HiJenx

There are a few differences between plates for cars in the UK and the US. In the US, of course, the state system comes into play. As with driver licenses, license plates for cars are done on the state level, which means if you move state, you need to get a new license and new plates. Naturally, this doesn’t happen in Britain as it is a much more centralized country.

Another thing that varies from state to state is whether you need two plates or one. All US states require you have a back plate, but not all require a front plate. Wisconsin is a two plate state, while Arizona only requires the one.

UK plates stay with the car for the life of the car, so you can get some very old plates there. They are called number plates rather than license plates because it registers the car rather than licensing it. You need to pay a separate thing called car tax, but that has nothing to do to the plate itself.

In the US, the relationship is the opposite. The plate is tied to the driver rather than a vehicle. You can keep the same plates even if you change car. For instance, my dad has had the same plates on several different trucks, replacing the vehicles, not the plate. They are renewed every year or every other year and you get a sticker that says when it needs to be renewed again provided you still have the car. The sticker renewal exists as a way of collecting car related tax in the US and varies wildly from state to state. Arizona can be very expensive or very cheap, depending on how new your car is (newer is more expensive), while Wisconsin had a flat fee. We are paying a few hundred dollars more now per year because our car is fairly new, but the longer we own the car, the cheaper it will become.

One thing that is possible in both countries but more common in the US is custom plates. Even costing a few hundred dollars to license the car for a year, it was only 25 dollars to get a custom plate. I am sure long time readers can guess what we went for:

Here’s the video: