# Just saw a car driving with a Hawaiian license plate.....in Minnesota.... **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [May 26, 2018, 1:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-saw-a-car-driving-with-a-hawaiian-license-plate-in-minnesota/814838 "2018-05-26T01:40:09Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![TonySinclair](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/49beb7/32.png) [@TonySinclair](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TonySinclair)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2018, 11:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-saw-a-car-driving-with-a-hawaiian-license-plate-in-minnesota/814838/41 "2018-05-29T11:15:49Z")
I saw a Deadhead sticker on a Cadillac. ---
**Author:** ![Sparky812](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/eb9ed0/32.png) [@Sparky812](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sparky812)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2018, 3:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-saw-a-car-driving-with-a-hawaiian-license-plate-in-minnesota/814838/42 "2018-05-29T15:30:08Z")
> [@Hypnagogic\_Jerk](#): > > I once saw a car with Ontario plates in Poland. I saw a car with a Nunavut plate in Ottawa just the other day. ---
**Author:** ![Geek\_Mecha](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/ecae2f/32.png) [@Geek\_Mecha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Geek_Mecha)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2018, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-saw-a-car-driving-with-a-hawaiian-license-plate-in-minnesota/814838/43 "2018-05-29T16:58:14Z")
I’m from Hawaii. People ship their cars to the mainland all the time. It’s no big deal and worth it if it’s a solid, well-maintained vehicle. I think it cost about $2k back in the early 2000s. ---
**Author:** ![Sparky812](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/eb9ed0/32.png) [@Sparky812](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sparky812)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2018, 5:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-saw-a-car-driving-with-a-hawaiian-license-plate-in-minnesota/814838/44 "2018-05-29T17:03:06Z")
Slight hijack/ My SIL and family lived in Costa Rica for a year, it was way, WAY cheaper for them to ship their car there for ~$1000 than to buy or lease anything there. ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2018, 5:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-saw-a-car-driving-with-a-hawaiian-license-plate-in-minnesota/814838/45 "2018-05-29T17:06:05Z")
> [@Edward\_The\_Head](#): > > 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. There’s a family with a Wyoming plate in my neighborhood. Frequency of various state license plates along my commute route (which takes me past Andrews AFB, a relevant factor) seems to wax and wane over time. Used to almost never see Mississippi plates; now I see them pretty frequently. I see a surprising number of North Dakota plates, but these days I almost never see a Kansas plate. My WAG is that it has a lot to do with the ups and downs of where the people are from who are driving along Route 4 at the same time I am. ---
**Author:** ![Balthisar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/balthisar/32/2825_2.png) [@Balthisar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balthisar)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2018, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-saw-a-car-driving-with-a-hawaiian-license-plate-in-minnesota/814838/46 "2018-05-29T17:12:29Z")
> [@Sunspace](#): > > The rarest one, though, was a Guanajuato plate outside a convenience store in the Toronto suburb of Mississauga. I had Michigan plates on my car when I lived in Mississauga. That’s not uncommon, though, but when I was living in Hermosillo, I took a nice, long road trip through Arizona, Nevada, and California with my Sonora-plated car. I actually find it pretty strange that I _don’t_ see more Mexican license plates in that part of the USA. I’ve seen Guanajuato plates here in Michigan, usually in Mexicantown, but the most common seem to be Jalisco plates. Of course in Mexico, you see US plates all over the place, because if you have a US-plated car, the registration never expires until you leave Mexico. They’re usually from Texas or the southwest, though. Once on a trip from Leon, GTO to Uruapan, driving my Michigan-plated Continental, we stopped for coffee de oya at a little roadside place, and there was a currently-registered, Michigan-plated minivan parked there! It was a Mexican family from Grand Rapids, and they were on a road trip to visit their family in Michoacan. I wish I’d kept my Chinese license plates. ---
