The law says something like “the letters on the old green plates must be legible from a distance of 60 feet”. That check is to be done at the annual vehicle inspection time. I believe an officer who pulls you over could also weigh in with a warning.
That “legible at 60 feet” leaves lots of flexibility for inspectors to let the customers go for another year with their existing plate.
The place that inspected our two cars suggested we get our replaced. The inspector said it’s difficult to read the letters at 60 feet, and that we’d need to do it sooner rather than later.
You also see things like cracked windshields, taped taillight lenses, clouded headlights, broken bumper covers sticking out, bad tires, etc, all of which are supposed to fail. The system is rife with corruption and inconsistency. We don’t have state-run inspection stations, although the process in overseen by the state. The shop I used to work at would routinely use “ghost vehicles” for cars and trucks which used a dyno test rather than ODBC if it was for a regular customer that was going to fail.
“You also see things like cracked windshields, taped taillight lenses, clouded headlights, broken bumper covers sticking out, bad tires, etc, all of which are supposed to fail”
But those things could have happened between inspections…Those faded license plates have been faded for YEARS…
BoosBees, just to understand what is going on here, Tester is one of the most respected responders on this site. He has provided valuable (and good) advice to a lot of people that have visited over the years. Some of the other regular responders have risen to his defense.
@Mike, yes, could have, but the sheer number would seem to defy the statistics.
And another thing, there are two types of failures. In one case you get a black R sticker, that is emissions and you can legally drive the vehicle, alhough you are supposed to have a form from the inspection station valid for x number of days. The other is the red R, which is a safety failure and the vehicle can not legally be driven, yet I see them daily on the road, or parked without a ticket. Where is the enforcement on these things?
All The Registry has to do is no longer renew the old green plates They know by the number sequence which ones they are…When you send in your renewal, in return you get your sticker stuck on a pair of nice new plates…That’s how every other state in the union does it when they want to change colors…Other states must be getting tired of dealing with Mass cars displaying a single, illegible plate…Stop renewing them. What’s the problem?? Playing games at the inspection station is already bad enough without the added fun of the plate issue…
You I agree…MA should force everyone to get NEW license plates…I’ve been living here in NH for 30+ years…and I think I’m on my 5th mandatory license plate change…Three of those changes came within a 4 year period…
I got my first rejection recently and a red R sticker for a bad ball joint. When i asked how long the sticker was good for, they said i was supposed to take it directly to a mechanic and started angling for the job. I told them you’re looking at the guy who’s going to fix it. Then they told me 60 days. They didn’t try to stop me from driving off and frankly it was in the early stages of failure so i wasn’t worried beyond taking it easy on the way home. I can see where unless it’s imminent safety hazard they’d have a tough time stopping someone from driving off with it. Even then there’s this conflict of interest issue to contend with.
Funny thing is the sticker had the year 2012 on it, not an expiration date 60 days out. Didn’t bother to look at small print so it could have been there.
The plates thing is hard for me to understand. Some are so bad you can’t read them at all. When i was in the “Eat cheese or die” state, they swapped them out at their discretion not yours. One series had bad paint that eroded quickly and they did an across the board change the next year.
Considering the police influence on policies here surprising there isn’t a push to eliminate them. Then again small price to pay to not inflame the masses and lose something like detail duty. Oh yeah that’s right they were supposed to lose that golden egg…
There is someone in Massachusetts what does refurbish the green plates and according to him it is not illegal to do so. He brings them back to spec. I have a green plate that is decent and actually better than a lot of people’s red plates. Inspection station I can go to his generally been lenient even with the current new system.
Actually someone in Massachusetts that restores them to spec and according to him it’s not illegal and actually many inspection stations refer customers to him if a plate fails.
Where’d this come from again after so many years. In Minnesota you get new plates about every five years period. They’re only about $10 though. I’m always happy to get new plates. Who wants an old beat up plate on a nice looking car? And yeah, I wax my license plates along with my lawn mower and washing machine.
Speaking of illegible plates, I have always wondered just what the New Mexico DOT was thinking when they came up with those turquoise plates with yellow numbers. Pastel on pastel, man that’s legible!
I just went thru this and retired my 30+ year old plates, at no cost. I’d probably have tried the restoration process if I had known it existed. As it was, the process was long and complicated…
Get stamped form from your insurance agent. A complicated process via confidential email. Do again after the first one is incorrect.
find a registry that didn’t have 4 hour lines and get new plates. Free.
Get car reinspected.
Get new parking sticker, hoping don’t get ticketed in the process. Took two subway rides to City Hall, as they want the old one returned first.
Just another area where California goes its own way. Here it seems like you don’t need plates at all. Just hang a paper sign advertising a dealership on the rear, nothing on the front, and drive. If you casually toss something on the dash over the visible VIN, you don’t even have to pay parking tickets. If you do have plates, they go with the car and they are never replaced unless you pay for it.
We don’t have routine safety inspections, either. Every two years you have to get a smog inspection, too, but if you just ignore the whole process, use the paper plate and covered VIN, then it seems like you can drive without any bothersome interference from the government.
For those drivers who really love the look of old plates, you can order replica 1960 plates (black with gold letters and numbers) from the DMV for $50 once, and $40 a year.
I’ve heard New Mexico was hacked off when Ohio decided to make the “I have DWIs” plates the exact same yellow background/red letters that New Mexico uses. Maybe this was a response?
And it’d be nice if other posters would dispense with the obvious racist dogwhistles…
Mass makes everything complicated it seems. But it can be done in a day. The car would have to sit plateless for a while to get them “restored”.
According to the guy that has a business restoring plates? Imagine that. The RMV has right on their site that it’s prohibited to modify or touch up paint your plates. Black and white.
People are radical about those old plates. As long as the right paints are used, inspectors are likely to ignore it. But that doesn’t mean it’s not illegal to do it.
