Borla

For those of you that live in states that put the little yearly stickers on your license plates, are yours current? The reason I ask is that we just put the one for Jan '06 on my wife's car. She had picked up the sticker, but didn't put it on. I got in her car last week and it was sitting in the console. I got out and put it on the car. Then I decided to start being more observant to the cars around me in traffic and see how many are current. You can't really read the month on the sticker at highway speeds, but any expiring in 2005 are bright green in IL, and any expiring in 2006 are bright yellow. So basically, any green sticker is expired, and at least for the month of January, any yellow sticker is current. Every day I've noticed at least a handful of cars (never fewer than three) that are expired every time I leave the house. Some are on very nice cars, so I'm assuming they have the $78 or whatever it is to renew, and it's just a matter of laziness/disorganization?

What is the status in your household? All vehicles current? We have three cars. Two are current, my other car is a "play/summer" car. Since I don't drive it in the winter, I usually just go get the new sticker in March or whenever. I'll have the sticker on it before I drive it.

For any LEOs we may have here, what is standard practice when you see the sticker is expired? Do you even pay that much attention to them unless you are looking for a reason to pull a particular car over for some other suspicion? What would cause you to issue a ticket for it instead of a warning?




(Mods, this is more targeted towards the discussion of the stickers, so I think this is a better place than the auto forum for it. Hopefully it's ok to leave here?)

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present_future

All stickers are current in my house. We get a reminder in the mail each year and it actually contains the vehicle registration for the year along with the reminder for the sticker payment. One trip to the DMV, and I'm good for another year.

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Leto

all current. it's no big deal to organize

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Borla

We get reminders here too, usually about 45-60 days before they expire. My bank offers the stickers too, if you have your current registration. The line there is usually MUCH faster than the DMV.

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Martian

Canadians do this too. While our stickers don't change colour and are therefore harder to identify, I know very few people who don't renew. The fine's pretty stiff if you get caught, I think.

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Toaster126

I semi-recently got pulled over because a cop noticed my tag was expired. It was three months expired. The fine was $70.

Mine is current now.

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cyrnel

Absolutely. It isn't worth the effort not to put it on.

Times I've been slow about it were because I wanted to wait for better weather, peel off the old ones, or somesuch nonsense. So I put the new one in the glovebox. I've lived to regret it a couple times, though if the sticker is in the glovebox officers usually let you slide.

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xepherys

$78? Nice. My wife drives a Toyota Corolla and it costs roughly $250/year here in Arizona. I have no clue how much my '06 Eclipse will be, but I'm not looking forward to finding out.

Eweser

We get reminders in Oklahoma too. I can't remember what color they are right now. I already have mine for 2006. I go to what is called the "tag office" to get mine. There's usually at least one in every county. It serves as a place to get new/renewed tags and also get new/renewed driver's licenses.

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Destrox

It takes a matter of 15 seconds to put them on, why shouldnt they be current?

The day I get them I toss em on the plate.

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kutulu

It will be at least $300. It's based off of the model year and the value of the car. If you really need to know, check the paperwork from when you bought the car, next year's tax will be a bit less, but not a lot less. It will be in threre under something like licensing tax or somthing like that.

I got stopped in Fountain Hills by the Sheriff's dept. for no tags. I got the tags the next day. It's about $400 but if you get the tags before your court date they drop it to about $100. Now they actually have a law that if you get stopped and either have epired tags, no license with you, or no insurance (even if your they are valid and you just forgot them) they are REQUIRED to tow your car. Fucking bullshit racket for the tow companies.

Regarding towing companies, they are the lowest form of scum around. If a business calls to have a car towed off of their lot or a cop calls for a tow truck, it's there in 30 min or less but if a private citizen calls they have to wait at least an hour. Fuck that.

f6twister

Mine are always current. I work in LE and they keep tabs on us. When I drive I'm constantly checking plates and see at least two every day that are expired. The state DMV sends a notice about 1 -1/2 months in advance which is plenty of time to get the renewal sent in. You can also take it directly to a DMV station and get your stickers on the spot (for those of you who are constantly behind).

The cops where I work will almost always pull over a vehicle with expired plates. Unless the plates are long overdue (looking at 6 months or more), they usually get a correction notice.

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Cynthetiq

current.

it's the inspections that are the pain in the behind to remember to do since it doesn't expire at the same time.

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Rodney

Mine's always current. My wife's car was often behind because she'd forget to pay. Then the state DMV came online and she can renew through a webpage, so she's better about it now; I also nag her more. One time she drove for three months with expired tags and nobody caught her.

