3 ms·

>The license plate should follow the car and ownership should be changed online as part of the transaction. It sounds incredibly wasteful that every time a car

by xxpor 4y ago

>The license plate should follow the car and ownership should be changed online as part of the transaction. It sounds incredibly wasteful that every time a car changes ownership the seller must hand over the plates in person to the DMV. There's too many personalized plates and other exceptions in the US to make that viable.

WWLink 4y ago
The plates go with the vehicle in California most of the time. It just gets complicated when you sell to someone out of state because you have to turn the plates in yourself. If you a used car in CA, it's not unusual for the plates to be the same plates the car had since it was first registered in the state. We bought our last family car from enterprise and one day this family walked by while my mom was waiting for me in the store parking lot. The kid recognized our car as a rental they had on a road trip once and got excited about it. Awkward. xD Custom plates are weird. You can either give them to the new owner or transfer them to another vehicle or return them to the DMV.
- xxpor 4y ago
  Do you know how'd it'd work for plates like ham radio ones where you CAN'T transfer them to another another person, but it'd also make no sense to turn them in? Can you keep them to use on another car eventually? This whole "turn in the plates or we'll go after you for not having insurance" seems completely insane. I've never turned in plates and no one's cared.
  - WWLink 4y ago
    You actually can do that, I had to dig around to find the page lol. https://www.dmv.ca.gov/portal/handbook/vehicle-industry-registration-procedures-manual-2/special-plates/personalized-license-plate-retention/ https://www.dmv.ca.gov/portal/handbook/vehicle-industry-regi... Some plates have retention fees, some don't. YMMV.
repiret 4y ago
Except that’s exactly how it works in many states. If you want to keep your personalized plate, you have to jump through hoops, but it defaults to go with the car in the two states I’ve lived in.
- xxpor 4y ago
  Interesting, it's actually not allowed in the 3 states I've registered a car in. In NJ, they wouldn't even allow transferring a regular plate from our old volvo (registered in my dad's name) to our new town and country (registered in my mom's), because they were owned by different people as far as the state was concerned.

by xxpor 4y ago

WWLink 4y ago

The plates go with the vehicle in California most of the time. It just gets complicated when you sell to someone out of state because you have to turn the plates in yourself. If you a used car in CA, it's not unusual for the plates to be the same plates the car had since it was first registered in the state. We bought our last family car from enterprise and one day this family walked by while my mom was waiting for me in the store parking lot. The kid recognized our car as a rental they had on a road trip once and got excited about it. Awkward. xD Custom plates are weird. You can either give them to the new owner or transfer them to another vehicle or return them to the DMV.

xxpor 4y ago
Do you know how'd it'd work for plates like ham radio ones where you CAN'T transfer them to another another person, but it'd also make no sense to turn them in? Can you keep them to use on another car eventually? This whole "turn in the plates or we'll go after you for not having insurance" seems completely insane. I've never turned in plates and no one's cared.
- WWLink 4y ago
  You actually can do that, I had to dig around to find the page lol. https://www.dmv.ca.gov/portal/handbook/vehicle-industry-registration-procedures-manual-2/special-plates/personalized-license-plate-retention/ https://www.dmv.ca.gov/portal/handbook/vehicle-industry-regi... Some plates have retention fees, some don't. YMMV.

repiret 4y ago

Except that’s exactly how it works in many states. If you want to keep your personalized plate, you have to jump through hoops, but it defaults to go with the car in the two states I’ve lived in.

xxpor 4y ago
Interesting, it's actually not allowed in the 3 states I've registered a car in. In NJ, they wouldn't even allow transferring a regular plate from our old volvo (registered in my dad's name) to our new town and country (registered in my mom's), because they were owned by different people as far as the state was concerned.