License plates

[kikie]

A thread about license plates isn’t probably the most interesting subject but I’d love to find out more about license plates in other countries.

<<<< Where I live, a license plate is the property of the person that registered a car.
When someone buys a car, you go to the D.I.V. (vehicle registration service) or do it online, registers the car and receive a license plate by mail. If this person decides to sell the car, he/she can keep the license plate for 3 months without registering another car to this license plate. If he/she decides to buy another car, this new car (new or second hand) will be registered to this license plate.
There is no information on the license plate concerning the location were this person lives. It’s just a combination of three letters and three numbers with the number 1 and a hyphen between the 1 and the letter/number combination. Colour of the license plates: white with dark red letters.

What about the license plates about other countries?

* Is it also a combination of letters and numbers or is does your license plate hold information?

* Does the license plate belong to the car or to the person that registered the car?

* What If you sell the car?

* Etc… .

 

[Famine]

UK licence (registration) plates belong to the car with the exception of vanity plates (more on that later) and take the following forms:

Pre-1932
One or two letters followed by one to four numbers. The letters could represent certain location information (original "city" of registration).

Xn - XXnnnn

1932-1963
As before but with and addition preceding letter as a serial mark and a maximum of three numbers. Later cars had the three numbers before the three letters as available combinations ran out.

XXXn - XXXnnn; nXXX - nnnXXX

1962-1982
Three letters, one-to-three numbers and a letter ("suffix") indicating age. Second two letters of the first three indicated original registration location.

A - 1963; B - 1964; C - 1965; D - 1966

In 1967 the date the suffixes changed was changed to 1st August due to the car industry lobbying for changes - the registration suffix system caused odd sales patterns.

E - Jan 67 to Jul 67; - F Aug 67 to Jul 68 and so on until Y - Aug 82 to Jul 83

XXXnX - XXXnnnX

1982 to 2001
Identical to the above except the letter sequences were reversed, with the initial letter ("prefix") giving the age; The two letter location code could still give original registration location but it became less common.

A - Aug 83 to Jul 84 through to R - Aug 97 to Jul 98

The date of the registration change was changed again in 1998.

S - Aug 98 to Feb 99; T - Mar 99 to Aug 99; V - Sep 99 to Feb 00; W - Mar 00 to Aug 00; X - Sep 00 to Feb 01; Y - Mar 01 to Aug 01

XnXXX to XnnnXXX

2001 to present
Two location identifying letters, two age identifying numbers, three letters; The age of the vehicle is marked by the last two digits of the year if registered in the first half of the year (March to August) and this number plus fifty if registered in the second half of the year (September to February). Since the system started in September 2001, the first cars were "51", followed by "02", then "52".

XXnnXXX

Private/Vanity plates
May take any format so long as age identifying marks are no newer than the vehicle to which they are applied. They belong to the owner, but they must pay a retainer (£80 annually, I think) if the mark is not applied to a car and a transferral fee (£50, I think) to take off the car - if the car is sold with the plate, the new owner gets both.

 

[TheBook]

Every state in the US has the name of said state on it, and some states show the county that the plate was registered in, but that's all the personal information that is displayed. I'll continue with my state, Michigan.

MI uses a three letter, four number format for the plate (e.g. ABC 0123), which belongs to the person. To the best of my knowledge, there is no specific information contained in this, but you can get a general idea as to when the vehicle was registered(ABC 0123 was given out before ABC 1234, as an example). If you sell a car privately, the plate goes to the new owner. If you trade a car in at a dealership, you can keep your old plate or get a new one; the fees, IIRC, are about the same.

Registration for plates is due by the owner's birthday, and you get a sticker that goes on the corner of the plate so the police know you're paid up. You need to show proof of insurance when you renew, too.

There are different designs you can buy, as well. You can go with the standard blue letters on a white background, designs to support your favorite college/university, different state-tourism themes, et cetera.

 

[TDZdave]

Here in australia the plate stays with the vehicle, and we can personalize it, every state has their specific designs, most of them are 6-7 numbers and letters, ours used to be in the style of ABC-123 now they are A 123 ABC as all the original ones have been taken,my last 2 cars had personalized plates, STMUL8 and PENRTR8,

 

[Dean]

The Danish plates also stays with the car. We can personalize it, for an extra fee, but most plates have two letters and 5 digits, like AB 12 345. There's also special plates, for the army, the royal family and diplomats.