In this area, a lot of people drive with expired tags, because we have a high proportion of poor students, farmworkers, and other people short on cash; the cops don't generally pull them over unless they're doing something else. Meter maids can and will bust you, but if you stay out of metered areas they don't do a thing.

As for the registration fee: remember that maintaining an old car saves you money. I think I pay $50 a year for my '92 Integra. For a new or nearly new car, I'd pay five or ten times as much. It's like getting a subsidy for auto repair.

RAGEAngel9

Mine is now that the nice officer decided to remind me one day.
grumble grumble
Oh well the judge let me off since it was only a month expired and I got a new one right after I got the ticket.

Coppertop

Mine is current. I always pay for registration on time but seldom is my sticker on before it expires - it usually takes me a week or so into the following month to remember to put it on.

I've been pulled over without it on, but since I had the sticker in my car the officer had me get out and apply it. Still got the ticket for speeding though.

laconic1

Mine is current. $36 a year, no safety inspection, just an emissions test every other year, and the county mails me the renewal info. So little effort and money required I don't have any excuse not to keep them current. Although I see a ton of drivers with expired tags around here.

raeanna74

We went for a while last year with our stickers not on but the vehicle was registered. We had sent in the registration but had not received the stickers in the mail for over 3 months. Hubby had to go in to the DMV to get more stickers.

I am pretty good at getting the stickers on ASAP. I've actually gone and put them on the minute I got my stickers in the mail.

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Marvelous Marv

I assume you all take a knife or razor blade and score the renewal sticker. Otherwise, it can be peeled off and put on another plate.

Happened to me once when my car got stolen. The reason it was recovered was that they had switched plates and taped the stolen sticker to the plate.

A sharp-eyed cop spotted the tape, and the upshot was that I got to watch them arrest the thief.

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snowy

Mine are always current...I put my new tabs on as soon as I get them, though notably there are some from 2000 in my glovebox that never got used. I seem to recall that year we got duplicates for some reason.

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SirLance

Why would you say that? I keep my car registered and insured, but about 1/3 of drivers don't. I hope the new law gets those uninsured people off the road, and forces my premiums down. Driving a car is a priveledge not a right. If you aren't willing to accept the responsibilities it entails, you should not drive a car. If you fly in the face of that, it should be taken.

My next-door-neighbor's son had his car totalled by an uninsured motorist with no assets. He did not have GAP. So, he lost his car, and he got to keep paying on the loan. Did the UM lose his car? Nope. They took the plates, but he kept driving and hit ANOTHER person.

And yes, my tags are current.

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kutulu

Sorry about your friend but what can you say, that sucks. I believe its a requirement to have coverage against uninsured/underinsured motorists although GAP isn't required.

Anyway, he would have been in the same situation if he got in an accident with someone who was insured, that's the whole reason why you have GAP coverage, because the insurance company is only responsible for the value of the car plus any injury-related things.

Manditory towing laws don't solve anything. If someone is hell bent on not having coverage they can get covereage for the day and cancel right afterwards. It's merely an inconvenience to them. OTOH, honest people who made the mistake of taking their insurance cards out of the car, losing it, or whatever have to pay hundreds of dollars to some asshole towing company that would rather tow some jerk who is in the wrong parking lot than a motorist who is stranded on the freeway (that's been me and I waited over two hours on the side of a busy freeway in rush hour traffic). All it accomplishes is screwing over honest people who made an honest mistake.

Destrox

Way to assume just about everything way the hell off key with towing businesses.

Blind ignorance solves nothing you know.

I've worked in a towing business for over 4 years, and not a single ounce of it is true from anything I've read on your posts.

Towing businesses rarely can live without contracts to much larger affliates (ex. AAA, USAC, Dealerships, City/State) and they tell them what to do. Towing businesses rarely make good money, they simply do what they can just to get by.

If you want to be blindly pissed off at anyone, look torwards your State/Local govts that create those towing laws.

You honestly think towing folk enjoy pissing people off and ruining their day by taking their vehicles? Get Real.

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SirLance

Not true, UIM coverage is for MEDICAL payments only. The kid was not at fault, the other driver ran a red light. Since the other driver had no insurance, the kid's comprehensive kicked in and covered the market value of the car.

If the other driver had been insured, he'd have a repaired car, or enough money to buy something else. Instead, he's out his car, he gets a deficiency balance to pay off, and he has no transportation. All because someone ELSE didn't have insurance. Not an honest person who made an honest mistake. If he had been honest he wouldn't have driven without insurance, and he would have reimbursed the kid for his damages.

