License plates on American cars...

States with tolls may need them. I noticed several years ago on an older exit in Chicago, which had an unattended toll station, they had a camera down low, pointing right at the front of the car.

I'm still waiting to hear anything from Colorado--I traveled on one of their toll roads about six or seven weeks ago, and they no longer have any attended toll stations. They only have the electronic passes now, and the lanes that were formerly attended are now blocked off. I tried signing up on their site so I could pay any tolls, since they have a system to pay them, but did not find anything. I will have to call and see what the process is.
 
Wildcat - eventually you'll get a bill. If you're talking about E470. It takes them awhile to track down out-of-staters, but they'll find you. You do get a discount for automatic payment through the web site. I drive this road too often to DIA so I have the bar code sticker for the windshield and get some sort of discount.

Here, it's written in the state constitution that every eight years a new plate needs to be designed. They all must have Cowboy Joe on them. The eight years thing leads to some good plates, some bad - like the newest one. I guess that is true for every state. There's some pretty awful plates out there - with hard to read fonts (hear that Ohio and South Dakota?)

I don't mind having front/rear plates. I like to guess where people are from coming at me.
 
Wildcat - eventually you'll get a bill. If you're talking about E470. It takes them awhile to track down out-of-staters, but they'll find you. You do get a discount for automatic payment through the web site. I drive this road too often to DIA so I have the bar code sticker for the windshield and get some sort of discount.
I even tried creating an account, but no go, so far. I sent off an email today, so I will see how they respond.

We have a handful of plates now. It is possible they do not recognize our plate, as it is a recent design (as of a couple of years ago). I also don't know which Einstein decided to put that lame state slogan "Pure Michigan" on our plates. I have the top plate, here. We have a couple of other older plates that are not shown here. We are required now, by law, to replace our plates every 10 years.

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In PA, they just did away with the Year sticker for the plate when you pay for your yearly registration. Now cops have no idea if you have proper registration without pulling you over to ask for it.

They don't have to pull you over to check if your registration is current--they can either manually run your plate number, or they now have scanners that read the plate number like a camera and automatically runs your registration status.

Yeah, in PA we still use both Inspection and Emissions stickers

Yes, but emissions testing varies from county to county--some are "sniffers", some are just "gas cap checks", and others are electronic via the OBDC system. Any vehicle beyond a certain age, over a certain GVWR or driven less than 5K miles per year is exempt.
 
Once I saw a picture of this American license plate in a German automobile magazine:

PENI5
Our state does not approve that. In fact, we can look up vanity plates online in our state. Anything even remotely objectionable isn't available as a combination. I could be quite creative if I put my mind to it. :D

The only way I can get my username here:

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WILDCAT and W1LDCAT are already taken. :mad:

I used to have a Steely Dan themed plate: K8YLIED. I wanted to do the whole series but ended up not doing it. CBATHRL, 321XTCY, PTZLLGC, RYLSCAM, AJA, GAUCHO, 2VSNATR, EVMSTGO. Oh, and NITEFLY. :D
 
Any vehicle beyond a certain age, over a certain GVWR or driven less than 5K miles per year is exempt.
The age thing always annoyed me. It's the older cars that need the inspections, more so than newer cars. When we last had emissions testing here, those old polluting junkers would still be belching nasty exhaust on the roads, while the new cars would all pass with flying colors. And you could still pass a non-exempt vehicle if you paid enough to the gas station. There was some ridiculously low repair threshold ($69, I think?) where if you can't get it to pass after $69 spent in an "emissions tune-up" (or repair), you would get an exemption. And they got rid of the emissions testing as those old exempt vehicles eventually died off and left the roads. Made no sense.

We have it bad enough here with all the uninsured motorists. There are also very many unsafe old cars on our roads. If any state needed vehicle inspections, it's Michigan.
 
The age thing always annoyed me. It's the older cars that need the inspections, more so than newer cars

We did it here too. Safety inspections stopped probably 8 years ago, emissions for pre-OBD2 (95 and older) stuff ended this year. I know people who only fixed things on their cars because it would fail inspection. Our safety inspection wasn't all that detailed either. Lights, wipers, horn, tire tread, jack the front end up for a quick shake to make sure it didn't seem horribly bad, and a brake test on a skid pad sort of thing. All told it was under 15 minutes.

far as I know, the police departments do NOT have insurance data available so they can check it.

