California - new vehicle license plates

[Deleted member 3147]

I just got the plates for my new Leaf and there's something odd going on. I'm just wondering if anyone knows what happened and if this has happened to anyone else.

In the past, when my wife or I have bought a new car, most recently 4 years ago, the plates have always been mailed directly from the DMV. The manilla envelope for the plates has a front pouch, marked "Open first", which holds the normal-sized registration slip, with the owner's address showing through a window. The envelope is postage pre-paid by the DMV, etc. (At least this is what I remember.)

This time, the plates were in the same envelope, but with the front pouch empty. Stuck over the left third of the front of the envelope was a USPS electronic-postage sticker showing that it was mailed by my dealer (Premier Nissan of San Jose) to me. (The DMV postage pre-paid logo was still visible in the upper right corner.) Inside the main section of the envelope were my two plates and the registration which was printed on the 5.5" x 8.5" (half-letter) paper normally printed at a local DMV office with the month and year tags stapled to the sheet.

In addition, the plates I received were "6SX....". I'm seeing plates on the road at high as "6TM...." meaning that the sequence of my plates are at least 6 months old! My registration shows the "6SW" plate number and was issued 10/31/11.

I'm just trying to figure out how this works. Are some dealers now getting their plates and registrations at local DMV offices? Are these dealers being allowed to "stock" plates which they have the local DMV offices register? Any ideas?

Actually, has this happened to other people here?

By the way, I asked my salesman and he had no idea how this works. Obviously, there's someone at the dealer who knows but I have no idea who to ask.

Thanks for any input.

 

[LakeLeaf]

That all sounds very strange, but maybe your argue for the $5k CA rebate if the plates were really issued that long ago!

 

[TEG]

From what little I know, yes, dealers do get batches of plates from the DMV, and can issue them to cars later.

I will see that customers from one dealer that bought in the same month end up with sequential plates.

 

[ttweed]

From what little I know, yes, dealers do get batches of plates from the DMV, and can issue them to cars later.

I don't believe this is correct, but I may be wrong. AFAIK, the plates are issued in batches to the various DMV offices around the state, and the variances you see in sequence are due to the location of the office issuing the new registration and how fast they use up their supply. An office in a big city will be issued a bigger batch and will use up their supply much faster than one out in the boondocks. Dealers don't get "batches" of any plates from the DMV (except possibly their own "dealer" plates that are attached temporarily to company cars)--they register each car individually as it is sold with the DMV, mostly electronically these days, and the plates are sent out from the local DMV office. The number sequence of the plate is determined by the supply at the DMV office used, I believe.

TT

 

[Deleted member 3147]

From what little I know, yes, dealers do get batches of plates from the DMV, and can issue them to cars later.

I will see that customers from one dealer that bought in the same month end up with sequential plates.

I have seen that, but always assumed that the dealer sent in a batch of registrations to the DMV and the DMV processed them together, issuing sequential plates.

 

[DarkStar]

I'm just trying to figure out how this works. Are some dealers now getting their plates and registrations at local DMV offices? Are these dealers being allowed to "stock" plates which they have the local DMV offices register? Any ideas?

Actually, has this happened to other people here?

In Oregon, when you purchase a previously never registered vehicle, you sign a document giving the dealership authorization to act on your behalf as an intermediary with the DMV. So instead of plates being mailed to me like I've received in the past, I got a postcard saying the plates have arrived at the dealership.

I imagine that DMV prints and ships the plates in batches for California and that's why you received a sequentially lower number than you typically see.

 

[NYLEAF]

Here in NY, it's totally different. We never have the temporary paper plates on our cars. When you get your car from the dealership, it's ready with brand new plates. When I leased a car this past summer, the car was waiting in the lot, with my plates, before I had even signed any paperwork. The dealerships here obviously have stocks of license plates. A few years ago, there was a car from the same dealer as my then-current car in my neighborhood that was one digit off from my plate. I figure we must have gotten our cars the same day or week!

 

[hpage]

I just got the plates for my new Leaf and there's something odd going on. I'm just wondering if anyone knows what happened and if this has happened to anyone else.

In the past, when my wife or I have bought a new car, most recently 4 years ago, the plates have always been mailed directly from the DMV. The manilla envelope for the plates has a front pouch, marked "Open first", which holds the normal-sized registration slip, with the owner's address showing through a window. The envelope is postage pre-paid by the DMV, etc. (At least this is what I remember.)

This time, the plates were in the same envelope, but with the front pouch empty. Stuck over the left third of the front of the envelope was a USPS electronic-postage sticker showing that it was mailed by my dealer (Premier Nissan of San Jose) to me. (The DMV postage pre-paid logo was still visible in the upper right corner.) Inside the main section of the envelope were my two plates and the registration which was printed on the 5.5" x 8.5" (half-letter) paper normally printed at a local DMV office with the month and year tags stapled to the sheet.

In addition, the plates I received were "6SX....". I'm seeing plates on the road at high as "6TM...." meaning that the sequence of my plates are at least 6 months old! My registration shows the "6SW" plate number and was issued 10/31/11.

