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From: jgar the jorrible on 5 May 2010 16:53
On May 4, 6:55 pm, Scott in SoCal <scottenazt...(a)yahoo.com> wrote:
> This morning's LLB had the license plate
>
> 6LLB252
>
> It was a purplish-red Mazda CX9, and as per LLB SOP it drove in the
> left lane all the way until it reached its exit, and then made a mad
> dash across all lanes to reach the off-ramp.
>
> Given the way CA sequential license plates are issued, there are ~1000
> cars with 6LLB as the first 4 characters of their license plate,
> another ~1000 with 5LLB, another ~1000 with 4LLB, and so on. The
> plates are issued randomly, of course, and yet it's a safe bet that
> almost ALL of them are LLBs.
> --
> The MFFY Litmus Test:
> If your maneuver forces another driver who has the right-of-way
> to alter course or speed, what you did was probably MFFY.

(Apologies to those who've heard me say this before) I had a Gremlin
with plate 502YIP. Never had to, though. Always find meaningful
sequential issued plates interesting.

Watching NCIS LA last night, was wondering if 2010 Challenger
sequential plate beginning with 4 could be legit. Aside from "the
gummint can do whatever it wants," of course.

jg
--
@home.com is bogus.
http://media.signonsandiego.com/img/photos/2010/05/05/sealprotectandserve_t352.jpg?980751187beea6fc26a3a9e93795d379f58af1c4
From: Steve Sobol on 5 May 2010 20:09

> Watching NCIS LA last night, was wondering if 2010 Challenger
> sequential plate beginning with 4 could be legit. Aside from "the
> gummint can do whatever it wants," of course.

It couldn't. When I moved to Apple Valley in '03, both of our cars got
plates starting with 5D. At that point they have to have been out of 4x
plates...

--
Steve Sobol, Victorville, California, USA
sjsobol(a)JustThe.net
From: Peter Lawrence on 6 May 2010 05:06
On 5/5/10 8:33 PM, Scott in SoCal wrote:
> Last time on rec.autos.driving, Steve Sobol<sjsobol(a)JustThe.net>
> said:
>>>
>>> Watching NCIS LA last night, was wondering if 2010 Challenger
>>> sequential plate beginning with 4 could be legit. Aside from "the
>>> gummint can do whatever it wants," of course.
>>
>> It couldn't. When I moved to Apple Valley in '03, both of our cars got
>> plates starting with 5D. At that point they have to have been out of 4x
>> plates...
>
> Not necessarily. There could easily be a stack of older plates stuck
> in a forgotten cabinet in a DMV or AAA office somewhere that gets
> re-discovered and distributed at a later date.

Not very likely.

OTOH, it could be stolen plates.


- Peter

From: jgar the jorrible on 6 May 2010 16:51
On May 6, 7:17 am, Scott in SoCal <scottenazt...(a)yahoo.com> wrote:
> Last time on rec.autos.driving, Peter Lawrence <hummb...(a)aol.com>
> said:
>
>
>
> >On 5/5/10 8:33 PM, Scott in SoCal wrote:
> >> Last time on rec.autos.driving, Steve Sobol<sjso...(a)JustThe.net>
> >> said:
>
> >>>> Watching NCIS LA last night, was wondering if 2010 Challenger
> >>>> sequential plate beginning with 4 could be legit.  Aside from "the
> >>>> gummint can do whatever it wants," of course.
>
> >>> It couldn't. When I moved to Apple Valley in '03, both of our cars got
> >>> plates starting with 5D. At that point they have to have been out of 4x
> >>> plates...
>
> >> Not necessarily. There could easily be a stack of older plates stuck
> >> in a forgotten cabinet in a DMV or AAA office somewhere that gets
> >> re-discovered and distributed at a later date.

And if I may go into make-stuff-up land, maybe some drug dealer in
Modoc county bought a new Challenger and it wound up forfeited and in
NCIS hands.

>
> >Not very likely.
>
> You say that based on what?
>
> Have you ever been to a DMV office? Have you seen the competence level
> of people that work there? Have you seen the kind of pressure they
> work under on a daily basis? What procedures are in place to prevent
> an incompetent, harried employee from misplacing a few license plates
> for a period of time?
> --
> The MFFY Litmus Test:
> If your maneuver forces another driver who has the right-of-way
> to alter course or speed, what you did was probably MFFY.

This is a valid point. When I went to take my vanity plates off of
one car and not immediately put them on another the clerk insisted I
turn them in for the DMV to "hold." I asked for a supervisor, problem
went away. They obviously had no mechanism for such storage. Things
may be different now, of course, I believe the relevant regulations
have changed in the meantime.

Can't remember where I learned they get periodic piles of plates
(though I think I asked one time when I was changing plates), but they
do need to account for them. That doesn't mean something silly like
losing a batch for a couple of years isn't possible. We can't really
know what is plausible unless someone who actually works with them
chimes in.

I'm not even sure I agree they are all incompetent. It takes a
certain kind of mental discipline to learn and enforce those rules, I
wouldn't last a day. The opposite is true when you look at the
implementation of the systems, you can have a brilliant collection of
parts add up to a dumbass system, and the collection may not be
brilliant. But actually, I think it works pretty well if you work
with it, don't expect to go in cold and have everything happen with a
snap of fingers. If you luck out and get a young pretty one, a bit of
flirtation can make everyone's day brighter.

A fellow who drives up to the parking garage at the train station
about the same time I do every day has the plate 4SIT666. So far I've
resisted asking him about it (we've talked about other things like
getting tickets for not parking between the lines, and helped another
fellow commuter with a stuck truck).

jg
--
@home.com is bogus.
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/2010/may/06/final-cost-of-sprinter-light-rail-4776-million/
Funny how a link can change the meaning...
From: Peter Lawrence on 6 May 2010 18:23
On 5/6/10 7:17 AM, Scott in SoCal wrote:
> Last time on rec.autos.driving, Peter Lawrence<hummbaby(a)aol.com>
> said:
>> On 5/5/10 8:33 PM, Scott in SoCal wrote:
>>> Last time on rec.autos.driving, Steve Sobol<sjsobol(a)JustThe.net>
>>> said:
>>>>>
>>>>> Watching NCIS LA last night, was wondering if 2010 Challenger
>>>>> sequential plate beginning with 4 could be legit. Aside from "the
>>>>> gummint can do whatever it wants," of course.
>>>>
>>>> It couldn't. When I moved to Apple Valley in '03, both of our cars got
>>>> plates starting with 5D. At that point they have to have been out of 4x
>>>> plates...
>>>
>>> Not necessarily. There could easily be a stack of older plates stuck
>>> in a forgotten cabinet in a DMV or AAA office somewhere that gets
>>> re-discovered and distributed at a later date.
>>
>> Not very likely.
>
> You say that based on what?
>
> Have you ever been to a DMV office? Have you seen the competence level
> of people that work there? Have you seen the kind of pressure they
> work under on a daily basis? What procedures are in place to prevent
> an incompetent, harried employee from misplacing a few license plates
> for a period of time?

Because except for vanity plates, California license plates are mailed
directly to the register owner of the vehicle, so there shouldn't be a pile
of unused regular plates at a DMV office. Those that are turned in when an
owner gets a vanity plate are sent back to Sacramento.

If you don't believe me, just go to your nearest DMV office and ask.
They'll tell you.


- Peter

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