# Aftermarket License Plates Displayed on Car as if Real **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [July 4, 2025, 6:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aftermarket-license-plates-displayed-on-car-as-if-real/1020504 "2025-07-04T18:32:48Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![gnoitall](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/bb73d2/32.png) [@gnoitall](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gnoitall)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2025, 4:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aftermarket-license-plates-displayed-on-car-as-if-real/1020504/41 "2025-07-05T16:39:10Z")
> [@Dr.Strangelove](#): > > I can spot which ride is mine Unless you’re in a rear-plate state, in which you’d probably have to say “well, that _was_ my ride”. ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2025, 5:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aftermarket-license-plates-displayed-on-car-as-if-real/1020504/42 "2025-07-05T17:23:17Z")
The Lil’wrekker was/is a speeder. She got several tickets while her little Mini had her personalized plates. It was _MeMeMe 1_. It sounds kinda _entitled_ but it was supposed to mean _me-me-me_ in a voice warm up way. Musical. We convinced her to change them, mainly because they’re more expensive. So she did. Since then the only ticket she’s gotten was her new plate was read at a redlight where she did a rolling stop and punched it. Saw the pix. She was wrong. I laugh evertime I think about it now. She has to cross that intersection everyday she works. She claims she comes to a complete stop and waits an extra beat, singin’ _me-me-me_, so the camera knows she’s stopped. I say she learned a lesson. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2025, 5:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aftermarket-license-plates-displayed-on-car-as-if-real/1020504/43 "2025-07-05T17:39:24Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > He had the large temporary paper permit that is stuck in the back window while you wait for your actual plates, and he trimmed up a bit and stuck it in the rear license plate holder. In at least some states nowadays, the temporary is sized to fit the usual license plate frame and that’s where you properly put it. They’re made of a plasticized paper that can be laser-printed and are waterproof. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2025, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aftermarket-license-plates-displayed-on-car-as-if-real/1020504/44 "2025-07-05T17:41:13Z")
In Oregon they are a large piece of paper you stick in the back windshield, and they do not fit in that license plate holder. ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2025, 5:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aftermarket-license-plates-displayed-on-car-as-if-real/1020504/45 "2025-07-05T17:46:24Z")
Do you remove your plates, if you sell or trade-in? We always have. I have a stack of former plates. (And some I’ve collected. You’d not believe how many I’ve found on the shoulders of roads). I even had my son go find the plate from the car I wrecked. He found it. ---
**Author:** ![Railer13](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/railer13/32/9742_2.png) [@Railer13](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Railer13)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2025, 6:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aftermarket-license-plates-displayed-on-car-as-if-real/1020504/46 "2025-07-05T18:05:00Z")
> [@Beckdawrek](#): > > Do you remove your plates, if you sell or trade-in? Absolutely. And if a different car is purchased, either via trade or another sale, then the ‘old’ plate is transferred to the new vehicle, during the visit to the courthouse. ---
**Author:** ![Die\_Capacitrix](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/die_capacitrix/32/9_2.png) [@Die\_Capacitrix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Die_Capacitrix)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2025, 6:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aftermarket-license-plates-displayed-on-car-as-if-real/1020504/47 "2025-07-05T18:07:35Z")
> [@Beckdawrek](#): > > Do you remove your plates, if you sell or trade-in? Depends on the location. We still have the Pennsylvania plate from hubby’s car when he moved to NJ, plus the NJ plate from the last car we sold before we moved. We had bought a car in the short time period that NJ had 3 letters and 4 numbers, all together. Made it difficult to read the plate number. So no one wanted the plates. In Switzerland, they got nervous that the plate wasn’t attached to a car (we sold it and the one that we wanted to buy wasn’t ready yet), so we had to turn that one in. We got a new number with the new car. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2025, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aftermarket-license-plates-displayed-on-car-as-if-real/1020504/48 "2025-07-05T18:12:33Z")
> [@Beckdawrek](#): > > We always have. In some states the plate stays with the vehicle upon sale, not with the old owner. In most states the plate stays with the owner, not the vehicle. Either way you’ve got to follow your local state laws. For state like AR where apparently the old owner keeps the plate upon sale, I suppose there’s no reason you couldn’t hang it in your garage and just get a new one for your new vehicle. Here in FL if you turn in your old plates for shiny new plates, there’s no extra charge. Maybe you want the latest design or a new number or whatever. Or the old ones are just beat up and dingy & you want a fresh look for your fresh car. But if you keep the oldies and get new ones too, that’s an extra ~$400. The theory being that you’re really about to operate two cars where before you just had the one. And given the perpetual influx of new residents, they want to tax them an extra $400 for the privilege of moving to paradise. And then clogging up all of the roads with more cars. Legally plate = car, so if you wanna keep the plate, you gotta pay the [extra car on our roads] tax. So not many FL people keep the old FL plates off their old FL cars. At $400 a pop, they’re kinda expensive works of garage art. ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2025, 7:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aftermarket-license-plates-displayed-on-car-as-if-real/1020504/49 "2025-07-05T19:17:27Z")
Its $40-$50 here. You have to pay transfer fees to move old plates to a different car.. I’m not sure about that price. People often dont, they just slap the old plate on the new car and hope their plate doesn’t come back as on the _wrong car_. ---