The scanner may not pick it up here either. I know if you get pulled over without insurance they know it when they run your registration and insurance info. Not to sound like a total nerd but I keep my insurance paid up so I've never had opportunity to find out if the scanner will bust me on it. Not really planning on doing that experiment either, its awful expensive.
 
On motorcycles, a lot of guys run a vertical plate:
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It's not Kosher in NJ, but they don't care. Florida, you can get impounded for it. Pennsylvania, they actually have a state sanctioned vertical plate now. The current Harley bracket allows you to mount horizontally or vertically.

(For the curious, yes the rear shocks on my bike are Ohlins....)
 
I know if you get pulled over without insurance they know it when they run your registration and insurance info.
I should probably clarify--they probably don't have that capability in Michigan. If they did, many of these miscreants would be off the road. If it was indeed "real time" available, the Secretary of State office (our version of the DMV) would be able to tell if you had insurance when you walked up to the counter for renewal. They can check it--the mailed yearly renewals have a PIN that you can enter, which proves you have the insurance. But at other times, they are relying on paper you bring in to show your policy. Problem is, those are easily forged, or, someone could get a policy today, cancel it tomorrow, but still have that paper with the expiration date six months into the future.

This state is so flippin' bass-ackwards...
 
We have it bad enough here with all the uninsured motorists. There are also very many unsafe old cars on our roads. If any state needed vehicle inspections, it's Michigan.

Ohio (just across the border from me) is just as bad (if not worse)--they have never had safety inspections, and only emissions in certain metropolitan areas. Here in PA near the border, you will see classified ads stating "good Ohio car"--which means that it stands no chance in hell of passing PA inspection without repairs totalling more than its actual value. Regarding insurance in PA--you cannot register, renew registration, or inspect a vehicle without current/valid proof of insurance, and if your insurance lapses, the insurance carriers immediately report you to PennDOT and you get a letter ordering you to surrender your license plate and your drivers license will be suspended for 90 days. In Ohio, you just sign a statement of financial responsibility at the DMV and walk out--no need to prove it.

The "cash for clunkers" program was supposed to get older cars off the road, but, in reality, it was just another cleverly veiled program to bail out the auto manufacturers, because you had to buy a brand new car to get the subsidy--so if all you could afford was an old "beater", you were not likely to be participating in the program anytime soon.
 
The "cash for clunkers" program was supposed to get older cars off the road, but, in reality, it was just another cleverly veiled program to bail out the auto manufacturers, because you had to buy a brand new car to get the subsidy--so if all you could afford was an old "beater", you were not likely to be participating in the program anytime soon.
That and many buyers, like me, prefer to buy "lightly used" and save money. Sure I'd love a new one, but I'll let someone else take the hit on depreciation for a few years. ;) So that incentive didn't mean anything to me, either. If I owned a clunker, it would be for a reason (such as, if I had to drive daily to a job into a war zone like Detroit...my better half doesn't want to get a newer car for that exact reason).
 
The vehicle code in California requires a plate on the rear and front.

I know that pain, in my case it was @ ~ 2003, in Cucamonga (of all places), San Berdoo Cty deputy sheriff. Amounted to nuthin' more than a "fix-it ticket" but still...
 
No front plate here in Michigan ... that went away decades ago. Neither of my cars has mounting brackets for one either.

Pretty sure I recall (this is from 2013 memory) that front plate is NOT optional @ Illinois.
 
Now am in France and front plates are absolutely mandatory, probably the same throughout the EU; or have aI missed the boat and Chris, the OP, has already made this point in an earlier post?
 
Once I saw a picture of this American license plate in a German automobile magazine:

PENI5

Not as easy to "score" as one might think. I had (telephone-based) batteles w/ DMV in Sacramento re: a customised lettering, essentially the distinguishin unit insignia under which I operated for a spell @ the United State Army. I was lectured TWICE that moi choix was "offensive"; both variants featured an arrangement of letters that spelled PSYOP. Go figger....
 
License plates can be fun ... <G>

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PS ... anybody remember motorcycle front plates?

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