License Plate Thread

[Bear Up North]

Strange coincidence: Driving home from the office this afternoon I was behind a small pick-up truck with the vanity plate BAKOFF or something like that. I remembered that my younger brother has had vanity plates for years. I thought, good topic for Cyburbia.....and, as I'm wandering through threads I see some references to vanity plates.
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Question 1
Does your state allow vaniity plates?

Question 2
Do you have vanity plates?

Question 3
Is your state a one-plate or two-plate state?

Here in this land we call OHIO, we are required to have plates on the front and the back. A change to one-plate is being discussed and is meeting opposition from law enforcement agencies.

Michigan, just a few miles from my den, is a one-plate state. Those lucky coots get to buy neat front plates that say things like DEEETROIT, EMINEM RULES, LIONS, PISTONS, HORNY, SALMON HUNTER.

Question 4
If you could buy you front plate, what would your plate say or show?

Bear Making License Plates In His Real Home

[Zoning Goddess]

I want Zoning goddess as a vanity plate, but I can't figure out how to reduce it to 7 spaces.

[JNL]

I never heard the term 'vanity plates' before! We call them personalised plates.

In New Zealand we have a two plate system. I don't have personalised plates.

We only use 6 characters (e.g. ABC123), so creative thinking is required to come up with fun plates! But there are a few good ones out there. Like..TIHZ HO and I8A4RE.

[JNA]

A 1 - Yes
A 2 - No, I have a Special Recognition plate: Hoosier Safety http://www.in.gov/dhs/emerg_mgt/plate.html

Sidenotes
a - on the standard/generic plate there are County prefix numbers.
b - really cool special recognition plate are the Lewis and Clark Bicentennial
http://www.lewisandclarkinclarksville.org/
c - Ball State has it's own plate: http://www.bsu.edu/alumni/programs/licenseplates/

A 3 - One plate
A 4 - cant have - no mounting bracket.

[jenniplans]

In Missouri, it's the law to have 2 license plates.

Vanity plates are allowed, up to 6 letters. This changes in 2007 to up to 8 spaces.
Because of this I'm waiting for 2007. The plates will have "JENOCRAT" on them. No big surprise on that one.

[Super Amputee Cat]

Question 3
Is your state a one-plate or two-plate state?

Here in this land we call OHIO, we are required to have plates on the front and the back. A change to one-plate is being discussed and is meeting opposition from law enforcement agencies.

I totally agree with keeping the plate on in front. A few years ago, a guy ran me off the road while he was racing another car down I-475. He hit me at about 90MPH, I went into a spin and did a 180 right in the middle of the road and hit the guardrail. He took off when he saw me crawl out of the wreckage.

When I saw that his front bumper lying there in the road I was delighted at first, but to my horror I remembered seeing Michigan plates on his car. Sure enough, there was no front license plate. If he had been an Ohio driver, then he would have been fried.

[boiker]

Illinois is a two plate state that supposidly leads the nation in Personalized plates, and special issue plates.

I have Boik 3 and Boik 4.. My buddy had Red 5 and GLD LDR

[H]

Illinois is a two plate state that supposidly leads the nation in Personalized plates, and special issue plates.

I have Boik 3 and Boik 4.. My buddy had Red 5 and GLD LDR

In undergrad (OLE MISS), there were a few kids from ILL. and they all had them. Ever since then I have (lightheartly) reffered to ILL. as the 'vanity' plate capital of the world.

My wife had the 'speciality' plate here in FLA. The turtle plate. http://www.cccturtle.org/images/sea-...ense-plate.gif

Sorry H.....image leeched. 24 Hour suspension in effect on 5/11/05.

[jsk1983]

New York is a two plate state. Cars in one plate states just seem a bit naked to me. Of course there are certain models of cars such as the previous generation Chrysler 300M that were never designed to have a front plate. Having to attach a plate to the front grill totally ruined the look of the car.

New York does have vanity plates, but I don't have one as I don't have a car, not that I would if I did.

New York also offers various custom plates for sports teams, regions, etc. IMHO they aren't all that aesthetically pleasing.

