This gen2 Tercel was at a light ahead of me when I noticed its “18” (2018) license plate sticker; that’s the year it expired. So what are the odds of getting pulled over for that in Eugene? Very low. Somewhere else, maybe not so low, especially if you’re not white.
The red Accord coupe in front if it is semi-noteworthy too.
I cropped the shot, but it’s not very clear. It was to me, sitting there.
I haven’t seen them in years in Quebec where lots of them died due to rust thanks to road salt.
A gen3 Tercel was my very first car, nearly 35 years ago. This one is an ’85-’86 with the revised tail lights. I occasionally see an ’83-’84 version running around here in Santa Fe, NM. And in much better condition than the one pictured here.
I don’t know about Eugene or anyplace else, but here in Las Vegas, crime is way up and law enforcement recruiting is way down. Traffic enforcement is virtually nil and vehicle registration enforcement has largely fallen off the bottom of the priorities list. I regularly see vehicles bearing 30-day dealer registration tags that expired 6+ months ago.
Perhaps that’s why NV has the 2nd highest car insurance in the nation.
How much can it possibly cost to register a fully depreciated car in Oregon? It’s surprising that someone would let it go for five or six years. Around here a car will get impounded and potentially auctioned off for it although there are numerous cars that are driving around with well beyond the 60 day temporary tag timeframe so who knows…
I guess back in 2018 the value of a running ’80s Tercel would be in the mid 3 digits so maybe it was a calculation…now the car’s probably closer to being worth real money and six years of back fees perhaps add up to being a real number as well.
Another possibility is that the current sticker was stolen. That happens quite frequently in some jurisdictions – and usually the thief will peel off several years’ worth of stickers at a time, then do the detail work (isolating the current-year sticker) later, so the car is left with a much older sticker visible on the plate.
For that reason, a lot of places are doing away with license plate stickers entirely, relying instead on either windshield stickers or electronic enforcement.
So true when one is on top of another so after awhile easy to peel the current one off without damaging it. What you should do after placing it on is cut two X’s into the sticker with an X-acto knife so that it comes apart when trying to peel. Especially so when you have 55 stickers on top of each other.
Pennsylvania did away with license plate stickers in 2017 for that reason. In some places, thieves didn’t bother trying to tease the current sticker off the plate while it was on the car; they would just use tinsnips to cut off the plate corner with the stickers (and, presumably, remove and reuse the current sticker at their leisure later)
How much can it possibly cost to register a fully depreciated car in Oregon?
$126 for two years. $136 if it’s 2000 or newer and gets 20-39 mpg. $156 if it’s 2000 or newer and gets 40+ mpg. $316 if it’s an EV. (all for two years).
Cheap, in other words.
Sorry Paul, I meant to reply further down. Let’s try this again.
Interesting LED string (Xmas tree decoration?) on the hatch.
What I want to know is what is on fire just beyond the traffic light? Unless that’s just fog lifting and not smoke.
In Maryland, the cost for tag renewal is $135 every two years regardless of the value of the car, unless you have Bay plates, and then it goes to $155.
I’m not sure what Jim’s talking about above regarding how much it costs to tag a depreciated car. But every state is different. That’s probably what they do it in Colorado. Not sure about Oregon.
I’m talking about how in many states it’s far cheaper to register a cheap car than an expensive one, at some point it bottoms out and is very inexpensive, whereas a new car can easily be in the low four figures for the annual registration fee(s).
So in Maryland when you initially buy the car you pay for the car and the sales tax etc and then every year after that the only thing you pay the state to get the registration sticker is $67.50 per year (or actually $135 for a 2-year sticker?)? That’s a bargain!
I think there may be deals for things like historic tags, but my Mustang isn’t there yet (20 years here), but yep… that’s it. It used to be $70 for two years for the longest time, but that fee went up several years ago.
We don’t have state safety inspections either, but we do have emissions testing every two years… $14, unless you use a self serve Kiosk, and then it’s $10.
But bring a car here from another state… That’s gonna cost ya… You pay sales tax on a car you already own. That somehow seems unfair, but I imagine all states do something like that.
One more thing about historic tags… I see SO MANY old beaters with those, on random things like Camrys, Corollas, and Minivans. So that tells me there must be a price break that owners of such cars are exploiting. To me a 1996 Corolla, with the obligatory “Camry Dent” in the rear bumper cover, doesn’t seem like a classic to me!
Just last week, my neighbors’ grandson was visiting their house, and he drove his late-’90s Ford Ranger… with Historic tags.
Those tags come with big insurance and registration discounts, but also big restrictions (like not driving it on a daily basis). Many people just ignore those restrictions, but for our T-bird, which is eligible for Historic plates due to its age, I chose to continue with regular plates and not try to game the system. I’m the kind of unlucky person who would actually be the 1-in-1,000 to get caught.
I know Maryland moved recently to close the loophole that allowed buyers of 20+ year old used cars to get cheaper registration and/or no state inspection needed, or something like that I can’t remember the specifics. You are no longer allowed to drive Historic-plate cars from your home to your office on a daily basis and other such restrictions, don’t remember the specifics. But many were taking advantage of the financial benefits of buying and driving a 20 year old Accord/Camry/Corolla and such. I remember when any 1958 model really did seem like it was from a different era from 1978 models; that’s no longer the case
Jim’s likely referring to personal property tax, which some states have. Here in Virginia, that tax is particularly onerous – for example, I paid $500 in tax this year for our 5-year-old Sedona. People with newer cars pay in the thousands. By comparison, our 2010 Odyssey is charged just $31 in tax, and our ’95 Thunderbird is charged… $0!
What I want to know is what is on fire just beyond the traffic light?
Nothing. It’s the residual cloud of exhaust from a chipped diesel pickup that just accelerated off to the left after the light turned. Rolling coal, in other words.
Fortunately, we’ve seen a precipitous drop (pun intended) in this stupid practice here in Maryland since becoming illegal in 2017 with potentially stiff fines for doing it. We still see coal rollers here unfortunately, just less so these days.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/dr-gridlock/wp/2017/05/26/no-more-rolling-coal-on-maryland-roads/
The “Toyota Starlet” is the one ya just never see,
Could also be “year of manufacture” plates. In my state, any vehicle over 25 years can display state plates from that car’s year of manufacture as long as you have current plates and reg onboard. I have old plates on my ‘93 Toyota because they’re unique and far prettier than our current standard issue plates.
This is another thing I like about this site, we can compare how different states (and countries, sometimes), do things. In NC, there is County property tax on your car (and City property tax if you are in a city), and you pay that when you renew the tag with the State. The tag renewal (we get a sticker) is $38.75 a year to the State. The property tax money goes to the County and City. But because you have to pay property tax and the State tag together, a lot of people can’t or won’t pay. My city of 1M people has announced they are not pulling anyone over for expired tags any longer. In NC we renew tags every year. You have to get a State inspection (kind of like MOT or Smogging in CA, but much less rigorous, they mainly check all your lights and make sure you have tread on the tires). In my county, they check your emissions from MY 1996 forward, but in most of our 100 counties, they don’t check that.
With the tag and property tax:
2015 Smart: about $110 a year
2018 BMW: about $500 a year
2018 Range Rover: about $500 a year
2000 GMC Sierra: about $50 a year
California fees:
1965 F-100 $158/yr
1967 Parklane $134/yr
1968 Cougar $141/yr
1968 Mustang $141/yr
1973 Polara $139/yr
1991 Mazda 626 $134/yr Smog test/2yr
1998 Sable PNO $5
2004 Focus $154/yr Smog test/2yr
2004 LeSabre $146/yr Smog test?2yr
2018 Mazda 3 $249/yr Smog test/not yet
In PA, taxes are paid at time of purchase, so for registration it’s $45 / year for passenger cars / suv’s. For trucks it’s based on weight class – $77 for typical pickup up to 5000 lbs.
There are other fees for different classes as well. I just found out that we have classes of “Motorized Pedalcycle” ($10), “Motor-Driven Cycle” ($10), and Motorcycle ($24). The class of vehicle titled “Implements of Husbandry” (farm equipment) is $33.
We still have yearly car inspection – about $50 + any repairs completed. Always replace wipers before getting that sticker, or you are paying shop rates for that.
For emissions, about $15, but only if you live in more populous counties. I live in one of the 42 emissions exempt counties.
A friend drove her Pacific Green metallic 1998 Ford Contour for a full year, here in Ontario, with an expired licence sticker. Happened about 14 years ago. A remarkable achievement. She said she forgot to renew it, and no police pulled her over. Roughly, ninety-nine percent of the time, they will catch you here.
As some else mentioned, we also have a 3% HUT (Highway Use Tax) to the State when you first tag something. That is 3% of what you paid, or, 3% of the tax value of the vehicle if it was given to you, or you moved the vehicle into NC from another state. But you just pay that one time, when you get a NC tag, for the duration of your ownership.
Unlicensed, uninsured, unregistered. Three categories that depending on state laws mean different things. But in fact regardless of category, somewhere between 10% and 18% of vehicles on public roads meet these criteria (or their drivers do).
Here in MA, we’ve had attention to this issue via catastrophic accidents caused by drivers who were in fact driving on suspended (i.e., non-existent) licenses. We all carry insurance (those of us who have acquiesced to motor vehicle law) intended to cover accidents caused by uninsured and unregistered vehicles and their drivers.
That said, I totally agree with your point about how one is more likely to be caught if they’re not-white. To this end, it’s a very positive thing (IMO) that my state has allowed the acquisition of licenses to happen regardless of ones immigration status. That should encourage more drivers to become licensed drivers…and that’s a good thing.
/politics
I know I’d get caught in no time. My aunt drove around with expired PA inspection for about two months. ((2005))
No one (she claimed) ever said a thing.
Ca. in fact has an interesting method of figuring your annual license tags ~ only the registration fee can be deducted on your annual income taxes so it’s very low, under $50 in most cases .
The rest of it is added taxes that you’re not allowed to deduct .
For fun a buddy of mine and I bought jalopies and ran sans any tags at all to see who could get away with it the longest, he won, I had a nice lie all made up that I’d blather to the LEO who asked me, I can’t recall ever being pulled over but they’d come up when I was parked at 7-11 early in the morning when we were both getting a coffee .
Failure to have current tags can mean no insurance coverage on that -one- day you need it .
-Nate
In Ca. mis-using historic plates could have some real bad consequences. Because they are tied to limited use/ mileage restrictions; for hobby purposes such as parades or shows, or being driven to the mechanics, parades etc. specifically not to be used for daily commuting or business. (think of a vintage truck used for a business). If you are in violation of the registration limitations you might be violating the mileage restrictions of your historical vehicle’s insurance policy. I can easily imagine a situation where the driver is involved in a serious accident and the insurance company might refuse to honor their coverage.
I had historic plates on my ’89 Jag XJS, I drove that thing very little, and I couldn’t use it to commute since I’m retired and don’t have a job. I carried regular liability insurance on the car.
California raised the rates on older cars, my ’96 Mustang is now 149.00 for this year’s registration. I remember when my old cars were only around 70 bucks. What really kills you is the weight fees on pick ups. All pick ups with open beds are supposed to pay weight fees, I think that they are over several hundred dollars a year for commercial plates added to the registration fees. There is an exemption for a historical truck, and trucks with permanently mounted campers are registered as “house cars” which eliminates the requirement for commercial plates. If the camper is removed, and the truck is driven on the highway, weight fee penalties can be charged retroactively for the year, and the truck will be tagged in the system and will be prohibited from being registered as a house car in the future. So what, if you owe money to the DMV?
Unpaid fees due to the DMV can result in a sort of “lien” being placed against registering other vehicles that belong to that same owner, and it can also prevent you from renewing your drivers license until the fees are paid.
All this should be more of a headache than a reasonable person would want to get involved in.
I can’t believe nobody has mentioned it, here in Calif we have the biannual smog dance. Sometimes things won’t pass without spending a possible fortune, other times people are just paranoid, sure it won’t pass, not to mention people who have tweaked things 8 ways to Sunday. Regardless, the ability/willingness to pay the annual registration fee can be the last thing on their minds, it’s the states’ requirements that go along with it.
Back east “inspection” could be the same reason.
When PA. eliminated the annual license plate stickers in 2017, the state DMV (PennDOT), claimed that all police everywhere had plate readers in their cruisers. Nothing was further from the truth. Many still do not. Anecdotally, Pa. plated vehicles often were pulled over in MD., in particular. I still have 2017 stickers on two plates but have never been bothered.
When the annual stickers were in use, it was quite common to see expired ones. Even more common to see expired inspection stickers on the windshield. I’d hazard a guess that there is often no insurance carried in many cases. My adult stepson recently went a year with an expired inspection sticker without a pull over. Road law enforcement of any kind has been quite rare in Pa. for the past 5 years, other than the State Police.
Wow!! Who knew?
My Maryland tags are up to date, something that only requires putting a small reflective sticker with the last two digits of the date on the top right corner of the plate every two years for a nominal fee, but the plates themselves are the same ones I obtained with my first car, a Pontiac J2000 LE, in 1985. They’re quite beat up now but still completely legal and just got moved to each replacement car I bought since then. I’ll have to get new plates only if I trade my car in for a crossover, SUV, van, or truck, since these “light trucks” get different plates from “cars”. That made sense once upon a time, but it seems weird now that someone replacing their 1977 Beetle in with a 2023 Corvette can keep their plates, but someone trading a Tesla Model 3 for a Tesla Model Y needs new plates because those are different categories of vehicle.
That has since changed, la673… You and I are fellow Marylanders, and like you, I thought this was true until buying my 2016 Civic. Like you, I’d always just transferred my plates. Since I wasn’t trading in the Mustang, I originally got the Star Spangled Banner tags for the car**.
At that time, Maryland had changed so that ALL vehicle types (except Historic, hire/livery cars, etc) get the same plates. Even trailers, big trucks, SUV(s), cars, etc. all get the Maryland Pride tags with the same 1XX0000 format. Even BAY plates can be put on anything. Most likely the fee schedule still varies between types, but the tags are all the same.
** BTW, the tag quality has gone downhill bigtime. My Star Spangled Banner tags looked awful after only 4 years on the car, so I paid the extra $20 at renewal time for a new set of plates, the Maryland Pride ones. Be it my Mustang, the CX-5, or the Civic, they’re all the same.
Maybe stuff like Farm Trucks are different. 😉
In South Carolina, you pay property tax on your car every year and pay for the actual license plate every 2 years. Property tax goes down the older your vehicle is based on its tax assessment. I paid $74 last year for taxes and plate renewal on my 08 Saturn VUE. This year I will pay less than $40 for taxes. In the past I have only had to pay $13 for taxes. But that was on a 15 year old Hyundai accent
Being the anti-California in many subjects, Wyoming does offer quite a contrast to what happens in the “Golden State”. My example is historic car registration fees. The car must be 25 model years old. There are no safety or emission inspections. The fee is one time and one time only – $10 for as long as the owner has the car.
We pay for a card that sits in a holder inside the windscreen it gives most of the details of the car, my car is considered a greater risk of accident for rego fees, its diesel that costs more$181 from memory and that was the old car not this one, my old Hillman for full registration was $48 because its over 40
No stickers or tags here any more, and registration yearly costs close to $1000. Most cop cars have readers permanently on that read the plate, so if it’s expired, you’ll be done for sure. Fine is in the order of $600. Nice.
I was quite happy to move away from Portland OR and the legions of expired/no plates at
all miscreants. One of which hit and injured my wife, then proceeded to crash into a city bus and run again.
My wife got stopped by a Calgary cop last year with an expired sticker.
She got off with a smaller fine when the constable said updating the registration that day would save her car from being towed and impounded for “not being registered.” Which technically is correct up here. She simply forgot to renew as they no longer send letters to motorists in our province come renewal time. Her fine was $90 I think for a minor infraction which I do not recall right now.
New plates now in Alberta no longer require stickers as police will simply run plate on the computer to determine if your registration is current.
Here in BC they dropped the annual stickers/day of month sticker this past May. Apparently going to plate readers in the patrol cars, so have been cracking down on old hard to read plates. I’m just waiting to get pulled over as mine are original of the current design first issued for the 1986 Expo, so I’ve had my plates longer than I’ve been married (35 years). The fees are built into the insurance you pay, and its $75 if you want new plates if your old ones are still legible (mine are according to the insurance agent).
Peeling current stickers was an issue and I was diligent in peeling off all the old ones for my Forester and my wife’s QX50, so no issues for us. The first time I did it though it sure was easy.
Our historic plates have very strict requirements although seeing some of the vehicles with them on this does not seem too strictly enforced. Our resident lighting expert gave a good review of that awhile back.