It has become increasingly stylish around here (South FL) to put completely aftermarket AKA fake license plates on the back of your car. Folks may (or may not) be putting the actual ID letters/numbers from their real plate, but the plates themselves and their backgrounds are most definitely NOT something put out by the state of FL.
These aren’t like SovCit plates, actively advertising their illegality and thumbing their noses at the police. They still say Florida or whatever, but the colors, backgrounds etc. vary from quite real-looking to stuff totally not found in the State’s catalog of specialty plates.
The legal advice websites I’ve checked says it’s 100% clear that only official state-issued plates may be used in FL or in any other state. So these things are 100% illegal. As of now the FL police agencies are slowly getting het up about this and starting to ticket people on sight. But the response is slow and the trend is still growing.
Does anyone else see this kind of stuff where you are? I’m sure the fake plate biz can’t rely solely on the FL market.
Note I’m not talking about decorative license plate-shaped things to attach to the front plate bracket in states that do not use front license plates. I’m only talking about aftermarket plates installed instead of the real thing and purporting to be that car’s actual DMV-assigned plate number.
If I did, I’m not sure I’d even have realized it.
It seems like people using those in areas with license plate scanners would very shortly find themselves stopped by the police.
You are surely familiar with the concept of “Florida Man”? This is the sort of thing traditionally done by the stereotypical Florida Man, much celebrated by Dave Barry, who gets much amusement and comedy material from living in Miami.
No, I haven’t seen anything like it where I live, nor can I even begin to imagine the motivation for it. The general thought process here is that if you want unique license plates, get legal personalized plates.
I know in Quebec, only one plate is required. Since cars usually come with both, they use the other for custom plates that can say pretty much whatever you want.
Nope, just rear plates. I’m not sure if they even issue front plates.
It looks like 21 states (including pretty much the entire Southeast) only require rear plates, as per this map. Red requires two plates, blue requires only the rear, and pink is apparently “rear plate only for some passenger vehicles.”
In the UK it’s possible to buy ‘show plates’ that show the vehicle registration number in a different typeface or with the spacing of letters/numbers modified to make it look more like it says a word.
They are not street legal - supposed to only be fitted when the car is on display off road, but I do see them around sometimes.
For example there was one where the reg number was 1VUR but the owner (whose name was presumably Ivor) must have asked for the top of the letter U to be modified so it curved inwards a bit. You could still see it was a U, but it wasn’t the stardard form. Not legal, but seems to pass unnoticed.
Things like red light cams or speed cams are illegal in FL. Because freedumb. But parking enforcement by plate scanner is very common.
The key thing is the plates I see are making every effort to look legit. Same typeface, right number of letters & numbers. Just not an official background. I doubt they would fool a plate scanner and my belief is they’re affirmatively trying not to do that.
There seem to be two unrelated motivations:
I have a fancy customized car painted in [whatever] colors. So of course I’ll want an equally customized license plate to match my car’s decor.
Many of these plates seen on ordinary cars are plain black with plain white writing and no other slogans beyond the state name in plain block letters much as genuine plates have it.
Colorado had plain white on black decades ago and it’s evidently a kind of retro look official specialty plate there now. CA also had decades ago and now has again as a specialty plate something similar with their plain black plate with school-bus yellow writing. FL had no such historical B&W plate nor any such specialty plate now.
I’m curious if this black and white fad represents some kind of code for “I’m a raging right winger”. Much like the black and dark gray pseudo-American flags we often see.
Florida is back plate only. And yes, some folks have plate-shaped things on the front with pix of their children or dog or favorite sports team or whatever. As noted in the OP, that is totally NOT what I’m talking about.
Number plates in the UK are strictly regulated. The size, spacing and typeface are detailed, and the backing has to be yellow (a specific Pantone number) while the front is white. The lettering is black.
The DVLA, who issue the numbers, have a thriving trade in the ones that look like words, especially names. They do not issue any that may be considered rude or obscene.
Yeah, official plates are very strictly specified. What’s weird is that in some cases, you have to show ownership documents to have new official plates made, but from other places you can get either compliant, or very non-compliant ‘show’ plates made with the only question asked being ‘what do you want it to say?’
I’ve occasionally seen “fake”/novelty front plates in states like Florida (with no front plate requirement), which are styled to look like the official plate design, but the ones I’ve seen were pretty clearly not attempting to present themselves as official plates.
I’ve not seen anything like @LSLGuy describes around here – not yet, anyway.
Or, like they do in the outback of Arkansas…take your rig mud riding. Thereby covering the plate. If you’re lucky you’ll get stuck in a sippy hole and your buddy will winch you out, bending your plate in the heroic effort.
Drive around town. Maybe running a red light(in your perceived invisiblity) but, alas the blue lights are behind you. You get a traffic ticket and an extra for “non-visible, required plates” and maybe no plate light.
They are legal in California if you use your actual license number and they comply in other ways like certain fonts. People get vinyl stickers on the front and/or back because they like the look better.
That map is out of date for Ohio at least, which started phasing out front plates a few years ago.
I used to work in a Florida tag office in the late 80’s, and they had LSD plates back then. And have allowed them for many years after (this is for regular random not personalized plates note-would be very typical for Florida’s bureaucracy if someone tried to request a personalized plate with those letters but the DMV shot it down).
This happened in the late '60s but might still be relevant. A friend went on sabbatical in France and shipped his car over. While there, someone stole one of his plates. Despairing of being able to get a replacement while out of state, he went to license plate manufacturer in France and asked them to make as close a replica as they could. In France you get assigned a number but it is up to you to get a plate made. Anyway, the year ended, he shipped the car back and then drove from NYC to Ithaca. Somewhere on the NY State throughway, a cop noticed something odd and stopped him. He explained and the cop simply advised to get an official NY State plate ASAP. Which he did. I don’t know if it was the front or rear plate.