How do license plate / inspection laws work differ through out the nation?

36 comments

1. Where I live in Tennessee we have one rear plate and no inspections. Yearly tag registration fees are just under $40.

2. Arizona only requires a rear license plate, does not have inspections, and only cars registered in in the Phoenix or Tucson metro areas require emissions tests after a few years.

   The state also allows car’s front-side windows to be tinted up to 33%, and rear windows to an unlimited level even completely blacked out.

3. Illinois has front and rear plates. Emissions testing in Chicago and St. Louis metro areas, every 2 years, at state facilities.

4. NC, have to get it inspected once a year in order to renew the tags every year. Property tax on the car is also paid annually at the same time, all rolled into one. It’s about $30-35 for tags, $40-45 for inspection. Property tax will vary from county to county; for Wake it’s about 1.275% of the cars value.

   Edited for a bit of clarity. Oh, and single rear plate

5. I grew up in VA, which required two license plates and an annual inspection.

   Currently in Wisconsin, which requires 2 license plates and doesn’t do inspections or emissions testing.

6. Emissions testing once a year. Cars 25 years and older are exempt. Back plates only.

7. Georgia, one rear plate. Emissions inspections in metro areas (counties around and in Atlanta).

8. Both plates are required here in Texas. You have to get a passing inspection (basically brakes, lights, emissions & no CEL) no more than 30 days before renewing registration which you show with a window sticker.

9. NJ requires two license plates – which you can basically keep for life if you do the paperwork. Both plates need to be visible and legible, but that usually isn’t a primary reason to pull someone over [unless both are obscured, or they have electronic obfuscation](https://patch.com/new-jersey/woodbridge/old-bridge-man-blacked-out-plate-holland-tunnel-tolls-cops).

   Inspection is every two years, and leaves a sticker at the lower driver’s side of the windshield.
   Inspection used to be interesting, but they oversimplified it a while back. Now they just check the emissions system, primarily by pressurizing the gas cap and hooking up to the OBD plug.

10. Washington has front & rear plates and no longer requires an emission inspection. For a long time the Seattle area had an emissions inspection requirement, but with newer cars and more modern emissions controls air quality is now good enough that it is not required.

11. Never heard of that

12. Ohio has no inspection. I just have to pick up expiration stickers for my license plate when they expire. I’ve always had a front and back plate.

13. Arizona just has a single rear license plate. Tags depend on the vehicle, but I think I paid $250 the last time I renewed them. Inspections every other year for cars over 5 years old I believe, and those run about $20 and take about 5 minutes. My drivers license doesn’t expire until 2055, though, so at least I never have to worry about that.

14. New York:

    yearly safety & emissions inspection ($35). New cars only need safety inspection for first 2 years ($10). these can be done at dealerships or most gas stations with a shop.

    registration is renewed every 2 years for $65 for standard plates. front and rear plates required.

15. No inspection except sort of on initial registration, smog check for residents in the two largest counties. Front plate only required if there is a spot for it, you aren’t forced to drill your bumper.

16. NM: rear plate only, no inspection (except smog test in ABQ), no property tax.

    I’ve lived in a state that required a property tax receipt, and that was annoying, as the DMV is perfectly capable of looking up property tax records.

17. California requires front and back plates. You need to show proof of passing an emissions test every other year when paying your registration. I think I paid $40 last time I got a smog check.

    There are some exceptions for the smog check for cars that are old enough, have different fuels, or that are brand new.

18. DE is rear plate and a really basic inspection. Emissions, lights, wipers, brakes and thats about it. As long as your car has no glaring issues or limo tint its an easy pass.

    Super impressed with the improvements to DE’s DMV in the last decade. Inspection is a drive-thru and last time I went I got it done on my lunch break and still had time to grab a hoagie, seriously took like 20 minutes. License and reg renewals can be done online. Honestly its been like 5 years since I even had to go in because I bought my truck new so it was good for 5 years then another 2yr renewal online. I think I’ll have to go back in for the next one though.

19. AZ is just the rear plate.

    Emissions tests are only for cars over a certain age (I can’t recall if it’s a model year, or number of years on the road).

    The shitty thing is registration/license fees. It’s not a flat fee, but rather a percentage of the car’s value.

    So it can vary between a small $20-$50 fee to hundreds or thousands of dollars every year or two (you get a discount if you pay for two years up front). I guess the upside is that as the years go on the registration becomes cheaper as the car depreciates.

    Edit: more fun facts:

    Drivers licenses don’t expire for decades, I believe after the person’s 65th birthday, so mine expires in the 2050’s.

    Even though you only need one, the state sends you two license plates when you register the car.

    Window tint laws/enforcement here is a joke compared to other states. There is no limits to the level of tint you can have on the rear windows, and 33% tint on the front, but it’s never enforced. Any shop that does window tinting will do it to illegal levels all the way around. Even police cruisers here have illegal tint in the front windows. If you get the expensive kind, it keeps your car an additional 5 degrees cooler which is a god send in the summer.

