Saw a car with Mexican plates today....

[pitmonkey]

How many of you have a military base near by? When they are in the military they keep their home state tags until discharged, then if the stay in the state they have to change them.

[Andara Bledin]

The most interesting plate I've seen around here was some local guy that had a cute little French number, with the original plates on it.

Otherwise, I've seen pretty much every state round about, since I live a short (relative) distance from Disneyland, Knott's Berry Farm and Magic Mountain.

^-.-^

[sarasquirrel]

i like to keep track ...sorta.. of out of state plates i see here in central CT

alaska...hawaii...arizona, washington, california, colorado, texas, south dakota, north dakota, nebraska, louisiana, minnesota, illinois...ok theres more but you get the idea haha. i've also seen canadian plates. usually ontario, new brunswick, quebec.

mexico? havent seen it yet, but would like to!!

[Kogarashi]

How many of you have a military base near by? When they are in the military they keep their home state tags until discharged, then if the stay in the state they have to change them.

Nearest one I know of is a naval base more than an hour up the highway, and I've seen the slender license plate around town far too frequently for that. But as I said, there's a big university in this town (one of the major Ivy League ones; that'll probably clue you into which part of CT it is), and it has a lot of foreign students. Most of the foreign students I know of around here keep their home state/province's plates on rather than pay the state their firstborn child to get them changed, so that's most likely what the case is.

Still interesting to see plates that are most likely from overseas.

[Andara Bledin]

mexico? havent seen it yet, but would like to!!

We get Baja California places a lot here, since we're only about 100 miles from the border. What's funny, is that it can be a little difficult to tell the BC for Baja and the BC for British Columbia apart if you don't know what to look for.

^-.-^

[Peppergirl]

We get Baja California places a lot here, since we're only about 100 miles from the border. What's funny, is that it can be a little difficult to tell the BC for Baja and the BC for British Columbia apart if you don't know what to look for.

^-.-^

Baja plates would be VERY cool to see!

[Shalom]

Saw Hawaii plates once on the mainland, but that was at Fort McHenry, so it might have been a military person. This was many years ago, though.

Around this same time, I visited DC with my Baltimore cousins, and saw a car with Mexican plates parked on the Mall. Not just any Mexican plates, either, but DF Mex, or Mexico City, which is way the hell down south. It occurs to me now that it was likely a diplomat's* car, because I can't see a tourist driving that far in a Dodge Aspen. (Well, it was badged as a Valiant Volare, but it's the same car. I did peek in the window, and noticed that the speedo was in km/h.)

Alaska plates, when I was a kid there was a mobile home (built on a cab/chassis of a van) that was parked around my corner for months with Alaska plates. The thing had apparently been in an accident because it had a broken grille and a fairly large hole in the radiator (3-4 inches), so I have no idea how it was moved in the end.

* no pun intended, honest. I know the Aspen turned into the Diplomat after 1980.

[protege]

Years ago, it was possible to see plates from all over the place while on vacation in Cape May, NJ. Now, they all seem to be either PA, NJ, OH, or NY.

Last night though, I saw the best plate ever. Someone had put "JAG AUF" on the back of their XJ-series sedan. Pittsburghers will know what that word means

[dalesys]

Knew a guy who had JERK on his Mercedes convertible.


In the last week I've seen: CA, WA, OR, CO, MN, TX, VA, FL, GA, WY, NC, ID, AZ, NJ, MD, PA, NV, IA, NB, NM, IL, TN... and UT in about four hours of walking/riding/driving.

[Javarod]

Wow I've never seen this before.

Ended up behind a brown Chevy Suburban with Mexican plates here in southern Indiana. It was from the Mexican state of Aguacalientes (that's Spanish for "Hot Waters"). That's the first time in my lifetime I've ever seen a car with Mexican plates on the road.

Interesting, we see a lot of Mexican tags down here in AZ, but that's to be expected. That said, i've never this state before, but i did see a small caravan of Toyota FJs, including one model not standardly imported into the US, with i believe it was Venezuelan plates, maybe Colombian.

I've seen Puerto Rico, Guam, and Hawaii plates, as well as a few plates from Europe. Haven't seen any from Mexico yet.

We have at least one car around with Europe plates, with the WA plates screwed in over the top of it.

One of the most interesting things i saw when i delivered pizza in NJ was a VW Golf wagon with European plates. What's interesting about that you ask? At the time, VW was just starting to import that car... as the Jetta wagon.

[EricKei]

That's the first time in my lifetime I've ever seen a car with Mexican plates on the road.

Just out of curiosity -- was that the actual plate or a googled image? Ya see, that one expired about three years ago...

I know that when you move between states domestically, you do have some leeway with regards to changing over to local plates -- in MS, I think it's 6 months after you move there or the expiration date, whichever comes first.

[Bella_Vixen]

Becks and I saw this plate 6 months ago. I think it has to do with Germany, but I don't remember and it's hard to tell from the pic.

[laborcat]

I'm in Southwestern Ohio and I've never seen them around here either.

One of the managers where I work got a mini cooper a few months back, and her front license plate is that long, narrow European style. I think the back plate might be normal, I really haven't looked at it lately. I'll try to remember to do so next time we work together. The only reason I noticed the front plate is because she's always had this unusual vanity plate, and it always makes me wonder what it means when I see it.

[joe hx]

Some people in the US think it's "cool" to have European plates. So if they live in a state where front plates are not required, they'll put a European one on the front.

Saw Hawaii plates once on the mainland, but that was at Fort McHenry, so it might have been a military person. This was many years ago, though.

I wonder how many military people just have the plates from Hawaii or elsewhere and did not actually ship the vehicle.

Just out of curiosity -- was that the actual plate or a googled image? Ya see, that one expired about three years ago...

I wondered that too, then I realized he probably did not get close enough to take a picture of that quality. I mean, what would you do if some random person was photographing your license plate?

[Chromatix]

Becks and I saw this plate 6 months ago. I think it has to do with Germany, but I don't remember and it's hard to tell from the pic.

It's a German-style plate, but almost certainly an invalid one. The "shield" is, I think, a seal of the registration authority. The orange circular device is a tax date indicator. The letters HK would normally be the registration district - but HK doesn't appear in this list - this might be deliberate, to avoid accusations of stealing a legitimate plate.

And finally, the code says US in the blue section, which is normally used to indicate the country of registration in the EU (in which case the compass symbol would be replaced by the star-circle). Never mind that the correct code for a US-registered car being driven abroad is actually USA.