License Plate - Unreadable

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Good morning all.
Yesterday I was checking out the new Hotel Henry that opened-up in Buffalo, New York.

I saw this car in the parking lot and noticed the license plates.
I would imagine he'll get a Ticket from the first LEO who notices.


REAR Plate: (upside down in photo only) I saw this first and thought the owner should switch plates with the FRONT.

FRONT Plate: Worse than the REAR

If anyone is curious, Hotel Henry is a converted Mental Hospital built in 1871
 
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NY had a batch of those plates with bad paint that failed. They all began with E, and the DMV will replace them for free.
 
I saw another plate where the guy had put mud only on his license plate nos. Talk about calling attention to yourself. It's just asking the police to pull you over.

I got pulled over a couple of years ago, allegedly because my license plate frame was too thick. You could read the numbers fine, but he needed some excuse to pull me over, because old minivans returning from South Texas are profiled as contraband carriers. I told him that license plate frame had been on there 15 years (was put on by the dealer) and he was the first one to say anything!
 
good-luck-mr-policeman-car-plates-with-only-b-8-characters.jpg
 
Originally Posted By: Bandito440
NY had a batch of those plates with bad paint that failed. They all began with E, and the DMV will replace them for free.


I have one of the NY bad paint job license plates. It's the blue and white. You cannot read the characters in the middle. I am not sure they can give you a ticket. Will ask my SIL policeman.

My beef is the UGLY pumpkin orange plate they would replace it with. I hate them. I am holding out until NY has a nicer color license plate than pumpkin orange.

MA has no more toll collectors on the MA pike. I travel it every work day. Its EZ-PASS or they take a picture and bill you, no cash. Wonder if they can figure out my truck's owner from the unreadable plate.

Front is still the Portsmith Ford advertising plate. Yeah, I will get to it. Front plate is somewhere.
 
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Well, technically you can't run obscured plates, but I would be angry about (and fight) any ticket when the problem is the Motor Licence Issuer's problem, as compared to a warning or a notice to replace the plates in a reasonable time frame (say, 30 days).

Here, in winter, plates are often obscured by snow, sometimes blown on the plate due to just normal driving on snow-covered roads. I've never heard of anyone getting a ticket over it. They will ticket you for not clearing the snow from your car body and driving with frost-covered windows (front, drivers/passengers, and rear ... the others can be obscured).

They don't seem to mind dirt or mud-covered plates either. We only have rear tags, nothing for the front.
 
Yep, I was born in Buffalo, lived there 30 years.

There was a bad batch of license plates, also before that there was a bad batch of inspection/registration stickers that would fall off.

What's interesting is the NY plates always had raised letters, but the Texas plates are smooth.

I think Texas plates get retired after 7-10 years as well
 
Wow. Amazing they haven't been pulled over yet.

No yearly renewal stickers on the tag either. Does NY use them?

AL loves issuing new plates, so this doesn't happen here as long as a car has a legit, current state plate. They issued me a plate one year, then a new one the next because they changed the swamp scenery on it and apparently thought everyone (who registered their vehicle) should have the new swamp depiction on their plate. That didn't seem to solve the problem of the surprisingly high number of vehicles I still see here with no plate at all, or something clearly long expired/not valid anywhere cars are driven.
 
Some states really do love to issue plates as 01rangerxl noted. Kentucky is a noteworthy example, as is Ohio. California, on the other hand, is on the extreme opposite end. They even keep the same license plate as registration is changed for a car's owner. IOW, the plates stay with the car. Interesting how things are handled.

To the OP: I've had issues with images showing up 'upside-down' via the inline uploader too. Really bizarre! And yes, a cop can technically pull you over if your license plate isn't fully illuminated, easily readable, in brand new condition. Usually PC for a different kind of stop though. Fishing expedition to catch drunks or drugs.
 
Originally Posted By: L_Sludger
Some states really do love to issue plates as 01rangerxl noted. Kentucky is a noteworthy example, as is Ohio. California, on the other hand, is on the extreme opposite end. They even keep the same license plate as registration is changed for a car's owner. IOW, the plates stay with the car. Interesting how things are handled.

To the OP: I've had issues with images showing up 'upside-down' via the inline uploader too. Really bizarre! And yes, a cop can technically pull you over if your license plate isn't fully illuminated, easily readable, in brand new condition. Usually PC for a different kind of stop though. Fishing expedition to catch drunks or drugs.

At least in California it's illegal to use a license plate cover. I understand one rationale is that they're used to prevent detection by red light cameras that use a flash. I guess some use a reflective material. There are sprays that are supposed to do that, but that's actually quite illegal to use in my state.

https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=201720180SB712
 
Originally Posted By: Papa Bear
We had a run of plates here in Ontario about 10yrs ago that flaked and peeled.
They were replaced N/C


I have those plates on my Civic and they won't be replaced for free as they only warranty the plates for 5 years. Mine are 6 years old and just now starting to show signs of bubbling, but the numbers/letters are still intact at this point. I wish it had started degrading sooner so I could have gotten new ones for free.
 
Originally Posted By: 01rangerxl
Wow. Amazing they haven't been pulled over yet.

No yearly renewal stickers on the tag either. Does NY use them?


Only on trailer plates, dealer plates and ATV/ motorcycle plates. Otherwise, you get these......
 
Illegal in NY to have any covering on a license plate. Even clear plexiglass is illegal. Technically speaking, most of the dealer plate holders that new cars come with showing the name of the dealer on the top and bottom of the plate are illegal as they cover some of the words on the bottom of the plate.

But you have to do something really stupid and offensive to an LEO to get stopped and ticketed for these minor violations.
 
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