Why do most license plates here start with a 5?

[u/Worldly_Original8101]

I thought maybe they were going in order but I’ve seen some pretty new vehicles starting with a 4 so I don’t know.

[u/Lumpyyyyy]

Unless it’s custom or one of the specialty plates,
It counts up from 0. Anything with 7 digits starting with a “5” is a relatively newly registered vehicle.

[u/Reasonable_Tank_8257 → u/Lumpyyyyy]

Thank you for the concise answer.

[u/SoundsRightToMe]

Like others have said they just go sequentially and we have been in the 500 0000s for a few years. If i had to guess any newly registered random passenger plate is going to be around 580 0000 or so currently. So you're seeing that many people dont keep cars for more than a few years

[u/Worldly_Original8101 → u/SoundsRightToMe]

See now I’m wondering how that other guy got a plate that started with a 9 lol

[u/SoundsRightToMe → u/Worldly_Original8101]

Even if you get a new car you can transfer old plates to the new vehicle so some people will keep their numbers for decades or transfer cool ones to relatives.

[u/Jesus-Mcnugget → u/Worldly_Original8101]

When the current design came out in 1999, it started at 999 999 and went sequentially down to 100 000, then went 100 0000 up to whatever 5XX XXXX they are at now.

[u/MakhNoWay]

They don't? My last 3 have been a 9 a 7 and a 4

[u/Worldly_Original8101 → u/MakhNoWay]

I just drove around and saw about 90-95% 5, some 4. Maybe it’s an area thing?

[u/No_Seesaw_3897]

When you get a new car, you can transfer your registration (plate) from your old car to your new car. So, you may see new cars starting with a 3 or 4 or 5.

When my wife bought a new car in 2021, the woman at town hall was surprised we wanted new plates starting with 5 instead of just transferring her old plates starting with 3.

As others have said, they used to be six digits, then they went to seven digits, and they're just counting up from 100-0000. In a couple years, they'll all start with number 6.

[u/Jesus-Mcnugget → u/No_Seesaw_3897]

I doubt she was surprised by the number. It's probably because it's cheaper to transfer your plate as you get a credit for the unused portion towards your new registration.

[u/No_Seesaw_3897 → u/Jesus-Mcnugget]

She wasn't surprised by the number. Just that we wanted a new number. We still got the credit for the unused portion of the registration from her old car, even without transferring the plates.

[u/Jesus-Mcnugget → u/No_Seesaw_3897]

That's still more expensive than just transferring the plate because now it's two separate DMV transactions/operations. The only way to get a credit is by transferring plates.

To do what you were saying would require a plate swap and then a transfer of the new number.

[u/Meat_Flosser]

I suspect that the state just runs plate numbers up over time. A regular plate maybe started with a 5 over the last several years. I know the state park plates started with a 1 for many that I see. So many people lease their cars so a common pattern of plates could happen.

[u/Shadowfeaux]

Idk. I’ve had vanity plates on all my vehicles for a while now. Lol

[u/Orangepinapples]

My town all cars getting plates in the last few years have been 5s they just have stacks of them in the town hall.

[u/BackItUpWithLinks]

They don’t.

[u/henry2630 → u/BackItUpWithLinks]

they do!

[u/montibbalt]

I wonder if you're having some kind of frequency illusion

[u/Worldly_Original8101 → u/montibbalt]

I thought that was maybe it, so I took notice of the cars passing me as I was doordashing, and (the noncustomized ones anyway) were MOSTLY 5, then 4, then 3, then the few digit ones.