I just returned from a vacation in Maui. I thought it was curious that my rental car (a late-model jeep) had Ohio license plates. This even seemed to surprise some of the locals.
I noticed a few other cars from the same rental agency also had Ohio plates. Also, it might be worth noting that the agency seemed a little, um, shady.
Why would a car in HI have Ohio license plates? Is this some kind of registration dodge?
Try to find out the national headquarters of the rental company. Maybe it’s located in Ohio.
That’s the way some customers are. Offer them unlimited mileage and they’re just going to abuse it.
Also keep in mind “one way” rentals.
My friends flight (out of the bahamas back to ohio) was once pushed ahead an hour, so he missed the plane. He had spent ever cent he had while there and the next flight to ohio was the next week. So after some “creative” “social-engineering” he got the next flight to nashville, and got a free rental car… of course he wasn’t going to come back to nashville to return the car, he just dropped it off at the agency’s office here in ohio. And i’m sure later someone renting a car here in ohio got that one.
U-Haul vehicles routinely carry Arizona plates, even if the trucks themselves have never been within 2000 miles of Pheonix. The rental agency’s corporation must be based in Ohio or has some sweetheart deal to get cheap vehicle registrations there.
So, did you take your jeep on one of Hawaii’s three interstate highways?
The agency was a small operation and was kind of amateurish, so I don’t think they have a headquarters or corporate office in Ohio (I also checked the website and paperwork and couldn’t find anything).
I remember one time I bought an old motorcycle without a title and had to register it in Delaware to get around the red tape in Texas. I was wondering if it was some kind of similar deal in Ohio.
Sure, but in order for such an event to explain the situation described in the OP it would require someone driving a car from Ohio…to Hawaii.
And I don’t think there is a regular ferry or anything.
The standard reason given for seeing foreign plates in Hawaii is that the military will transport your vehicle over from the mainland for you as a benefit. Which satisified my curiousity.
But I don’t see how that could be relevant for the rental company since they would presumably have to re-register the cars to rent them out and they would get Hawaii plates.
Was this the car you where renting? http://www.watercar.com/
In witch case it may have been a one way rental as some have suggested
It’s just a “who’s cheapest” thing. If a company has offices in 50 states, or even 7, they can register all its cars and trucks in the state where it’s cheapest to register cars. Some friends of mine have their boats and trailers registered in Tennessee. The registration fees are much kinder in TN, and trailers don’t need plates at all.
It’s not that simple though, if you’re talking about Maui, due to two “facts” I observed:
So this isn’t something that the major chains are doing, like they do in the other states.