I say tow 'em. Sure you can get coverage for 1 day, but guess what, you don't know what day you'll be in the accident, and when your insurance company notifies the state you've been dropped, they'll suspend your registration and if you get pulled over you get to lose your car. And you should lose your car. You know what the requirements are. You have to have insurance, you have to have a valid drivers license, and you have to have current registration. If not, don't drive. There is no excuse.

By the way, it isn't a mandatory TOWING law, it's a mandatory INSURANCE law that requires IMPOUND.

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Grasshopper Green

Ours are due to expire at the end of this month, and will be taken care of by then.

Marv, what does scoring do to prevent theft? Other than just cut the sticker in two?

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Marvelous Marv

By "scoring," I meant making multiple vertical and/or horizontal "incisions." That way, the sticker can't be peeled off in one piece for use on another vehicle.

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kutulu

I don't take issue with them towing peoples' cars. That is part of their job and it's the fault of the dumbfuck that parked illegally. I take issue with the fact that of all of the times I've been broken down on the side of the road the fastest they have ever been was an hour. When my transmission blew, I was stuck on the interstate in rush hour traffic for three hours.

kutulu

Actually it depends on the state. Some require none, some require only medical or property, some require both. Some also require gap coverage. Either way, you should have both.

yellowchef

In FL we have no emmissions tests, no inspections and you can do your renewal online. also the stickers are all yellow so you cant tell when they expire. The cops can make sure that the year sticker belongs on your car now though as in tiny print the plate number is listed on the sticker which is a bonus. They can still take the sticker but if they get busted its obvious. The fees are pretty reasonable and even for new cars its pretty cheap. They mail you letters as well I believe. I dont know because I dont renew my tags, my father does(or my parents do) since the car is in their name(s). My car is current because I just recieved new plates. 99% of the time my tags are current.. sometimes its a few weeks before I change them since I do have to call and check to see if my parents sent my sticker out.. but its only been once that I didnt have up to date stickers... and I got busted.. it was the accident that wasnt my fault and the cop really wanted to let me off but he was right about the paperwork going through and he would get in trouble. Fine was like $119... BLECH

yeah call me lazy but I get busy with work and school... hell if I hadnt had to physically swap plates this year I might still be driving around on expired tags.

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rlynnm

I actually had current tags sitting at home while I drove around with my expired ones. I figure it was just laziness to put them on.

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VitaminH

I'm all current.

I've got a friend here in Chicago who let it lapse, and just from parking on the street he got a daily ticket until he got it renewed. It was nuts. I had no idea you could be ticketed while parked for having expired plates.

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kutulu

That doesn't make any sense at all.

Cynthetiq

If it's on private land then it doesn't matter driveway, yard, garage, but if it's on the street then it needs to be in compliance with local and state ordinances.

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crow_daw

Yeah I updated mine, because it's just not worth it not to. However, I know a person who's tags have been expired since last August and he/she has gotten very lucky thus far and hasn't been caught.

But I know my luck, and there's no way in hell I could pull that off.

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Xazy

Mine are up to date, thanks.

SirLance

Read your policy. Uninsured motorist coverage DOES NOT COVER PROPERTY DAMAGE, like damage to your vehicle. It covers only medical payments.

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Marvelous Marv

Your friend won't be feeling as lucky when he/she finally has to renew, and he/she sees what he/she is charged for late fees.

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Biscuit Buns

Current. We renew every two years here and it makes it a bit more difficult for me to remember (as I'm not frequently staring at the back of my car), but I get it done. This year, I got a $100 ticket for being late. Yay.

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yellowchef

we dont get charged late fees that much either.. like a few pennies..

no wonder FL has shitty drivers

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the voices in your head are not real--but they still have some really great ideas.

always remeber you can choose your friends, but you can't choose your family. But..you CAN choose the insane asylum where you have them all put away!

analog

FL has shitty drivers because half of them are old as shit and can't see, let alone have the proper reflexes to drive. Can't tell you how many elderly people I have coming through the drive-through window at the pharmacy, their hands shake like leaves in a hurricane, and it takes them 5 minutes to do anything (like get money out of the wallet, remember why they're at my window to begin with, etc). That kind of poor motor control and response time is exactly what keeps our roads so damn dangerous. That, and we just seem to have a very high rate of poor drivers in general; I have no idea why that is. I never hear complaining about the drivers like I do with Florida... except maybe Massachusetts.

My tags are always kept current, and I put slices in them (the "scoring" mentioned earlier) to prevent theft of the sticker.