Spartydog, I’m not sure where you live, but in my neck of the woods, you’re pretty much correct. It would be pretty easy to track a dealer temp tag here. ##### links to OWNER.
In California, though, I think the world is a different place. I’ve always wondered about the license plate issues out there, as it seems that every 10th car, has no official plate on it. Hopefully someone will excuse this hijack to explain to me how it works out there.
In MA/NH and the Northeast, NO plate on your car, or a dealer “advertisment” placard would get you pulled over faster than throwing a beer at a cop car. You’re required to have numbers on your car in order to even park it on a public way, much less drive it.
In CA, do you buy a car and drive around without a proper number plate for months??? What is to stop someone from just hanging a “null” tag and heading out for some mahem? When you register your car, can’t your DMV have a whole pile of plates to hand out?
Same deal in Maryland. Other than regular license plates the only plates I’ve seen are the 30 day temp cardboard tags and dealer plates that can be moved from unsold vehicle to vehicle for transportation and demos. What are the rules for licensure & tags in CA and Nevada (where the car was presumably sold.
Dealer plates? Do you mean a temporary tag that is usually displayed in the back window? I don’t think so since I’ve never seen the dealers name on it.
Was just one of those plastic ‘Joe Blow Motors’ tag on the front? Some states don’t require a front license plate. And many states don’t really enforce it. If that was the case, the Hummer could be years old.
Now that’s still a lead, but I can’t imagine a dealership not giving out the info without a judges orders.
Good questions. The remarkably efficient DMVs in Mississippi do, in fact, have piles of plates to hand out. Louisiana is a little different … you can drive around with a temporary paper plate (good for 30 days), but the number on this plate is still traceable directly to the car’s owner.
The only people driving with dealer plates in Louisiana are dealers and the people dealer’s let drive their unsold cars around. It wouldn’t shock me to learn that the dealer his/herself would be held liable, as the car’s lawful owner, for hit-and-run in the OP if they weren’t willing to fess up another name and do some explaining. I don’t know that for a fact, however.
After moving from MA to VA my car that still had MA plates on it died. I purchased a car in MD. I figured I’d put my MA plates on the car to get it home. The dealer instead gave me paper MD plates good for 15 days or so I think. I got VA plates when I showed up to register my car their.
In VA thier are a lot of cars driving around with temp plates. Also a huge amount of custom plates. That might be related I never investigated.
I think we’ll have to wait for the CA folks. Most of the states so far sound similar to the ones I’m familar with (see location). Paper temp tag, but it has a number-owner relationship.
My experience in CA is that lots of cars have NO numbers on the back OR the front.
In Minnesota, the cost of your license plates varies with the value of the car, and the plates stay with the car, not the owner. Since California has a site to calculate license costs, I am assuming that they have a similar system.
When you buy a new car, it does NOT have plates on it. What you get is about an 8"x5" temp license that goes in your back window, until your plates arrive. Often, the dealers will leave a paper in the license plate holder, that shows their name. Free advertising for the 30 days or so it takes to get your metal plates. (The California DMV site lists 30-45 days for new licenses to arrive. It also lists the “Purchaser’s Temporary Operationg Copy” as being valid fo 90 days) FAQ
I doubt this is something that your friend has to worry about finding out on her own. The insurance company is on the hook for the costs and if they have any interest in recovering those costs, they’ll track down the driver.
In California (and Nevada I think) the dealer fills out the paperwork, but does not issue plates. The paperwork is forwarded to the hyper-efficient Department of Motor Vehicles, which sometime before the next ice age sends you out a set of plates. Like I said before maybe up to 3 months (particularly now since so many people bought cars at the end of the 05 model year with all the employee pricing sales)
When you leave the lot with a new car or a used one with no plates* there will be “dealer Plates” these are advertising signs the size and shape of a license plate bolted on where the license plate goes. There will be a small piece of page taped to the inside lower left corner of the windshield. On this form is the date of sale, all the buyer info, all the seller info and the VIN. The piece of paper is folded so that only the date of sale and the VIN is showing to prevent ID theft.
Different states have different car registration rules. For you guys that live in states where there is a numbered tag attached to the car, all I can say is think for just a minute. If the victim had a tag number, why would they be calling the dealer at all? Go straight to the cops or the DMV and let them do their jobs. The reason the victim approached the dealer is because they do not have a tag number, they just saw the advertising on the back of the car.
*There of course is always an exception to every rule; in this case, the exception is if you have personalized plates, they get transferred at the dealer to the new car. Except for this exception plates in California follow the car, not the owner.
We have no evidence that the dealer is refusing to assist the proper authorities, all we know is that he is protecting the privacy of his customers from someone with no legal right to access sensitive personal data.
Something just occurred to me. Reno is in Nev. Nevada doesn’t have a sales tax, California does. This guy could be a California resident trying to register his car in Nevada to avoid California sales tax. If this is the case and the DMV catches up with him, he will get a bill for the sales tax and possibly a whole ration of shit from them. Boy I hope this is the case. It would be fun to see this guy get a bill from the DMV for 7.75-8.25% of what he paid for that unit.
Bought a lot of new cars in CA. It can take up to 3 months (at least for me) to get permanent plates. In the meantime, you drive around with a little paper thing stuck on your windshield that allows you to drive the car. The dealer will give you one of their plate holders with their name on it, but it’s empty until your plates arrive.
I think everyone’s aware of that. Posting the law in other states to this theread is more like saying “Phew! Glad it’s not like that here.” Not particularly helpful, but <shrug>.
If I run a dealership selling $50,000 cars, and one comes back from a test-drive with a quarter-panel bent to heck, I’m going to make some notes, you know?
When I bought my car, I couldn’t drive it off the lot without my real plate. If you’re allowed to drive around with a paper one for a while, you might be SOL.
Why the cops don’t think it’s a big deal, I’m still not sure.
This happened a little south of San Francisco and the dealer is in Reno. 250 miles each way, that’d be quite a test drive
I agree with what a variety of folks have pointed out, namely that the dealer has no way of telling who my friend is and whether she’s even telling the truth when she calls him up to inquire about the vehicle.
And I also agree that the insurance company is the only entity that seems to have any big incentive to track the jerk down (to recoup their costs).
However the money shouldn’t be the issue here - somebody smashed someone off the road at high speed, totalling their car, and then took off running, possibly leaving someone dead or severely injured. If I were the dealer I like to think that I’d at least ask for the “case number” and then contact the CHP to see if the story was legit and if so I’d help get the reckless SOB called to account. I’d think that the CHP would also have a strong interest in nabbing this fool since there is a demonstrated reckless disregard for the personal safety of others.