    We have an absurd amount of vanity plates, IIRC there’s over 50 options to choose from, and all can be customizable.

    The most popular car color here is white, and unsurprisingly the most popular car on the road is the F150.

20. PA: rear plates only, annual safety and emissions inspections.

21. MA requires annual inspections which cost $35 for most vehicles. Iirc, the emission part of the inspection doesn’t need to be done for new cars, but that’s just a benefit that saves time for the inspection station.

    MA requires front and back plates for all new plates. TBH, I’m pretty sure that the old green on white plates, which are still legal, only needed to be in the rear, but I’m really not sure about that.

    Registration stickers, which go on the rear plate, are every two years except for vanity plates, which are every year. The base registration fee is $30/year, so regular plates cost $60 every two years while vanity plates cost $30/year plus the annual vanity surcharge (which I think is $50/year). Special plates, such as for sports teams, have their own schedule.

    The annual property tax on cars is billed and paid directly to the municipality. It’s a fixed rate based on the original list price of the car, and declines each year (except in some weird cases).

22. Pennsylvania requires a yearly inspection and that inspection can vary by county. I live in a county that doesn’t require an emissions check, but other counties do. Only have back plates.

    Ohio doesn’t require an inspection. Just get their tags renewed. They also recently passed a law that no longer requires front plates.

23. Rear plate only in PA. Have to get it inspected yearly or the fuzz pulls you over. ^^

24. Indiana had no inspection.

    I moved to Rhode Island and I went for registration. No one told me I needed inspection as well. I went like five years without an inspection. Finally I got pulled over and the cop said “you realize you haven’t been inspected?” I said “no, I didn’t realize I needed to. I’m from Indiana and we don’t do that.” He gave me a warning and told me to get inspected. I did it the next day.

25. Single plate in PA. Annual inspection and emissions test. You can renew vehicle registration every two years.

26. MD runs both plates. Everyone has to get inspections but safety and emissions inspections are separate. Emissions is just a computer check every two years (very easy to pass, they just check for engine codes and that’s it). Safety inspection is much more thorough but only happens when a vehicle changes hands. I had to get mine inspected when I bought it, but never again after. When I sell it the new owner will have to get it reinspected to register it.

    You can get an exemption from one or both inspections for various reasons though. Diesels don’t have to do emissions, and anything older than 15 years can run “historic” tags that exempt it from I think both inspections. There’s a whole list of exemptions honestly, if you care enough to jump through hoops there’s usually a way to bypass this stuff.

    None of this is enforced on the road though as long as you have the stickers and paperwork saying you’re current. I’ve been stopped several times in illegally modified cars (inspection when stock, then did whatever I wanted to it afterwards) and it’s never been brought up despite it being extremely obvious (window tint, modified exhaust and suspension, missing whole sections of interior that used to have airbags, shit like that).

27. single plate, annual safety inspection, annual emissions testing depending on what county you’re in

28. Double plates, no inspection in Minnesota.

29. 2 plates, renewal requires a smog test (how frequently will depend on the car), cost is $40-60 for smog and cost for registration varied by car.

30. Illinois – a license place in the front and back, emissions test every two years, $151 license plate sticker yearly renewal, Some places require a yearly city sticker on top of that.

31. Michigan only requires a rear license plate. No inspections or emissions tests for personal vehicles. Ever. Annual registration cost is based on the age and weight of your vehicle. My personal vehicles have cost between $15‐40 to register each year.

32. Washington, my Flex is about $85 a year and no inspection. Cost increases based on GVW and engine size I believe. Some areas had random smog checks, but they got rid of them due to overall improvement. Fees can also vary by county. Think King county (Seattle) my car would probably cost $150 a year.

    Edit: and front and rear plates. Can be lifetime plates for classic/parade cars that drive less than 1,500(?) Miles a year.

33. PA requires one plate (rear), an annual inspection, depending on your county, a yearly emissions inspection as well, and the plate has to be renewed each year.
    Some mechanics can be picky about what they do/don’t pass, some can be more forgiving, and there’s even some (if you know a guy that knows a guy) that’ll just slap the sticker on it and call it a day, not the most ethical thing, but they do exist.

    My new brother in law moved here from Ohio where they do not have annual safety inspections. He’s not the most knowledgeable with cars (he’ll admit it too) and as a result, when he came to PA, he tried getting his car inspected only to find out it had rusted beyond repair underneath, and he didn’t know, so some of the wedding money went to a down payment on a new ride.

34. NY: Front and rear plates, car registration every 2 years, car inspection every year.

35. Yes no emission laws here. And must have front and rear license plates. Thank god for both.

36. Ok no inspection, rear licence plate. Yearly tag renewal.