Wait, other states don't? I dunno, I live in Mississippi, I always thought the other states did the same. Guess I never really paid that much attention.
If it counts for anything, at least Mississippi doesn't require two tags, one for the back and one for the front, they only require the rear tag.
Also, our vehicles don't require inspections anymore, which is both a bonus for your wallet, and also very frightening when you realize how many vehicles out there are on the verge of brake failure or something equally dangerous.
Indiana is the same, rear only, no inspections. Our counties are numbered by alphabetical order and that number is on the plate to differentiate, but the plates are the same.
I'm in Louisiana. We have inspections but I don't believe the actually matter. Take a quick walk through any parking lot and you'll find tons of cars that have both valid stickers and glaringly obvious problems that should keep them off the road.
Also, our vehicles don't require inspections anymore, which is both a bonus for your wallet, and also very frightening when you realize how many vehicles out there are on the verge of brake failure or something equally dangerous.
I like how you supported small government a d then realized why it was small and what's at stake, in the same sentence.
LOL, I don't think Mississippi ever cared much in the first place. Back in the day, Mississippi actually did require inspections, for all of $5.
They didn't bother checking the brakes or much of anything really, except make sure all the lights and the horn work. Sometimes they might even make sure your seatbelts are intact and latch correctly.
I remember sometime in the late 90s helping my dad push his Buick into the inspection bay. They didn't even care that the car literally didn't run, he still passed inspection, because all his lights and horn worked! 😂🤣
My Florida tags didn't have a county listed, but my Tennessee ones do. Looking more into it, it appears Florida allows you to have it say your county, Sunshine State, or In God We Trust.
Everyone I knew just had sunshine state, figured they were all like that unless you got a custom tag
Cars should have both, so they can be uniquely identified both coming and going.
For example when you run over a road pedestrian by not stopping for a red light, as he sees you coming and jumps out of the way he might see your plate, whereas once you’ve run over him, cracked his hips and given him a concussion he may not be able to read your rear plate
I see that was added to the conversation: so weird to have opposite terminology. I’ve always heard “tags” refer to the plates, never the registration sticker
MN requires plates on both sides and when you renew your registration they give you tabs for both sides too. It doesn't make much sense to me to require plates on both sides if you are only going to put the tabs on one side.
I don’t think it’s just you, but I’d never heard someone refer to the registration decal as a tag before you.
I asked ChatGPT in the most neutral way I could think what “tag” meant in relation to motor vehicles just to get an aggregate perspective on what the internet at large says and it turns out both are definitely common:
I wonder if it’s geographic or what. Its odd to me that we both had only encountered one usage and it was the opposite
In response to your other comments, yes I should have said plates instead of tags. Here in MS, they're basically one and the same, every year you stick a new tag sticker on your plate.
Oh, by the way, here in Mississippi, when you go to get a license plate, the office you go to is the tag office.
Every place I've been it's either the DMV or RMV which isn't a lot of places but still... Some places the tag goes on your car window not your license plate like NJ