**Author:** ![Baker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bb73d2/32.png) [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2018, 4:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-saw-a-car-driving-with-a-hawaiian-license-plate-in-minnesota/814838/47 "2018-05-30T04:32:21Z")
I saw a plate from American Samoa, here in Kansas. This was two or three years ago. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2018, 5:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-saw-a-car-driving-with-a-hawaiian-license-plate-in-minnesota/814838/48 "2018-05-30T05:00:51Z")
Well, we _do_ have interstate highways here, ya know. What’s always odd is to see an out-of-state plate here, but it happens. People will often ship their cars over when they move here. I’ve known some. EDIT: I swear someone who lived close to where we did in Bangkok had Texas plates on their car. I did not go out of my way to meet them. ---
**Author:** ![Balthisar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/balthisar/32/2825_2.png) [@Balthisar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balthisar)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2018, 2:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-saw-a-car-driving-with-a-hawaiian-license-plate-in-minnesota/814838/49 "2018-05-31T02:28:30Z")
> [@Siam\_Sam](#): > > EDIT: I swear someone who lived close to where we did in Bangkok had Texas plates on their car. I did not go out of my way to meet them. This actually reminds me that I saw a Ford F-150 Raptor with Chinese license plates in Pattaya one time. The Raptor is/was strictly gray-market in China at the time, and the idea of driving from anyplace in China to Thailand is just, well, ballsy. On top of that, you need a special drivers license in China for a pickup truck. Although it was odd, it’s also encouraging. I’m a road trip junkie, and my only choices, now that I’m back home, are Canada, the US, and Mexico. I’d just love to drive across eastern Asia. ---
**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2018, 5:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-saw-a-car-driving-with-a-hawaiian-license-plate-in-minnesota/814838/50 "2018-05-31T05:49:38Z")
My folks once drove a car up from the Bahamas. ---
**Author:** ![control-z](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/eada6e/32.png) [@control-z](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/control-z)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2018, 2:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-saw-a-car-driving-with-a-hawaiian-license-plate-in-minnesota/814838/51 "2018-05-31T14:26:08Z")
> [@Bijou\_Drains](#): > > 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 think for a long time Europe didn’t get the “good” Mustangs with the big horsepower, maybe he managed to import one of those. ---
**Author:** ![Spiderman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spiderman/32/230_2.png) [@Spiderman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spiderman)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2018, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-saw-a-car-driving-with-a-hawaiian-license-plate-in-minnesota/814838/52 "2018-05-31T15:37:27Z")
> [@Hypnagogic\_Jerk](#): > > I once saw a car with Ontario plates in Poland. I saw NJ plates in Krakow. I forget exactly what it was now, but it was something expensive & kind of rare, a Maserati or an Aston Martin. ---
**Author:** ![Sparky812](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/eb9ed0/32.png) [@Sparky812](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sparky812)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2018, 5:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-saw-a-car-driving-with-a-hawaiian-license-plate-in-minnesota/814838/53 "2018-05-31T17:14:44Z")
> [@Spiderman](#): > > I saw NJ plates in Krakow. I forget exactly what it was now, but it was something expensive & kind of rare, a Maserati or an Aston Martin. I’ve heard that some of these are actually stolen by organized crime. They can be driven into a shipping container, loaded onto a ship, and headed for eastern Europe in hours, if not minutes. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2018, 7:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-saw-a-car-driving-with-a-hawaiian-license-plate-in-minnesota/814838/54 "2018-05-31T19:09:09Z")
> [@TonySinclair](#): > > I saw a Deadhead sticker on a Cadillac. Did a little voice inside your head tell you “Don’t look back, you can never look back”? ---