Pennsylvania on the other hand has some good custom plates. Their was one that was a battleship from the war of 1812 (USS Niagara?) that was an oil painting transfered onto the plate. Beautiful plate, but a bit difficult to read the numbers.

[mgk920]

Wisconsin is a two-plate state and issues personalized, up to seven charicters.

Due to the relatively low cost of personalized plates, Wisconsin also has a very high percentage of personalized plates, one combination of which is on my car.

Mike

[the north omaha star]

Maryland is a 2 plate state. We have 1 standard plate and 2 state issued specialty plates, 1 promoting agriculture, and 1 promoting the Chesapeake Bay. In addition, you can have the standard plate personalized. Also, if you belong to an alumni assn. or other special interests groups ('within reason) that another plate. For example, on my next car I will have Univ. of Nebraska Alumni Assn. plates. It will look like the standard plate but it will have dear old "Herby" the Husker and a number.

[NHPlanner]

Question 1
Does your state allow vaniity plates?

Yes

Question 2
Do you have vanity plates?

Yes. (see below for a pic of mine)

Question 3
Is your state a one-plate or two-plate state?

2. Conservation (Moose) plates, and regular plates. See below.

[Queen B]

One plate state.
Never had a personalized one.
Just took off my ESU - Emporia State University plate on the front
and put on "Team 1 Real Estate"

Our car has a personalized plate on the front that reads "Belle La Bell" which is probably a bit odd now that the King is driving the car instead of me.

[Dan]

I've got standard Ohio plates with Cuyahoga County stickers.

An Ohio DUI plate



A standard New Mexico plate.



Coincidence? After living in New Mexico, I tend to think not.

When I lived in New Mexico, you were warned to stay as far away from cars with these plates.



EVERY car wioth Chihuaha plates, with NO EXCEPTIONS, had a major dent in at least two body panels.

There's also what is, perhaps, the most redneck license plate ever to have existed.



Followed by:



There's also the "I got beat up regularly in high school" plate..



Ontario ... sorry. Make that "I got beat up regularly in secondary school."

Might as well throw some Monty Python characters, a 20-sided die, and a penguin on it, too.

There's also the most RUGGED!



Put that on your Prius, ya' hippie liberal!

In my travels, I noticed that you see few vehicles in New York with special plates (regionals, sports, colleges, etc), even though the state has the widest variety of such plates available. I do like the consistency in design of NY special plates; they're all easily identifiable as being from the state upon first sight. Some other state and provinces, like Ontatio and Colorado, also have consistent colors and/or design elements in their special plates. Special plates from Florida, and some other states, tend to have much more variation in their design, making determination of the state more difficult on first sighting. When I was living in Florida, though, far more people had special plates than in New York.

Some states don't have special plates - New Mexico, for one.

[the north omaha star]

A question for New York Cyburbians, why isn't the expiration date noted on New York license plates?

[michiganplanner]

I have a college license plate (in an effort to raise funds public (i think) higher ed institutions in michigan can have their own stylized plates. It costs an extra $10 or more. I don't remember. I will try to get a pic.

[Salmissra]

Texas is a two-plate state. I don't have personalized plates, and I've never thought about getting them. We do have various special plates that do cost a little extra - bluebonnets, certain organizations and "state-level support-worthy charities" (ie SPCA) - and most of them look good. I might go with the Bluebonnet plate next time. I do wish that they hadn't changed the plate design for the standard plate - it used to have the recognizable Lone Star design; now we have a boring plate with what looks like a flag in the middle, but it's not.

Instead of personalized plates, I go with the specialty bracket in the back. Mine says "Happiness is owning an ITALIAN GREYHOUND". Otherwise, no stickers and no paintings on the back window.

[the north omaha star]

If my next car is black w/ black leather interior, I may get VADER or TIE FHTR.

[jmello]

Question 1
Does your state allow vaniity plates?

Yes. However, they are much more prevelent in smaller Rhode Island and New Hampshire, where almost one in three are vanities.

Question 2
Do you have vanity plates?

When I was in high school in RI, my first license plate was "Jenius." My wife won't let us get one now. She also abhors bumber stickers.

