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Licence Plates

By muzak, July 30, 2006



I paid quite a bit for my personalized plate last year and sprayed it with several coats of clear coat when I bought it. Here in Ontario, I've noticed lots of cars with new plates where the numbers aren't legible any more. The ministry wants $95 if you want to replace any plate, personalized or not. I asked them and they told me is was because people use varsol or other thinners to clean the bugs off their plates. I guess they must get them on the rear also as the back plates are actually the ones I notice. Any ideas?

Max

No clue on this one, other than I think the clear coat idea is a good one. How often do you get new plates? Here in the states, each state issues new plates every few years or so. I haven't seen any fading, and that's with traveling far and wide and looking at plates from most of the other states.

  • 1,424 posts
No clue on this one, other than I think the clear coat idea is a good one. How often do you get new plates? Here in the states, each state issues new plates every few years or so. I haven't seen any fading, and that's with traveling far and wide and looking at plates from most of the other states.

Not really. In Ohio I still saw people driving around with "The Heart of It All" plates which were last issued in the late 1980's until 2003 when the Ohio legislature made that plate invalid and required the BMV to revoke all outstanding plates of that style. Do the math, some of those plates were 16 years old and older. If you buy a car in Ohio, you can renew the plates on it indefinatley until the legislature orders the BMV to revoke them. You can also transfer plates from one car to another and so it is possible to have plates that are 5-10 years older than your car. I won't do that because Ohio requires a front and rear plate and the front one gets really dented and bent from road debris after about 3 years, especially on the numbers since they are raised. So for me, I replace my plates every 3 years. Next time I replace my plates I get to put the "funny" plate on my car. We call them "funny" plates because they don't have raised numbers and are a flat piece of steel with a high durability sticker over it. They look almost like something you made on your home printer but they are real Ohio plates.

Max

99, I was born and raised in Ohio, and my family is still there, so I am quite familiar with the plate situation in the Buckeye State. I really dislike that front plate. I've bent them to the point of almost breaking them in two on occasion, and they ruin the look of a car. You've probably noticed that Indiana also issues some flat plates without raised numbers/letters.

So, muzak, back to the point of my previous post, how often are new plates issued where you are?

We used to get new plates every year but now the plate you have is your's even when you change vehicles..unless you want a new one. The older plates are no problem as it's the newer ones that are fading quickly. We used to alternate blue/white and the next year white/blue and the plates lasted forever when manufactured by the "inmates" at the correctional centre here. One good thing here in Ontario that not many people know..is that if you have an old vehicle and you have a "dated" plate, you can register that to your vehicle and legally use it. Example..you can use an old 1951 plate on your car (in reasonable condition) as long as your vehicle is manufactured in that year.

Max

I wonder what changed, then? Metal? Paint?

  • 1,424 posts
I wonder what changed, then? Metal? Paint?

My guess is paint. I would bet that they went with a cheaper paint that had fewer reflective particles. A paint containing less reflective particles will look duller than one containing more reflective particles. When the plates are exposed to sun and are hit by road debris the reflective particles they either fall off or become dull. If the plates do indeed have less particles then they may look good when new, but when they are older they have lost too many particles or they have faded, they will look bad. The older plates having more reflective particles can lose more particles or have more particles dull before they look dull and so they will look good longer.

I do know my wife put her new sticker on her Echo in the spring and wiped the spot with one of those hand wipes you get at McDonalds, etc. She accidently cleaned off a bit of the number and it actually came out blue on the wipe.

Bikeman982

I have one of those plastic cover for my plates and it protects from bugs. Probably illegal in some states.

Here in Delaware, I hardly ever notice a faded license plate. Our plates (rear only) are flat -- not embossed or debossed. The color scheme is a dark blue background with reflective yellow numbers/letters. The issued plates have numbers only; only specialized or vanity tags have letters. I have amateur radio call sign vanity tags with my call sign "K3LT." You can also get a special, smaller sized black plate with white letters, but only 5 characters are possible due to their size.

We Delawareans can also keep our tag and transfer it to another vehicle, for a fee, of course. This is done quite regularly, particularly among people who have older tags with 5 or less digits. Three and four digit tags are often seen for sale for many thousands of dollars. Any given three-digit tag is potentially worth as much as the car it's attached to. You'd have to sell your house to buy a 2-digit tag, if you could find one for sale.

Anyway, even the standard tags don't seem to fade, and they do seem to have at least one clear coat, so that must explain it.

Bikeman982

My plate says "HOWSCAR" and I just keep transferring it to whatever car I am driving.

My son ordered one for his car that will say "6 26 89", that is his birth date.

It cost $41 and $30 a year after that to keep it.

New plates in Texas are issued every 7 years.

Bikeman982

New plates in Texas are issued every 7 years.

What do you do with your old plates?

How much do they cost you?

Do you get the same letters/numbers, or totally new ones?

What if you want to keep your old ones?

I forgot to mention that in Delaware, if you have a vanity plate, you must still retain your "numbers" plate. Most people simply place the vanity plate over the numbers, so it's always on the car. I keep mine in the trunk. I don't like the idea of the two metal plates being in that close contact with each other -- seems like a good way to get one or the other of them oxidized. They are aluminum, so shouldn't rust through, but in case I ever wanted to switch to the number plate, I want it to look OK.

Also, in DE the "number" plate stays with the car for it's lifetime. If you transfer a low-digit tag to a new vehicle, it is issued a current number plate as well.

Bikeman982

I forgot to mention that in Delaware, if you have a vanity plate, you must still retain your "numbers" plate. Most people simply place the vanity plate over the numbers, so it's always on the car. I keep mine in the trunk. I don't like the idea of the two metal plates being in that close contact with each other -- seems like a good way to get one or the other of them oxidized. They are aluminum, so shouldn't rust through, but in case I ever wanted to switch to the number plate, I want it to look OK.

Also, in DE the "number" plate stays with the car for it's lifetime. If you transfer a low-digit tag to a new vehicle, it is issued a current number plate as well.

 

For us prior military folks - I have an "Air Force Retired" plate on the front of my car (over my "HOWSCAR" plate).

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