http://www.wheels.ca/news/selena-gomez-has-gas-pains/
Take a look at the picture. What’s the deal with that license plate? I know here in Ontario you are required to have both a legit front and back plate, but in the U.S. you can have a souvenir plate on the front but you need a proper plate (“tag”) on the back. I can’t watch the video because YouTube is blocked at my work, but the picture made me curious.
New car perhaps. Plates not ready yet.
Can’t really tell from the pic. My WAG is that that it is a ‘tag’ from the dealership and that she hasn’t received the ‘permanent’ state issued tags yet.
Also, most states require a state issued tag/plate on the front and rear of vehicles.
Here in Texas, it’s a $200+ fine for not having a front license plate. :mad:
YMMV
My guess: California.
The loophole: buy a new car every six months. If you’re a celeb, you probably have the means to do so.
Hmm. I’d thought no front plates was the norm, but apparently only 19.5 states don’t require a front plate. (The .5 is for Nevada, which doesn’t require a front plate if the vehicle wasn’t designed to accept one.) There’s a bill floating around the Ohio legislature to drop the front plate requirement; I’m keeping my fingers crossed.
The article says it’s a new BMW. WI requires both front and back plates, though I think there is talk of changing to back only.
About that: a short while back the Texas legislature overhauled the Transportation code. They took the “no front license plate” offense out of Chapter 502 and put it in Chapter 504. When they did that, they took it away from the section specifying a penalty range. So, at the moment, it is “an offense” to drive without a front plate, but there’s no penalty, which doesn’t make a whole lot of sense, but that’s the legislature for ya.
But, the fix is in, and as of September 1, 2013, there’ll be a penalty again. Bummer.
All they would have do do is write you a “fix it ticket” failure to make the correction at least in CA has some hefty fines. I got pulled over and did not have my proof of insurance and needed to show up at traffic court with proof. If I had not shown up the fine was $700, with proof, $35.
Ontario requires front and back plates as well. However, recently I saw a BMW with a European-style plate on the front and a matching Ontario-style plate on the back. The characters were the same. Is Ontario now allowing plates in different shape formats? I’ve read of several Australian states doing that.
That’s how Steve Jobs did it: he got a new car every 5 1/2 months so the license plates wouldn’t ruin the look of the car.
To reiterate: Yep, standard procedure in California is to drive your new car around plate-less (with a paper registration form taped to the inside of the windshield) for several weeks until plates arrive in the mail. That’s what I’ve done every time I’ve purchased a new car in this state. As elmwood pointed out, it’s completely legal. (In fact, short of not driving your new car for a few weeks, I don’t know how you could avoid doing this.)
Many (most?) dealerships take advantage of the opportunity for advertising and deliver cars with advertising placards (like this one from Bunnin Chevrolet) where the plates will go. Owners could replace them with whatever they wanted (or nothing at all) for a short time, but in my experience few feel motivated to do so.
IIRC, I heard that he would lease the cars, always the same make, model and color.
So where is her paper tag? It should be visible in the back windshield.
Presumably, this does not apply to cars from states that don’t issue front plates, even when they are driven in TX. Yes?
Is it not possible in California to actually go to a DMV office and walk out with your plate(s) in your hands?
Usually in a holder in the right front corner of the windshield.
I had trouble figuring out the OP’s question… after living in CA so long, I am completely used to seeing bizarre, even garish dealer “paper plates” on vehicles. Non CA-ians have to understand that the CA DMV is so overloaded you have to make an appointment six weeks in advance to go in and wait only an hour or two for a routine issue. Dealers will submit a new vehicle registration and plate request for you (for a Documentation Fee of $35-100), but it still takes two to six weeks to get your plates.
Walking in to the DMV for anything short of a career-threatening emergency is not a worthwhile way to spend your ten hours. I once stood in line for two hours (5:00-7:00 am), outside the locked doors, on the first business day of the year, to ensure I’d get a rarely issued registration type.
Sure. And you can drop in on Barack for a cuppa coffee any time you like, too.
We found it almost scandalous when we got to CT and got two new driver’s licenses and registered two cars (with a quick run for a smog check) an hour and a half after we walked in. CT-ians were bitching nonstop that summer about how terrible the lines had gotten due to state cutbacks. I could only laugh.
I don’t know. It might be.
When I moved to California, bringing a Texas-registered car with me, that’s pretty much what happened.* I walked in, filled out the form, handed them the check (probably the most important part), and walked out holding an envelope containing two California plates.
So one might be able to arrange just this sort of thing upon the purchase of a new car. It’s certainly not the standard way to do things, and there may be some logistical hurdle I’m not thinking of right now. It definitely sounds like more work than waiting for plates to arrive in the mail. 
In California, it is a small pink paper with the expiration month in white on the back windshield and AFAIK, the paper tag is always in the back window regardless of state so again, if it is a new car and we are looking at her back window where is her paper tag?
IANAL
As far as I know, it does not apply to vehicles registered in another state.
However, if you move to this state, you have a limited amount of time to register your vehicle with the Texas DMV. (I’m not sure of the amount of time, though.)
No, that’s a temporary registration. Different from a newly issued one.
