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Some North Carolina drivers have had the same plate on their cars for more than 20 years, said Marge Howell, spokeswoman for the state Division of Motor Vehicles in Raleigh.
I'm not sure if any color is going to last if the unprotected plate is exposed to the elements for up to 20 years or more. The state needs to reissue more often.
Well yeah! Jeez, I didn't realize that new plates weren't mandatory every so often...say every 10 years.
Well yeah! Jeez, I didn't realize that new plates weren't mandatory every so often...say every 10 years.
The previous tag was first issued in 1982. I guess someone out there has a 26 year old tag or did until recently.
The state has allocated $1.2 million to distribute more than 600,000 new tags during the first year to replace plates that begin with letters A through H. Mine starts with "P". I've had it for 6 years.
The previous tag was first issued in 1982. I guess someone out there has a 26 year old tag or did until recently.
The state has allocated $1.2 million to distribute more than 600,000 new tags during the first year to replace plates that begin with letters A through H. Mine starts with "P". I've had it for 6 years.
I want to say in IL that they made you pay for new plates every so often...maybe I'm wrong...maybe they were just phasing out the old plate in favor of the new Abe Lincoln plate. *shrugs*
The specialized plates do have an annual fee. For the one known as the "I Care" plate, the annual renewal fee also has a $20 contribution to the NC Spay/Neuter program for dogs and cats.
As to the plate colors:
NC used Orange and Black during the 40's until the later part of the mid-60's. Every year you purchased a new plate and the colors reversed - Orange on Black one year, Black on Orange the next. If you resided inside the incorporated limits of a municipality, you would have been required to also purchase and display the "half sized" city plate.
All plates had to be purchased and displayed by some date in February - Looooooonnnnnngggg lines outside of the Tag Office back them!
The new colors were brought in about the same time that the staggered registration program was put into effect. Initially it rotated between Green on a White background and the sequential year with Red on a White background. It did not take long for UNC and Duke alumni to realize that NCSU fans, who made up a plurality of the Legislature, were favoring the Wolfpack Red and White!
Shortly after that, Blue colors were added. If I remember correctly, that brought in the White background with Red for the constant information like "North Carolina" and (back then) the "First in Freedom" slogan. Each year, the specific plate number information rotated beween the three colors of Red, a lighter Blue (UNC) and a darker Blue (Duke.) Green was retired as a color.
As others have mentioned, the multi-year plate of today came about as recently as 20 or so years ago. At about that same time is when the Tag Office stopped being the collection office for the local county's Property Tax portion of the yearly fee which is now billed separately by the counties and cities.
The previous tag was first issued in 1982. I guess someone out there has a 26 year old tag or did until recently.
The state has allocated $1.2 million to distribute more than 600,000 new tags during the first year to replace plates that begin with letters A through H. Mine starts with "P". I've had it for 6 years.
Aren't they up to 'X' now? Wonder what will happen when they run out of letters - a new plate design out of necessity, or a California-style 1ABC234 plate?
I honestly have never cared for NC's stale license plates....even a majority of the personalized plates are boring....the colligate plates are the same "first in flight" plate with a University icon plated on the western part of the plate....boooooooo.....the "friends of Smokie" and the Coastal one are the best looking versions...that's it...
NC may have many progressive advantages over SC...but those license plate designs aren't one of them....
***this statement does not reflect the views of other South Carolinians or the views of SC residents that live in NC....this view is of CarolinaSouth and is men purely for entertainment***
but on the real...do like SC and change your plates aver 6 to 10 years please....or atleast have better specialty plates!!!!
License plate sticker expiration..can I go to the end of the month with no penalty?
Your sticker really expires on the 15th of the month AFTER your sticker expires (look at your registration card). If you have a "6" and "14" on your stickers, your registration actually expires on 7/15/14.
To answer the original question, NC thought that the blue lettered plates were fading too quickly, so they switched to red letters.
Once the red lettered plates started showing up on the roads, police all over the state said that the red was impossible to read. The state then switched back to blue letters.
Before the economic downturn, the state had been re-issuing original plates and got up through the plates starting with "L". Budgets got cut and they're doing it a bit slower now, but they're generally trying to replace plates that are older than about 15 years.
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