License Plates Laws that vary state-to-state

[BlackenZaib]

Just for the sake of ceriousity I was wondering what is the laws across various states about license plates. For example, What is the License Plate replacement-schedule in states. Here is what I know.

The states of Minnesota, Texas and Washington, State Law says plates need to be replaced every 7 years due to the reflective coating wearing down.

The States of Florida and New York requires Plates to be replaced every 10 years for the same reason listed above.

Are there other states that issue new plates after X amount of years that aren’t listed above?

Next topic is Vehicle registaion tabs.

All states but Connecticut, Montana(Motocycles only), New Jersey Texas and The D.C have License plate tabs. Except NJ that has nothing at all.

I know the States of Wisconsin and Utah only have registration stickers on the rear plate. What other states only have tabs on the rear plates?

I know that the state of Arkansas Issues and requires use of 2 plates if you have Vanity Plates. I know the state of Pennsylvania issues and requires use of 2 license plates on Government Vehicles (Police cars, Ambulances, etc AND on press/news vehicles)

What other states have simular laws?

Topic

[James Kossman]

Idaho requires new plates every 7 years you can register up to two years the use a color coded small sticker that is placed on the plates, they require two plates one front one rear. License plates belong to the owner and can be transferred to another vehicle. On road motorcycles fall under the same category except you only need one plate on the rear of the vehicle. Off road motorcycles/atv’s are required to have a plate on the rear of the vehicle the plate belongs to the atv and must be replaced every seven years. You are required to purchase a parks and rec sticker every year. You are aloud to operate on city and county roads, and may cross US and state highways. You do not need lights or turn signals unless operating at night, you do need to use proper hand and arm signals. Boats and RV’S are a bit more complicated. All boats are required to have an evasive species sticker which is renewed every year.

[BlackenZaib]

Cool. Nice Info James. I remember reading that Idaho also issues new plates but I couldn’t remember where I read it to include it in here. I also found out after posting that the state of Wyoming also Issuses new plates however I am no sure of the cycle as to how often. From what I can find out ALL states that re-issue plates do it between 5 and 10 years.

Idaho seems to be simular to Minnesota as far as plates go. MN requires 2 plates and laws are strict. The front plate cannot be placed on the dash or inside the windshield. In MN it is illegal for any License Plate Frames that cover the State Name or hinder the visibility of the plate. so the License plate frames that have a Clear, Coloured or smoked “Cover” over the plates are all illegal. MN requres registration stickers on both plates and use the 3 letter month for the stickers and a seperate year sticker (JAN, FEB, MAR, APR, ETC…)

Also not mentioned is that in the state of Iowa it is Illegal to have ANY license plate frames that block either or BOTH the IOWA state name and the County name at the bottom of the plate. This actually makes all those “Dealer” plate frames illegal in the entire state and also limits plate frames to those with “narrow” bands on it.

I have also been told by a Repoman in the state of Utah that the front plate is not enforced at all regardless the fact state law makes it a 2 plate state. I have READ the same to be true for Wisconsin.

Unlike Idaho, In MN the plates belong to the cars not the owners. Any Standard-Issue plates follow the car. All Speciality plates in MN as well as Vanity plates however do follow owners. You can transfer all Vanity and speciality plates to another vehicle for a Transfer fee of $5. Also Plate laws include that if you are selling a vehicle in the state of MN that had specialty or Vanity plates on it at the time of sale it is the seller’s full responsibility to aquire and apply standard issue plates to the car before or at the time of sale.

[Erin]

Colorado – plate in front and back, regardless of vanity plate or regular. Re-registration is one year from the time you registered. 30 day grace. However, your re-reg month is always the same for the car in question. Say you reg your car in January, you could let it go til Feb of the next year but the year after that, it is still due in January.

Indiana – only required in back, vanity or not. re-registration goes by the first letter of your last name. If that month is close and you just bought a car, you can pay for the rest of your “year” and ahead the following. Example – “F” registration is in April. If you bought a car in February 2015, you could pay until April 2016. No grace period on expired plates.

[BlackenZaib]

Cool thanks for the Info. That is actually quite interesting. Here in the state of Minnesota you have 10 days grace period. For example if you have the Registration month of June, you can buy your registration as early as April and as late as July 10th. Also another unique thing with the state of MN is that every motorcycle or trailer registered in the state ALWAYS and ONLY expire in Feburary. This is the case regardless of the month in which you actually register the trailer or bike. I have noticed (but don’t know if it ever veries) that vehicles that have higher weight classes (such as work trucks like boom trucks, Dualie trucks, 1-ton or higher) have not only special MN plates with a Weight Class sticker on the plate (7 characters on the plate instead of 6) also seem to always expire in FEB however I can only verify this on a Dualie truck with a Weight-Class of “G”.

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