**Author:** ![Paintcharge](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/paintcharge/32/7946_2.png) [@Paintcharge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paintcharge)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2025, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aftermarket-license-plates-displayed-on-car-as-if-real/1020504/50 "2025-07-06T20:19:56Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > New York had a rash of plates where the numbers were stripped off. It was a legal plate stripped down to bare metal. I don’t think that was entirely intentional. I have a bunch of friends here in NY who have plates that have just dropped their paint. Just more of the NY infrastructure showing its true colors, or in this case, not. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2025, 10:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aftermarket-license-plates-displayed-on-car-as-if-real/1020504/51 "2025-07-06T22:11:38Z")
That was a issue, too, but both things happened. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2025, 10:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aftermarket-license-plates-displayed-on-car-as-if-real/1020504/52 "2025-07-06T22:48:03Z")
> [@Beckdawrek](#): > > The Lil’wrekker was/is a speeder. > She got several tickets while her little Mini had her personalized plates. > It was _MeMeMe 1_. > It sounds kinda _entitled_ but it was supposed to mean _me-me-me_ in a voice warm up way. Musical. She does know that it’s spelled “Mi”, right? ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2025, 10:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aftermarket-license-plates-displayed-on-car-as-if-real/1020504/53 "2025-07-06T22:50:37Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > She does know that it’s spelled “Mi”, right? Maybe “MiMiMi” was already taken. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2025, 10:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aftermarket-license-plates-displayed-on-car-as-if-real/1020504/54 "2025-07-06T22:57:34Z")
I suspect Lil Wrekker was fibbing to Big Wrekker. From what we ~~know~~ have been told, MeMeMe fits her better. 😁 ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2025, 1:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aftermarket-license-plates-displayed-on-car-as-if-real/1020504/55 "2025-07-07T01:44:44Z")
“Mi” was taken. And she probably is a bit spoiled. But…she’s really sweet about it. I never met a person who doesn’t love her to pieces. Caring, thoughtful and will have your back in a heartbeat. She sucks the oxygen out of the room when she enters it. Signed: her Ma, who knows her best. ETA..I just asked her she says “Mi” was taken. But she also didn’t want folks to think it was a reference to the Mini in some way. And everyone she knew “got it” enough to suit her. She looked wistful saying it… 🫤 ---
**Author:** ![SCAdian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scadian/32/3292_2.png) [@SCAdian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SCAdian)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2025, 2:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aftermarket-license-plates-displayed-on-car-as-if-real/1020504/56 "2025-07-07T02:39:30Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > In most states the plate stays with the owner, not the vehicle. That’s how it is here. The plates on my wife’s car are on their fifth or sixth vehicle. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2025, 10:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aftermarket-license-plates-displayed-on-car-as-if-real/1020504/57 "2025-07-07T10:09:17Z")
I just checked, and it seems that currently CA, DE, HI, & MN keep the plates with the car on sale. Everybody else keeps the plate with the old owner. That’s a rapidly shrinking pool of holdouts. Although CA represents ~10% of all motor vehicles in the country, so by plate count that’s a significant fraction. The other three are a rounding error on CA’s total, much less the whole country’s. ---
**Author:** ![PatrickLondon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/patricklondon/32/4422_2.png) [@PatrickLondon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PatrickLondon)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2025, 12:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aftermarket-license-plates-displayed-on-car-as-if-real/1020504/58 "2025-09-14T12:41:44Z")
Piece in the paper this morning about the market for vanity plates in the UK > **[MAD 4 1T: the obsessive collectors who pay big money for personalised number...](https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2025/sep/13/obsessive-collectors-pay-big-money-personalised-number-plates?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Other)** > > Customised plates often cost more than the car – and yet the number of people queueing up to buy them is at an all‑time high. What’s the appeal? And some examples of what’s not allowed https://www.tiktok.com/embed/v2/7467888838845664545 ---
**Author:** ![minor7flat5](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/minor7flat5/32/258_2.png) [@minor7flat5](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/minor7flat5)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2025, 2:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aftermarket-license-plates-displayed-on-car-as-if-real/1020504/59 "2025-09-15T14:46:59Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > I see lots of legit plates with fully clear, translucent, or dark plastic covers over them. Clearly intended to defeat cameras of some kind. And eyewitnesses and cellphone cams. > > Not a huge percentage of all cars, but any LEO (or department) who wanted to make that a crusade could drive the major streets all day, simply harvesting one every 20 minutes or so per officer. IOW the entire force could be occupied all day every day writing these things up. I realize this was from July, but it is a pet peeve of mine. There are two features that are illegal in NJ and are surprisingly common: dark window tint and tinted license plate covers. I don’t get how these cars can exist. One day on the two-mile drive home from the YMCA, I decided to count the number of nondescript rounded 4-door sedans, usually white, with limo-black tint all around and usually a tinted cover on the license plate: I counted 10. How those 10 cars in a two-mile distance are allowed to exist is beyond me. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2025, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aftermarket-license-plates-displayed-on-car-as-if-real/1020504/60 "2025-09-15T15:14:34Z")
Annoys me too. But evidently the local police have better things to do. Or think they do. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aftermarket-license-plates-displayed-on-car-as-if-real/1020504.md?page=2)