 

[Akira GT]

Modern Irish license plates consist in a format of Year - County(City) - Registration number in that County.

The first two digits are the year which the car was originally sold, the letter or letters in the middle of the license plate are an acronym for the county where the car was registered. The last part shows how many cars were bought in the county before yours was. Above the main part of the license plate is the name of the county you bought the car in Irish. (Eg. the 457th new car bought in Cork in 08 would have this: 08-C-457)

 

[AOS-]

I don't know the details but In Canada, there was the ### XXX. Where they just number you off by whoever got their license first, First ranking by the digits, then the letters. So if one person got something like 386 LPF, the next person would get 386 LPG. I don't know if this is true, I just thought it was like this because now there's XXXX ###, so I'm guessing they ran out of combinations for the former format.

 

[kikie]

What about the plates on the front end of the car? In Belgium we have an official license plate and an unofficial license plate. Both are identical. The official license plate has a stamp above the hyphen between the &#8220;1&#8221; and the first three letters and some holograms embedded inside the paint. Both plates have to be reflective.

Example of a Belgian (new European version) license plate:

1 &#8211; abc - 123.

This sums it up really nicely: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vehicle_registration_plates_of_Belgium except the example of the dealer&#8217;s plate is outdated.

Before the European versions were available, there was no hyphen. For the older plates, three letters followed by three numbers. When these combinations ran out, they reversed it. Three numbers followed by three letters.

The number &#8220;1&#8221; before the hyphen is always the same except when you want to personalize your license plate. In this case it starts with a &#8220;9&#8221;

Vintage cars or &#8220;oldtimers&#8221; still use an &#8220;O&#8221; as the first of the three letters.

It seems that the Belgian license plate registration thing is unique. Maybe not the best system but nevertheless, uniqe. > The license plate doesn't stay with the car. You can own different car and have only one license plate registered in your name.

 

[AMCNUT]

Well, in Ontario you're lawfully required to have one plate at each end of the vehicle. I'm not sure why, since as far as I'm concerned they only serve to detract the aesthetics of the front of the vehicle, plus you have to manufacture twice as many plates.

Quebecers get away with only the rear plates, though, so I can't see why Ontario can't as well.

 

[Slash]

In NY, as far as I know you are required to have one on each end of the vehicle. They change the colors every so often but it has the name of the state and the shape of the state separating the letters.

In my garage hanging up I have left over plates from the mid 1970s through present. Only the ones with the red statue of libertry are the ones that are almost completely rotted through due to road salt.

 

[Crash]

As many have noted already, the authority to produce and assign license plates in the US is up to each state (except for Federal Government, military and DC vehicles). Hence the plate design, letter and number combinations, usage of county/city identifiers and registration and display rules can be different from state to state.

In Washington, the current series of plates for passenger car use a ABC1234 combination, which was introduced roughly 2 years ago. Before that, WA used 123-ABC (introduced around 1989) and before that, ABC-123. With the six letter combinations, plates display 123-ABC, but on registrations, tickets and official documents, the "-" is dropped and it's written as 123ABC. I and O are not used as the first letter, so there are no I or O series plates, but I does appear in the middle of the combination (ie. ###-AII is possible). Plates currently accommodate up to 7 characters (including spaces and dashes).

Registration and plates must be renewed annually to remain valid. When the plate is renewed, a person receives a colored sticker to be placed on the rear license plate. The rear license plate also has a sticker that shows the month that the registration is valid until. Up until about 2001, the registration sticker is also placed on the front license plate. Currently, other than the month and year stickers, there are no other registration stickers placed on the car.

There are no specific county or city identifiers used on Washington plates, however, blocks of plate numbers get distributed to various parts of the states without specific order or rule, so some series of combinations will be more common in certain parts of the state than others. Otherwise, combinations are generally issued in order. It is possible to determine the relative age of a vehicle or registration using the number and letter combinations, but not necessarily. Plates with new combinations are replaced automatically every seven years.

