Them license plates is hard

[EvilEmpryss]

You're not odd. I see roleplaying abbreviations in many peoples' numbers. My faves are LVL-2819 and HPS-9320. I wouldn't want to meet either of those guys in a game!

My 4-digit plate is a set of important dates. The first two are the last two digits of my birth year.

The last two are "18" . . . the average number of months I've been able to keep a car before someone forces me into an improvisational demolition derby. This year it was a deer and not another car that got me.

[Midorikawa]

I remember mine from back in Texas, but I don't remember my new Utah plates.

Heck, I remember all my parents plates (5 cars, 2 on the road at any one time, with the other 3 being project cars between my dad's truck, my duster, and my brother's carcass restoration of the week (I think my brother now owns 2 hippy buses, a suburban, and a 1959 Lincoln Continental...only 2 of which are driveable, and the rest are projects in progress.) To my brother's credit, both hippy buses are award winners at car shows, so he does great work.

[infinitemonkies]

A lot of guests are in rental cars, and I totally understand not memorizing your plate # in that case.

But yeah, most poeple just don't know. Me, I can remember the plate # of every car my parents had when I was growing up. I even know their current plate number.

As I mentioned recently, in my professional experience, I'd say that about 3/4 of the population doesn't even have their own postal/zip code memorized. A significant percentage of those also don't realize it's printed on the DL they're holding in their hand, and all too many don't even know what a postal code is.

[Mr Hero]

I totally understand that people don't know their plate numbers. It's the fact that they whine and complain about not knowing it, when there's a very easy way to figure it out. It's like they just give up in defeat without even trying.

[Midnight]

Ugh, yeah, gotta love people and their ineptitude when it comes to their license plates.

It's a city ordinance here where we're required to take the plate # of any vehicle registered to a guest of the hotel. I can definitely understand not having it memorized. Still, I explain the ordinance pretty much to every guest who checks in and like clock work I still get the occasional "WTF I'm actually supposed to go look at it so I can tell you?" look from at least one guest after check-in time.

Seriously, I wouldn't explain the law to you if I didn't need to get that info from you. I'm just asking so I can call the cops later with your plate number so they can ticket you for parking illegally! :P

[protege]

If you sell the car, the new owner is responsible for getting their own plates, with a new number on it. You have to then either have the plates transferred onto a new car, or send them back to the DMV (MVC, whatever) for destruction. I don't think the numbers are reused in that case, so eventually they run out of numbers and have to change the series.

Same thing in Pennsylvania. When buying a car, you're the one who has to get it registered. Usually, all of that can be taken care of at the dealer, or Triple-A office. Old plates are *supposed* to be destroyed, but many times, they're hung on the walls of garages, or sold at yard sales...usually with the registration stickers removed. I can't see just why you'd want a new plate--you've already paid the ~$40 registration fee, so to get a new one wouldn't be worth it. Unless, you've got a stalker or something...

But, some plates, don't expire. For example, classic car tags don't. You pay a one-time fee of (IIRC) $50, and it lasts forever. Well, until you sell the vehicle, or put it in someone else's name. I don't know if it'll stay that way though--the state has started issuing new tags for classics. Hopefully, the original (1980s) purple/silver plate will remain on my MG...

[Shalom]

I don't remember my plate number offhand; I've got two cars, only one of which is usually drivable at any given time, and I never remember which plate goes with which car.

But there's an even easier way: look in your damn wallet for the registration. Don't even have to walk out to the lot for that. And if you don't have the reg in your wallet, you should.

(OK, rental cars I'll make an exception for, but if you've been in any number of hotels and you're not an idiot you already know you're going to need to bring it in with you. Unfortunately there are many travelers who don't fit the description "not an idiot".)

[bhskittykatt]

I don't know if plates are changed regularly in Yankee land. Or is it that people just change their cars regularly?

Can't say for other states, but in Washington State, every few years you have to replace your license plate. I don't remember how long it is...it's like every five or seven years when you renew your registration you replace your plates as well. Hubs is from Oregon and he says they never had to do that, so I think we're just a weird state.

[Chromatix]

One thing I do remember about my dad's latest vehicle is that people sometimes get confused by the plate. As background, the UK registration system has changed several times over the years - though the old plates are still valid if the car has survived or the registration transferred. I can think of at least five distinct formats that plates can take, depending on the age.

Ignoring the ancient 6-digit systems (XXX 000 and 000 XXX) which are now found only on serious classics, the 1960s-1980s system was XXX 000X, where the last letter indicated the year. In the 1980s they ran out of year letters, so they simply changed to X000 XXX and started again at A. Then in about 2000 they decided to change to XX00 XXX, where the *numbers* indicate the *half* year - apparently to try and curb the rush of registrations and sales in the summer when the year changed.

So to tell the difference between a 1990s plate and a 21st-century plate, you have to see whether there's a letter or a digit in the second position. There's also a subtle difference in the font, as the letters were made narrower to make room for an EU-standard country marker, but I think you can get an older number printed on a modern-style plate.

It just so happens that that if you miss that indicator, my dad's van looks as though it has a 2005 registration. So people sometimes assume that it is one of the newest examples of that particular shape of VW Transporter. Nope - it's actually from the first year of that shape, in the 1990s!

[It's me]

In Ontario plates belong to the owner and are (more or less) permanent, with renewal stickers each year. Owners can move them to a new car if they want. Up until 1973 they used to be replaced every year, switching between blue on white and white on blue. In '73 there was an initial trial of (I think) plates being good for five years, and by end of the trial the decision was made for the plates to be permanent. Had to switch from AAA### to ###AAA sometime in the mid 80's, and then to AAAA### sometime around 2000. Only in the B's right now, so there is still some breathing room.....

I do know my licence plate number, especially since it's a personalized plate!

[Shalom]

Ignoring the ancient 6-digit systems (XXX 000 and 000 XXX) which are now found only on serious classics

Jon Pertwee's incarnation of the Doctor drove a 1969 SIVA Edwardian with a (fake) license plate reading "WHO 1". The vehicle was a kit-car, though, with the underlying chassis being a Ford Popular taken from the BBC motor pool; this car had had the license plate "MTR 5", which was what they had to use whenever they drove the thing on the public highways. You'll notice that when he's filmed in the car on the road, you don't see the actual license plate...

(The source I read, an old issue of Dr Who magazine, said it was a 1951 model, but this can't be right because they didn't start building the Popular until 1953.)

[Dave1982]

I know my license plate number. And I know the plate number from my previous car which was totaled (and the plate returned to the RMV) back in 2003. If it's your own car, you should know the plate number. Just like you SHOULD know your own phone number. Yes, I have asked people for their phone number and they can't come up with it. Their excuse is ALWAYS "well I don't call MYSELF." Well, what do you do when you have to tell someone to call you? Tell them to look you up in the white pages?

Then again, I can remember long strings of numbers.

173467321476charlie32789777643tango732victor731178 88732476789764376

Cookies for the reference. You'll just have to take my word that I did that from memory.

[taxguykarl]

A lot of guests are in rental cars, and I totally understand not memorizing your plate # in that case.

My wife thought I was crazy for writing down the plates of our rental car...'til we checked in.

[hotelnpa]

At my hotel, we just require the make, color, and state of the vehicle. We used to ask for the license plate number, but it was slowing down the check-in process.

[kenny4269]

173467321476charlie32789777643tango732victor731178 88732476789764376

Cookies for the reference. You'll just have to take my word that I did that from memory.

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