Do any states replace but with the same number?
I seem to remember than in PA back in the day, but in WA they give you new numbers along with the plates.
Also back then in PA, you kept the plates and put them on new cars.
Love the lighthouse! It won the ALPCA Plate of the Year award in 2007.
When we get a car again, we’re getting the Defeat Diabetes plate. It supports the Diabetes Foundation of Mississippi, and people who have diabetes don’t have to pay the extra $30 for the plate if they have the form from their doctor stating they are diabetic.
My favorite license plate website is 15q.
Oregon doesn’t.
Although I once put my plates in the dishwasher, and all the paint came off them.
(Long story short–I was a teenager, and washing my car. I wanted my plates to be shiny clean for some reason, and figured the dishwasher would be a good method.)
:smack:
I just renewed mine online (Virginia). They noted that it had been > 10 years and suggested I get new plates if the old ones were getting unreadable but did not require them.
New Zealand issued new plates each year up until the early 60s. Since then there have been two designs, a non-reflective plate up until the early 90s and then a reflective one since. There is no requirement to renew plates every x years so if you have a 1963 model car, it could still have original plates. If you want new plates, you can buy them from the licensing agencies for $20 and get the next government issued number, now in 3 letter, 3 number format or pay for personalised plates. A bit steep though at $599 for a 3 letter, 1-3 number combo or $839 for combo of up to 6 letters.
Here in Tennessee, they change the plate design every six years or so. When they do, they go from letterletterletter*numbernumbernumber to the opposite.
The change also makes getting them by mail a bit clunkier than just the stickers.
I remember when I first got my driver’s license changed to New York at the DMV in 2003, I saw a sign in the waiting room which said all NY license plates with the statue of liberty were now expired. Those were the common plates in the 90s.
I also seem to recall New Jersey trying to file an injunction to stop NY from using the statue on anything related to NY, due to the Liberty Island being part of NJ, so that might have been the reason it changed to the dull white plates with a mini NY-shaped logo in the middle.
And now they have these ugly-as-hell yellow plates with no logo at all.
BTW, there was a NY “BORT” license plate parked in my neighborhood a couple years ago.
Original plates had a 2 letter 1-4 number format. When they ran out of combinations (ZZ 9999) they changed to the current 3 letter, 1-3 numbers.
I also forgot to say that the plates don’t have tags on them. The label showing you have paid your rego fee is displayed on the left hand bottom corner of your windscreen. BTW, I paid $287 when I re-registered my car at the beginning of this month.
New York used to give you new plates each year, dull orange and brown alternating by year (i.e., if the letters were one color, that color would be the background the next year).
In the early 60s, they started alternating years and you’d get a small piece of metal that you bolted onto the plates (they fit over the lower right side, with a hole where the screw hole on the full plate was).
After about five years of this, they issued “permanent” blue plates in 1966. A sticker went in the lower right corner to indicate the year. Later, the sticker was put on the windshield.
They next switched to blue letters on a dull orange background in 1973, then to the Statue of Liberty design in 1986, the first time there was anything other than text on the plate. It also had three colors: white background, blue letters, red statue.
In 2001, they dropped the red and the statue and added a graphic of some of the states landmarks in the top band. Last year, they rolled out new blue-on-dull-orange plates, but they were optional.
Why the changes? Because they feel that the old designs have run their course. It has nothing to do with the fact that the state can charge extra money for a license renewal. Nothing at all.
Many years ago my neighbor’s car burst in to flames and was gutted (she wasn’t in it). The paint was burned off the rear plate, it was just a piece of galvanized steel with embossed numbers, but she used it as the front plate on her next car.
I think of them as our ‘throwback’ plates, myself, but I think they’re mandatory for all new registrations, and in my recent case, title changes.
Also back in the day, Illinois issued new plates every year with matching keychain fobs. I’d add to my collection of license plate fobs whenever a new plate came in the mail.
Louisiana used to issue the keyfobs back when they required new plates every year. That ended around 1976.
At one time, I had a few old sets of car keys for cars that no longer existed and they had the little plate tag on them. I don’t think I know where any of those are anymore though.
MA doesn’t require you to get new plates until yours are unreadable. I’ve had the same plate (just the one) for 23 years - it’s the only plate I’ve ever had. I’m grandfathered in on only needing to have one plate on the car instead of the two that are required for new issues. I’ve got the coveted “green” plates, though I don’t have the highly coveted “green” plates with a number under 1000.
I live in Washington. I was visiting with my dad at Christmas and he was telling us about his outrage at being charged for brand new plates the last time his came up for renewal. So he called up the DOL to give them a piece of his mind, and the lady on the phone explained that the replacement was required because the reflective coating wears off after a few years, which makes it hard for the State Patrol to read the plates.
Dad responded, “Lady, I was a Washington State Patrol officer for 36 years, and I can guarantee you we never had any trouble reading license plates before this law went into effect!”
Minnesota used to only require that a license plate be replaced when it was unreadable. Then a legislative bill was introduced to require everyone to replace them frequently (I think every 4-5 years).
Then it was shown that this bill was pushed surreptitiously by 3M, who manufactures the reflective coating on the plates. New plates for everyone would increase their sales, making them a lot more money. The bill was supposedly promoted by police & highway patrol officers, but eventually, legislative hearings showed that they were being inspired (paid?) by 3M lobbyists.
The bill finally passed (3M has a lot of power in Minnesota), but we did manage to stretch the period out to 7 years. Still unnecessary; most plates are still readable even after 7 years. But it contributes to 3M profits. At least the reflective material is made here in the state, so we get some jobs out of it.
The 3M company has been pushing this strategy in states all over the country, generally successfully.
What will the convicts do for work???
OH WON’T SOMEONE PLEASE THINK OF THE CONVICTS 
Did you notice that, not only did you pay the extra $20, but $2 more for a “reflectivity charge” ? If the point of the new plates is to preserve the reflectivity, why we are we paying for it twice?
As far as the cost of renewal goes, before the evil Iman started his campaign for $30 dollar registration ours was $575 for the Corvette and $350 for the F150. While the law didn’t keep the tabs at $30, they made them more reasonable.
As far as I know, Michigan lets you keep yours as long as you have the car. Heck, you can transfer them, too.
My fee per year is $50 per car. 
Heh. I vote against every initiative that guy comes up with just on general principle. That initiative took away my city’s free public transit!