It is possible to have vanity plates with an extra fee annually. The only requirement being that the combination not be a previous or current series plate combination and that it cannot be longer than 7 characters. Also plates that are deemed to be "inappropriate" will not be issued or may be revoked.

I've noticed that in the previous six letter plates, the state goes through roughly 1 letters worth of registrations per year (so this year may be ###-AXX, next year ###-BXX will start to appear, though it's no hard and fast rule).

The plate usually stays with the car whenever it is sold, but if the registration has been expired for too long, then the car will get a new plate. I think vanity plates stay with the person.

By law, plates must be displayed on the front and the rear of the vehicle. There are many people who don't display a front plate, and it's a case of selective enforcement. Usually, as long as you're not doing something stupid, the police won't pull you over for not having a front plate.

The current standard design uses red lettering for Washington State and blue letters for the plate number itself. The background is white with a faint light blue picture of Mount Rainier. The slogan "Evergreen State" is located on the bottom of the plate. Standard issue and old vanity plates are embossed metal plates. New vanity plates are now all printed using a plastic/cardboard combination backing.

There are various other designs that can be purchased. These are often to show support for various causes. These special design plates are considered vanity plates, and often a portion of the extra registration fee will go towards some charity or government program to continue the cause. These different designs will obviously differ from the standard Mount Rainier design, with the specific cause written on the bottom instead of "Evergreen State" and will often use different number and letter combinations as the regular plates. Examples of designs include the various public universities around the state, Law Enforcement Memorial and National Parks Fund.

Motorcycles, trailers and non-passenger cars such as commercial vehicles and trucks, along with government owned vehicles use the standard design but are generally assigned a different number and letter combinations. Government or state agency owned vehicles typically display a plate with a small "XMT" (which stands for exempt) written vertically on the left side of the plate. One notable exception is that many Washington State Patrol vehicles use the "### WSP" combination (WSP standing for Washington State Patrol; note the lack of dash between numbers and letters). Motorcycles don't use the standard size plate, but uses a smaller scale version. Commercial vehicles are often uses the combination A#####B.

That I think should cover most of Washington plates

 

[kikie]

Saturnday March 24th, I destroyed the engine of my car on the Autobahn, driving very slowly.

March 26th, I went to the D.I.V. in Alken to turn in my license plate and cancelled the insurance. I didn't need it anymore. After three months I decided to get my car fixed and a brand new engine, clutch and alternator was installed.

In Juin, I went to insure my car again. Got the appropriate paperwork with which I went back to the D.I.V. to get a new license plate registered in my name. I had to wait a couple of hours before it was my turn to get a new license plate.

The next day, my new European license plate arrived by mail.

 

[Hei]

Every state in the US has the name of said state on it, and some states show the county that the plate was registered in, but that's all the personal information that is displayed. I'll continue with my state, Michigan.

MI uses a three letter, four number format for the plate (e.g. ABC 0123), which belongs to the person. To the best of my knowledge, there is no specific information contained in this, but you can get a general idea as to when the vehicle was registered(ABC 0123 was given out before ABC 1234, as an example). If you sell a car privately, the plate goes to the new owner. If you trade a car in at a dealership, you can keep your old plate or get a new one; the fees, IIRC, are about the same.

Registration for plates is due by the owner's birthday, and you get a sticker that goes on the corner of the plate so the police know you're paid up. You need to show proof of insurance when you renew, too.

There are different designs you can buy, as well. You can go with the standard blue letters on a white background, designs to support your favorite college/university, different state-tourism themes, et cetera.

Also being from Michigan, you can pay to have a personalized plate. Also, you don't transfer the plates unless you are willing to and the other person or yourself pay the fee. I work at a shop and we sell about 2 or 3 cars a week. All the plates are kept and we register it to a new car or the buyer pays to keep it.

 

[kikie]

Do you have to pay for a plate?

 

[Jet Badger]

In Lithuania it's three letters and three digits for cars, two letters and three digits for trailers, three letters and two digits for motorbikes. All of those are black font on white background. Around 10 years ago the middle letter was the first letter of the city's name that it was registered in. Now they're completely random.