**Author:** ![richw211](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8797f3/32.png) [@richw211](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/richw211)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2018, 6:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-saw-a-car-driving-with-a-hawaiian-license-plate-in-minnesota/814838/55 "2018-06-01T18:24:17Z")
When I was in the Navy I was stationed on a ship out of Pearl Harbor. I opted to have my car shipped to Seattle when my enlistment ended. After a road trip (stops in MT-UT-AZ-OK-KY-IL-IA) I ended up in the Twin Cities (U of MN). Once I had an apartment, I registered the car and put on MN plates. I can remember several times when other drivers honked and gave me the “Hang-Loose” hand signal (rotating the fist with thumb & pinkie extended). I also had a “I’d rather be riding a mule on Molokai” bumper sticker which stayed on for quite a while after I changed plates. This attracted similar attention. ---
**Author:** ![Monty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/monty/32/47_2.png) [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2018, 9:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-saw-a-car-driving-with-a-hawaiian-license-plate-in-minnesota/814838/56 "2018-06-02T09:21:20Z")
> [@Balthisar](#): > > Of course in Mexico, you see US plates all over the place, because if you have a US-plated car, the registration never expires until you leave Mexico. Surely that’s up to the issuing authority, under the US state’s law, not Mexican law. > [@](#): > > I wish I’d kept my Chinese license plates. When my Dad transferred back to the US from Korea and when I transferred back to the US from Japan we wanted to keep our foreign plates, but we were required to return them to the issuing authority. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2018, 4:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-saw-a-car-driving-with-a-hawaiian-license-plate-in-minnesota/814838/57 "2018-06-02T16:10:11Z")
> [@Monty](#): > > …When my Dad transferred back to the US from Korea and when I transferred back to the US from Japan we wanted to keep our foreign plates, but we were required to return them to the issuing authority. Were you tempted to report them as “lost” or “stolen”? ---
**Author:** ![Hypnagogic\_Jerk](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hypnagogic_jerk/32/4252_2.png) [@Hypnagogic\_Jerk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hypnagogic_Jerk)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2018, 6:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-saw-a-car-driving-with-a-hawaiian-license-plate-in-minnesota/814838/58 "2018-06-02T18:58:43Z")
> [@Spiderman](#): > > I saw NJ plates in Krakow. I forget exactly what it was now, but it was something expensive & kind of rare, a Maserati or an Aston Martin. It was also in Krakow that I saw a car with Ontario plates (back in 2013). It was parked not far from my place, and looking at the pictures I took, it seems like it was a Dodge minivan but I’m not entirely sure. I also remember seeing a car with American plates driving in Krakow a few months later, but I don’t remember the state and what brand and model it was. ---
**Author:** ![Corry\_El](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ecae2f/32.png) [@Corry\_El](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Corry_El)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2018, 1:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-saw-a-car-driving-with-a-hawaiian-license-plate-in-minnesota/814838/59 "2018-06-03T01:18:34Z")
> [@Spiderman](#): > > I saw NJ plates in Krakow. I forget exactly what it was now, but it was something expensive & kind of rare, a Maserati or an Aston Martin. Speaking of NJ plates we have them and are wrapping up a ~6400 mile road trip from NJ to MT and ID and back. We saw a total of _two_ other cars with NJ plates, a BMW M2 in lower Michigan (doubly unusual because of the bizarrely, by NJ standards, high % of US brand cars there\*) and a Nissan eastbound on I-80 in WY. People from NJ don’t seem to get around much, in their cars anyway.\*\* But I’ve seen HI plates in NJ time to time. - we also counted BMW’s since we drive one, actually saw at least one in every state we passed through, though only one or two in some. \*\*I usually don’t count seeing NJ plates in neighboring states but I saw none today crossing most of PA, eventually close to the border you see them of course. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2018, 4:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-saw-a-car-driving-with-a-hawaiian-license-plate-in-minnesota/814838/60 "2018-06-03T04:30:20Z")
> [@Balthisar](#): > > … and the idea of driving from anyplace in China to Thailand is just, well, ballsy. I don’t know how long ago your sighting was, but it’s not so ballsy anymore. Lots of Chinese now drive into northern Thailand via Laos, so many that they’ve started including Chinese on highway signs. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-saw-a-car-driving-with-a-hawaiian-license-plate-in-minnesota/814838.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-saw-a-car-driving-with-a-hawaiian-license-plate-in-minnesota/814838.md?page=4)