Question 3
Is your state a one-plate or two-plate state?

Used to be one plate, now two plate. People with the old green and white plates can still use only one plate.

Question 4
If you could buy you front plate, what would your plate say or show?

We would likely leave it blank.

On another note, when I lived in Philly I started to notice that the corners and/or edges of alot of plates (tags in PA) were cut or bent off. I also noticed that a lot of people had their tags in the rear window. It took me awhile to realize that people were stealing the registration stickers by taking pieces of the plates and soaking them in soapy water. Pennsylvania at the time would issue a "T" (temporary) registration sticker with new tags. One could feasibly cancel their insurance and registration the next day and drive forever with the "T" sticker on their tags. The police would not realize this until they pulled you over.

[Dan]

A question for New York Cyburbians, why isn't the expiration date noted on New York license plates?

The registration sticker doesn't go on the license plate, but rather inside the front windshield, on the lower end of the driver side. The annual inspection sticker is also inside the front windshield, to the right of the registration sticler. As seen from the outside, the lower driver-side windshield of a car registerd in New York will look like this:



It MUST be in that order, too; registration on the left, inspection on the right.Cops are sticklers about this; people do get ticketed for having the inspection sticker on the left and the registration sticker on the right.

[jmello]

The registration sticker doesn't go on the license plate, but rather inside the front windshield, on the lower end of the driver side. The annual inspection sticker is also inside the front windshield, to the right of the registration sticker.

As for the reason? See my post above about Philadelphia. I would wager that has something to do with it.

[michaelskis]

This is what my plate looks like.



I wanted it to say skier but it was taken.

I am happy I don't live in PA where they have inspections and ugly stickers in the windows.

I don't have a front plate, and I don't think that I will get one. On the other hand, I might get an NMU alumni frame for my back plate. A nice crome one!

[jsk1983]

The registration sticker doesn't go on the license plate, but rather inside the front windshield, on the lower end of the driver side. The annual inspection sticker is also inside the front windshield, to the right of the registration sticler. As seen from the outside, the lower driver-side windshield of a car registerd in New York will look like this:



It MUST be in that order, too; registration on the left, inspection on the right.Cops are sticklers about this; people do get ticketed for having the inspection sticker on the left and the registration sticker on the right.

NYS inspection/registration stickers are also useful if one wishes to know the age of a car. For some reason I've always been interested in knowing the age of cars. I must have gotten it from my dad who'd always play guess the age of the car games with us when we went on road trips. Somehow he seemed to know the exact year of every model car from the '50s and '60s, although for all I know he could of been making it up.

[zman]

Colorado has switched from the standard green plates with white lettering to white plates with green lettering. Still the same basic design but as my dad said: "Looks like the plates from out-of-state!"

Question 1
Does your state allow vanity plates?

Yes, Colorado has that option. Used to be 7 letters were allowed, but they went back to 6. I wanted one that said GOHBSGO

Question 2
Do you have vanity plates?

Nope, after getting the expiration sticker chopped last summer, I'm sticking with regular issue.

Question 3
Is your state a one-plate or two-plate state?

Two plates are required on your car, and it is a hefty fine to go without. However, in Colorado you get to choose between a TON of different designs, based upon who you donate too, or your interest.

Question 4
If you could buy you front plate, what would your plate say or show?

If I could get a front plate, I would probably try for a sports one, like the Broncos, Cubs, Nuggets, or Habs.

[Gedunker]

In New Jersey you can get a vanity plate for -- Rutgers? Princeton? Monmouth State? Jersey City State? (probably all the above...) but this I find ironic: PSU. The Pennsylvania State University. Those ugly babysh!t brown Jersey tags with PSU Alumni. Ahh, the Garden State.

Indiana's tags --as JNA mentioned -- are keyed to the county of residence. My County is 22, so plates here read 22 A 1234, for example. Neighboring counties include 10, 13, 31, and 88. The 88 county drivers are by far the worst drivers. Unfortunately, Indiana is a one-tag state, so you can't be warned of an 88 driver heading toward you

I had a Lewis and Clark tag until my Rodeo was totaled. Probably get the standard plate on whatever I drive next.