Custom plates cost 500LTL($180) for your chosen three letters and three digits. 5000LTL($1,800) for fully custom plates (though it was double that a few years ago. They decided to lower the price as noone was buying those).

There are also other variants of plates: military plates are black with white numbers and start with 'LK'

Plates on taxi cars are yellow with black font and always start with 'T'

Then there are transit plates (red font in white background) and diplomatic plates (green font, white background, used on politicians from other countries cars)

 

[Jimlaad43]

What Famine forgot in his extensive knowledge of UK number plates was the important bit of information regarding colour.
The front is back text on a white background, and the back is black text on a yellow background.

Standard number plate

4x4 (Rear)

Legal font styles

If a nut is black and changes how the letters look eg: a nut to make I I look like an H is illegal, along with number plates that have a different font styling.

 

[CodeRedR51]

There are currently 56, yes, 56 options available for plates in Arizona.

http://www.azdot.gov/mvd/vehicle/mvdplate.asp

 

[Daniel]

Before 2000, cars had licence plates LLnnnn (L = letter, n = number). This ran out in 2000 and so 2001 changed the layout to LLLnnn and we're currently in GELnnn.

Motorbikes and tractors used to be nnLLL but after running out they use LnLLL.

Since 2007, caravans and trailers have LnnnL.

 

[Slash]

Before 2000, cars had licence plates LLnnnn (L = letter, n = number). This ran out in 2000 and so 2001 changed the layout to LLLnnn and we're currently in GELnnn.

Motorbikes and tractors used to be nnLLL but after running out they use LnLLL.

Since 2007, caravans and trailers have LnnnL.

That may be so where you are from. But even in 2006 I've had a vehicle with the LLnnnn layout. In fact, it still has those plates on it.

 

[GranTurismo916]

I'll just leave these here...

Current (and ugly) New York license plate (2011-present):

Recent New York license place (I like this one much better than the new one) (2001-2011)

 

[Famine]

What Famine forgot in his extensive knowledge of UK number plates was the important bit of information regarding colour.
The front is back text on a white background, and the back is black text on a yellow background.

Except for cars first registered before January 1st 1973, which may wear black plates with silver letters front or rear.

 

[W3H5]

Chinese plates have a character representing the region at the beginning and then a series of numbers and letters which I believe have some significance to the age/ brand of car but I'm too lazy to confirm that with facts.

Special military/ government plates are similar but feature a red letter at the front to let police know not to try a bribe. (The bit about the bribe may be false.)

 

[Crash]

Chinese plates have a character representing the region at the beginning and then a series of numbers and letters which I believe have some significance to the age/ brand of car but I'm too lazy to confirm that with facts.

Special military/ government plates are similar but feature a red letter at the front to let police know not to try a bribe. (The bit about the bribe may be false.)

And SAR plates are on a black base instead of blue.

 

[Jimlaad43]

Except for cars first registered before January 1st 1973, which may wear black plates with silver letters front or rear.

I'm not that old, so I didn't know that.

 

[Famine]

Neither am I!

 

[kikie]

I remember these black plates with silver letters, ..... from television.

 

[Sharky.]

we're currently in GELnnn.

GNx### actually

Kiwi plates are very simple, the aforementioned letter/number combination in black on a white background. That's it. No fancy borders, no province identifier, no nothing. Plates belong to the car they're registered against, so if you sell your car its government-issued plates go with it unless they're personalised plates you have ownership rights to, in which case the vehicle will have to be de-registered prior to sale (as you own the personalised plates and as such are not permanently associated with a particular vehicle) and re-registered by the buyer once purchased.

Not much to it over here!

 

[kikie]

As I said before, it seems that the Belgian system is unique. I mean the plates not belonging to the car but to the person that registers the car.
You can buy and sell cars as much as you want, the license plate will be the same. Unless you turn in the license plate and get another one.

The license plate is delivered by mail and costs €20. You have to get a reproduction plate as well, which you can get in almost every car shop.

 

[Famine]

Switzerland has the same system. It also publishes a book annually showing all of the addresses the plates are registered to.

 

[kikie]

Thanks Famine. That's what I wanted to know.

Locking thread.

No seriously, keep discussing, it's interesting.