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Last night, a little after 11:00pm, I was coming home from the gym and got pulled over. I was driving safely to begin with, then I saw the officer on a side street so I was paying special attention and minding my P's and Q's, so I had no idea why I was being stopped.

I did my normal drill: tun both map lights and the dome light on, wave to the officer to let him know I see him, turn radio off, roll both windows down, pull as far as possible over to the right, turn engine off and put keys on dash, both hands on wheel and wait patiently.

He approached me and asked for my license and said, "The reason I stopped you is because you don't have any plates. We have a lot of stolen cars around here, and even though a car looks new it might be stolen."

I said, "I can totally appreciate that. My car got stolen right after I moved to this area."
"Was it a Honda too?"
"Yup."
"Yeah, that's our #1."

He asked me if I had any of the sales paperwork to prove that it was mine so I showed him a copy of my sales contract. He said, "Have a good night" and let me go.

I've never been pulled over so many times in one month. At least so far I'm 3 for 3!

I guess I really should put my plates on, especially since they came about a month ago. It's just more fun not to have plates. [IMG]i/expressions/face-icon-small-tongue.gif[/IMG]

 
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Here in New York, right when you pick the car up, there are plates on the vehicle already. Dealerships are issued plates by the DMV and they in turn register the car and send the paperwork to Albany. You then receive a permanent window registration decal to replace the temporary one issued by the dealership. The plates, however, are on the car right when you pick it up. The only time this would be different is if you lived out of state where you could get a 15 day temp reg.

Do you have to register the car yourself in CA?

 
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I'm from the East Coast orginally and I know in MA you can't leave your driveway without plates, or you'll get PO'd. When I came out to Cali I was shocked to see so many cars without plates on them. When you buy a car here, you get this little 1"x6" inch strip on your windsheild with your registration on it, then you wait about 2 months for you plates to come in the mail.

 
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Yeah, it seems that most of the dealers in the eastern states put plates on the car when you buy it.

In California the dealer sends your registration info to the DMV and then tapes a temporary registration strip on your windshield that has truely useless information on it. You get to drive around giving your local dealership free advertising while the DMV plays around with your paperwork. My plates arrived about a month later, but I've been procrastinating putting them on. I bought the car back in Feb. [IMG]i/expressions/face-icon-small-tongue.gif[/IMG]

Look Mom, no plates! <- You can see the lame window sticker too.

 
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here in fl, the dealer give you a temp paper plate that last for a month, the plate usually arrives in 2-3 weeks

 
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Yeah same here in NB, Canada.

 
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in illinois and colorado (i know, not even close to each other, but it's where i have experience, i bought my car in illinois and registered it in colorado) you're given a temp tag that proves you bought it and everything, and an application for title goes to the state. when the title is approved, it goes either to you or the lienholder if you have a loan. once you have the title, or a copy of the title, and emissions testing taken care of, you can go to DMV and register the car, you pick your plates up there. in illinois, the temp tag is good for three months cause that's about how long it takes for the application for title to go through. in colorado, temp tags are about 6 weeks, same reason. just more people registering cars in illinois.

 
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I think everywhere if you buy the car out of state, they have to give you a 15-30 day temp tag and you then register it w/ your home state DMV where they issue plates and a permanent reg.

 
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Yeah I got my car and the temp sticker was good for like 3 mths atleast and I had my plates within 3 weeks but its better to have no plates with all this photo radar here. But AZ gives you almost like a temp plate that you put where the plates is instead of piece of paper in your window like Oregon does. So each state is different.

Nick

 
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Mine had the dealership plate and they put a strip with the date 1 month away on it as te temp. in GA.

 
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30 day temp tag in florida