Car numberplates that DON’T have the car number on them… How? Why?

22 comments

1. What’s a car number? Like, a VIN? A license plate is sufficient to identify a car if it’s unique among all the plates in the state.

2. Vanity plates. What’s actually on the plate doesn’t matter in the slightest. What matters is that it is *registered* with the state. So the state will say, you want a plate that says ‘TimRocks’ we’re ok with it, but you are the *only* person allowed ‘TimRocks’

3. We can order personalized plates through the DMV for an extra fee.

4. What do you mean “the car number”? What does this refer to? Can you provide an example? I’ve been to a number of other countries and seen lots of plates that were just variations of what we have, random combinations of numbers and letters.

5. Could you further explain what you’re referring to? Are you talking about vanity plates, where instead of something like 5GXK296, the owner has paid for it to say KICKAZZ or something?

6. You can pay extra money and get a plate that says almost anything you want. I say “almost” because some things are forbidden.

7. >How is this legal?

   It’s legal because local governments decided it could be legal. It’s a good way to generate some extra revenue and give car owners the ability to personalize their cars a bit more.

   Do you think it shouldn’t be legal? I’m curious why if that is the case.

8. If someone else has the text you want, you are not allowed to choose that text. This “vanity” text becomes your car’s unique identifier instead of a random string of numbers and letters.

9. Are you asking about vehicles with no license plates on the front, or just all letters

10. It’s a way for the government to raise a little extra revenue. People like personalization, and Virginia is apparently the state with the most vanity plates.

11. Vehicles plates are usually combinations on numbers and letters but they can also be all letters or all numbers. You can pay extra for a special plate if it’s not already taken of whatever letter number combo you want within reason.

12. This could be one of two things:

    1. Vanity plates which are special plates people pay extra for to say what they want or have a specific design. Sometimes organizations partner with the state and the extra fee goes to their organization instead of the state, an example of this is the “Friends of the Smokies” plate offered in Tennessee and North Carolina who’s proceeds go to the NPS to help them maintain Great Smoky Mountain National Park.

    2. Rear plate only laws. 20 states only require one rear mounted license plate and people like to put a personal plate on the front of their car in the place designed to hold a front license plate in the other 30 states. My state of Tennessee is one of these states and on the front of my 4runner I have a black plate with the Toyota logo. Also something you would be surprised to learn is the fact that Tennessee does not have what you Brits call an MOT, as long as it rolls Tennessee doesn’t care about how badly maintained your car is

13. Do you mean the VIN (Vehicle Identification Number)? Do you know how long they are? My guess is you don’t.

    Even my ’57 Chevy has a VIN that’s way too long to go on a license plate: VC57A****** (that’s 11 characters).

14. Vanity plate—They’re not too pricy in Virginia, I’ve had one since we moved here

15. You have to order the custom plate from the state,the same way you order a new one with a randomly generated string but more expensive. It generally has to be unique within the state and pass through some basic content checks.

    So it still IDs the car, and also gets the state a little extra cash since they cost extra.

    We call them “vanity plates”.

16. Serious question. What is the difference between a number and a series of letters on a plate?

17. Varies by state.

    In my state you can pay extra for a vanity plate, it can say anything that is not objectionable. You can also pay extra for a plate that has a logo, such as college alumni, masons, fight cancer, etc. Veterans can get a veteran logo, or certain medals like the Navy Cross, Purple Heart, etc. Also the governor, who has 1, awards 2-2000 to supporters. Also my state only has rear plates, you can put any type of plate on the front, if you want, which you can buy at a store, like a flag, college logo, whatever.

    The regular numbers are just issued sequentially, have nothing to do with the VIN numbers or whatever.

18. Vanity plates? I’m sure ours is not the only country that has these.

    If you go down to your local motor vehicle bureau and pay a fee, you can get a license plate that says whatever you want, as long as no one else already has that plate and it’s the right number of digits, etc. In most states there are rules that you can’t have anything obscene.

    License plates in the US are alphanumeric, not just numbers, so they’re still valid plates.

19. Vanity plates are legal because you’re still the only one in your state with that group of characters (numbers, letters, etc). Whatever’s on the plate, like “guyonreddit” would be your license plate number like any other license plate number, even if it doesn’t include actual numbers. If a plate number is already taken in your state, you have to add something to it or pick something else. You could turn “guyonreddit” into “guyonreddit2” and it would become a legal license plate “number” if you paid the fee and had it added at the DMV.

20. [Made me think of this post](https://reddit.com/r/Wellthatsucks/s/zOSvcfnoIF)

21. I think there’s some confusion between a license plate number and a VIN number. A VIN number is the unique car identifying number almost like a serial number, hidden in the windshield and several digits long. They’re hard to see but it’s unique to the car no matter who the owner is or where the car goes. It can track the full lifetime activity of the car like accidents it’s been in and can identify the car if it’s been stolen. The license plate is what you’re referring to. This is the driver’s registration plate number to that car for the department of motor vehicles and police. This is what people can get personalized. You can also take those personalized plates off an old car and put them on a new car if you do a sale or trade in. It’s basically saying this driver is allowed to drive this car. They’re really just a random combination of letters and numbers. Typically 3 letters then 3 numbers.

22. To this day i still dont know what the Wyoming Cowboy on a bucking Bronco means/translates too on their license plates.

    Still looks cool af and i wish CA would do something like that with a bear