I'm just trying to figure out how this works. Are some dealers now getting their plates and registrations at local DMV offices? Are these dealers being allowed to "stock" plates which they have the local DMV offices register? Any ideas?

Actually, has this happened to other people here?

By the way, I asked my salesman and he had no idea how this works. Obviously, there's someone at the dealer who knows but I have no idea who to ask.

Thanks for any input.

Happened to me -- I requested the dealer (Serramonte) expedite, they did so and indicated best would be if I pick up the plates at the dealer -- got a call 10(?) days later and did so.

 

[laalan]

In California, dealers have the option to electronically submit to the DMV. Those that do electronic have a stack of plates. Most dealers delay the reporting to DMV and the plate issuance long enough to make sure the check has cleared. By providing the automated dealer proof that the check had cleared, I was able to drop a few days off of the process.

I bought a car from a manual paperwork dealer on July 1st and one from an automated dealer on Aug 1st. I had the plates and car pool sticker from the second purchase before the first.

 

[CWO4Mann]

In California, dealers have the option to electronically submit to the DMV. Those that do electronic have a stack of plates. Most dealers delay the reporting to DMV and the plate issuance long enough to make sure the check has cleared. By providing the automated dealer proof that the check had cleared, I was able to drop a few days off of the process.

I bought a car from a manual paperwork dealer on July 1st and one from an automated dealer on Aug 1st. I had the plates and car pool sticker from the second purchase before the first.

I saved the $69.00 license plate fee charged on my invoice by the dealer since I already have a spare set of plates, my personalized Sons of the Confederacy one. Otherwise, the local dealer collects the state new plate fee and places an on-line order the the hard plates. Then they affix a paper plate printed at the Dealer and the regular plates arrive in a few days from the local county office together with the county wheel tax stamp.

I had the extra plate (we only use a rear plate here in Tennessee) left over from my brother-ibn-law's car that was impounded after he went to prison last year.

 

[Deleted member 3147]

In California, dealers have the option to electronically submit to the DMV. Those that do electronic have a stack of plates. Most dealers delay the reporting to DMV and the plate issuance long enough to make sure the check has cleared. By providing the automated dealer proof that the check had cleared, I was able to drop a few days off of the process.

I bought a car from a manual paperwork dealer on July 1st and one from an automated dealer on Aug 1st. I had the plates and car pool sticker from the second purchase before the first.

OK, this sounds like what probably happened. Premier is a pretty large dealership under fairly new management so I expect they are using the latest procedures.

I guess they had a few sets of old plates that someone found and started using.

BTW, for you out-of-staters, California does not use temporary paper plates. A new car just has a small slip of paper, folded to expose the VIN, and taped inside the windshield. The car comes with dealer "advertisements" in place of license plates. I suppose if you could keep your car looking new, you could probably get away with driving without plates for a few years, as long as you don't get pulled over.

 

[hpage]

BTW, for you out-of-staters, California does not use temporary paper plates. A new car just has a small slip of paper, folded to expose the VIN, and taped inside the windshield. The car comes with dealer "advertisements" in place of license plates. I suppose if you could keep your car looking new, you could probably get away with driving without plates for a few years, as long as you don't get pulled over.

Apparently in CA one has three months (was six) to get new plates:

http://www.autoblog.com/2011/10/28/how-steve-jobs-got-away-with-not-having-a-license-plate/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

 

[Tinyscrafts]

I recieved my plates but not the registration stickers for them. I called the DMV to say what's up, & they told me it would take 3 months to recieve them if I wanted to "reorder them" :|

 

[GlennD]

My plates took about 6 weeks and they arrived complete. I have no idea how Stadium Nissan entered the DMV records.

 

[Devin]

Here in NY, it's totally different. We never have the temporary paper plates on our cars. When you get your car from the dealership, it's ready with brand new plates. When I leased a car this past summer, the car was waiting in the lot, with my plates, before I had even signed any paperwork. The dealerships here obviously have stocks of license plates. A few years ago, there was a car from the same dealer as my then-current car in my neighborhood that was one digit off from my plate. I figure we must have gotten our cars the same day or week!

That happened to me, I found out courtesy of the car-find-a-majigger in Santa Monica.

I bought my car from Fontana Nissan and received my plates in the mail from them awhile later. I imagine my Leaf-sibling also bought their car from Fontana.

 

[TonyWilliams]

What's the link to that ?

 

[Devin]

What's the link to that ?

You mean the car-finder? I don't think it's web-accessible. It's on a touch screen kiosk in a parking structure in Santa Monica. I knew where I parked (plugged in to an EVSE, hard to forget) but I'd never seen such a gadget before so I wanted to give it a try. Lo and behold, it found more than my own car.

 

[LakeLeaf]

What's the link to that ?

You mean the car-finder? I don't think it's web-accessible. It's on a touch screen kiosk in a parking structure in Santa Monica. I knew where I parked (plugged in to an EVSE, hard to forget) but I'd never seen such a gadget before so I wanted to give it a try. Lo and behold, it found more than my own car.

That cool - and at the same time, slightly scarey.

Who's watching the watchers?