Alabama License Plate Rant

OK, so I've had my personalized license plate from the state of Alabama since I bought the car two years ago: RACE RED. I even managed to get a space in between the words even though technically you're only supposed to have 7 letters including spaces. The letters are in a dark red color that blends well with the car. The plate is the standard stamped plate most states have always used. It looks great! NOW, the state has changed to cheaply made embossed plates. No more raised letters. They look absolutely awful! Plus, the new plate, which is about as thick as an aluminum can, doesn't have the space in between the words AND the letters are a grayish blue which is off-center of the plate (who needs quality control?). I was given the registration stickers to put on the new plate when it arrived by mail. The plate came last week....and promptly went in the trash. I put the stickers on the old plate. The state can put on some knee pads and suck it! If I get ticketed for it, fine, I'll pay it....and keep right on using my old plate. That's what a friend and I call "f***you money", which is where you have the money to just say "I got the money, so f***you!" Some people have f***you money for $20,000 service bills, or a $2000 car wash (detail...potato-potahto)...mine is paying a license plate fine.

Rant over, thanks for playin'.

 

Question . . .

Did the new plate look exactly like your old plate ?
(same style, color and state logo or seal)

If not, . . . you might be screwed and in big trouble.

Tom

 

If you have valid registration stickers, would they really care? Seems like a waste of tax money to keep pumping out new plates for cars that already have them.

 

we need pics.

 

I agree!!!!!!!!
We have gone from Jimmy Buffett 'Stars Fell On Alabama' to 'Alabama The Beautiful'.
Alabama may well be beautiful but the new plates are horrible!!!

 

In Illinois it is a $50 ticket and a glorified parking ticket for using "old plates" the first time. After that it is equal to a moving violation. I got a warning the first time and didn't feel like pushing it.

 

I actually already put the stickers on the old plate before my wife informed me that I'm getting a new plate. So when the new plate arrived and it was such Mickey Mouse crap, I got really pissed. I'm paying a premium for a personalized plate that looked like it cost 20 cents to make. My wife fished it out of the trash. Fine. I'll keep it, but it's not going on my car until the penalty exceeds my f***you money limit. I think most people, including cops, would agree that the new plates are a joke.

 

Keep the aluminum can plate in the trunk. If a cop pulls you over, show him the stickers, the new (not installed) plate; he may let you off, considering you are all paid up and legal. Worst that could happen is the same as if you kept the new plate at home.

John

 

While I completely understand your rant, you should understand that by the end of 2009, all of Alabama is supposed to have the new "Sweet Home" plates on cars and all "Stars Fell On" plates should be gone. Thus, come 2010, your plate will be among the only "Stars Fell On" plates on the road, and you will be a moving target for law enforcement. I'd dig the new one out of the trash.

 

Easier solution, move to Georgia or Mississippi.

 

if you scroll down to "Alabama"....

http://www.leewardpro.com/articles/licplatefonts/licplate-fonts-nam-usdig.html

 

If I was going to move out of Alabama, I'd leave the Southeast all together. Those are just different shades of the same turd.

I'd move back home to Texas if it weren't for the fact that my parents live there.

 

Texas is now getting "digitally" produced license plates, that are said to be flat.

We have this colorful crap in the link provided (455K votes). I wanted the simplistic plate that was white and said Texas, that's it.

http://apps.dot.state.tx.us/services/vehicle_titles_and_registration/vote_plate.htm

 

I just got one of thes flat plates in NC they said the digital printing was cheaper than the embossing.

Are licence plates still made by convicts? If so how can labor costs be a factor?

Also they gave me an old style plate while waiting for my personal one (two weeks) so the cost was much higher for them, what do I know though I only run a business.

Russell

 

Holy craw, thanks for making me spit out a pc of my hamburger! I love the subject of this rant and your reaction to the change

Kind of like what I experienced when SC similarly suck-changed their tag this year Messin my shmidt all up.

 

I voted for the "My Texas" version, it's just the the one we have now.

The Trad. Texas one looks good too. The one that got most voted looked like kids took a crayon and drew those "scribbles"

 

Though Mississippi doesn't have generally-issue flat plates, their vanity plates are flat and, in my view, even worse than Alabama's. The regular design is a gorgeous one, but when they put a personalized number on it, it obscures the design in the middle and makes the vanity plate unreadable. Very stupid.

Photos attached of the old Alabama plate, the new Alabama plate, and the awful Mississippi vanity plate courtesy of plateshack.com/y2k.
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All three of those plates look very feminine to me.

 

I dunno. I was sitting in my garage the other day, and with 7 cars with 6 vanity plates (@ $25 a year) I asked myself whay I was doing this.

Why does AZ have to charge me $25 a YEAR for this. I can understand the first payment cause it costs something to make a single plate (although ours are not stamped anymore either) but why every year. I suddenly felt a little snobish but still...

So, I cancelled them ... one by one

oh well.

 

And also realize the reflective coating on the plates has little or no safety value, CA did not have it for years, until some 3m lobby got ahold of a politician and we all pay more for it...the prisoners still bang them out though..

 

That ain't so bad.

When I was growing up in Indiana, we had these fruity looking things and the word "WANDER" printed on them. Whatever the F that meant. Still no clue 20 years later.
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Nothing will ever be as bad as the current Indiana design... I can't believe residents aren't up in arms over what has to be the ugliest license plate ever created.
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That's ugly but it still isn't as bad as the gay rainbow flag colors Indiana used.

RMX

 

Sayyyyyy...that bar code is really the mutt's nuts! Perty snazzy.

 

Probably the town or county name.

I like the Texas registration spot, not on the license plate, but on the windshield.