, because that's constitutionally hard to do in Oklahoma. Thanks, Fallin!

[US 89]

At least they no longer have the county names on them

Nah, county names are cool. And I believe you can still get your new Florida plates with them unless you live in Miami-Dade County.