How does this happen?
Do people who live in Hawaii sometimes actually ship their cars to the mainland?
Was it a fake plate?
Maybe they just moved to the mainland.
Pasha Hawaii
If you’re already shipping an entire household, that seems reasonable.
Probably military. PCS and all that.
We’re building a really long ramp out here in volcano land. Our overlords insist it’s just a 20 mile rail line. With a cost, so far, estimated over $10 billion and climbing; it’d better be a ramp to California.
I know a number of people, military, who had there cars shipped to Hawaii when being stationed there and shipped back to the mainland when done. I don’t know if the military has a program for that or if they had to pay out of pocket.
Saw a van with Hawaii plates in the Black Hills about 20 years ago. Just a father and his two sons on vacation.
Of course, the reason I remember it was because the two boys, both big kids of high school age, started walking straight at the largest bull buffalo, right past the “Buffalo are Dangerous: DO NOT APPROACH” sign and telling their dad to get a picture of them on it’s back. :smack:
I looked at the dad, pointed to the sign and said “I really don’t think that’s a good idea”. He called them back.
I once saw a car with Ontario plates in Poland.
As long as the vehicle is owned or leased by the military member prior to the effective date of the permanent change of station orders, the government will pay to transport the vehicle. The registration of the vehicle remains in the original state unless the military member decides to change his state of legal residence (different than home of record). So, it’s not out of pocket.
If I wanted to ship my vintage Rolls Royce, with British plates, to the US, would I be able to drive it without registering it in a State, and if so, for how long?
When I grew up at an Army base in El Paso, TX, I’d occasionally see Puerto Rico plates, and once saw a Guam plate or two. Hawaii plates were really not too remarkable (probably more common than Vermont).
Army bases are the best places to play the license plate game.
We like looking for unusual plates here in the Mid Atlantic region. Hawaii is certainly rare but we see a few each year. One magical day I saw a Hawaii and a North Dakota on the same shopping trip!
I saw Jeep with Hawaii plates between Santa Fe and Los Alamos. Same guy, MrDeals?
Tripler
Probably a military PCS.
If you are moving to the USA rather than on vacation, many states require a change within 30 days of establishing residence.
And if this car the OP saw was near Lake Superior there is a good chance it was a Coast Guard transfer.
We look for plates too, we actually have a board that has the plates on it that you can flip over. Hawaii isn’t too hard in the DC area, but we had never seen a Wyoming, then one day we saw two with in a few minutes of each other. That was so crazy.
American trucks can have worse fates:
I know at least two people who moved from Minnesota to Hawaii, and then moved back. Reasons cited were the islands unfriendliness to “outsiders”, feeling psychologically trapped, and the outrageous cost of living. I’m assuming there’s a lot more and they likely took their cars with them and haven’t re-registered them yet.
I saw a guy in London driving a US model Mustang with the steering wheel on the left. He was a local , not from the US. Did not ask him where he got it.
I’ve told this story on the Dope before, but…
My dad was a National Park Service ranger at Cape Hatteras, N.C. many years ago. One summer there was a rash of license-plate thefts, and the rangers, realizing it was never from the same state twice, figured they had a collector. They had the Alaska BMV send them a set of plates, put them on a car, parked it in an out-of-the-way parking lot, and staked it out. Within a day or two, a man drove by, stopped, looked around carefully, and started removing the plates. The rangers pounced. They got a search warrant for his house and garage, and soon found all the stolen plates. Pretty good police work.
I knew a guy in college who came from a wealthy Hawaii family. He had his Alfa Romeo shipped to California. It had Hawaii plates. So obviously one can get cars shipped here from Hawaii, it just takes money.