Over here in the UK, a vehicle retains the same registration number for its lifetime (unless you change it for any reason). If I'm right, YOUR "number plate" is what we would call the annual 'vehicle tax', yes? So it changes every year.....'licence plates', I believe you call them?
I usually call them 'number plates'. I'm not sure why. And, they don't tend to change every year. They tend to change when ownership changes. However, some areas don't change them at all. In some states, the number plate stays with the car until the car is scrapped or until the car isi sold to someone in another state.
MOT status (fitness to be on the road),
In my state, we have something similar to the MOT. It's a yearly inspection. This is for the best. I live in the 'rust belt', where they use salt on the roads in the winter. This ensures that vehicles meet a minimal safety standard.
Speaking of MOT... I watch some UK videos involving cars. How are they getting an MOT with extremely loud exhausts?
I've seen some YouTubers go to a race track in their street-legal car and have been told they can't use the track because the car is too loud. In theory, we prohibit loud exhausts here in Maine.
We also have other rules. Your tire can not stick out past the body of the car. This rule pleases me. I drive some expensive cars and I don't want the cars in my area to throw rocks at my car. Vehicles over a certain height are also required to have mud flaps.
Some states don't do any vehicle inspections at all. Some states have a mix of regulations. Some states will let you drive pretty much everything down the road. In Florida, I have been on the public road in a giant swamp buggy. You literally climbed a ladder to get into the thing. In another case, the only way to get into the truck was to climb up the back tire to the bed, and then climbing sideways to get to the cab doors.
We drove right straight down the road, in the middle of traffic. There were a bunch of cops around because it was Spring Break. The cops did nothing.
I know one lady, also from Florida, who kept her vehicle licensed in Florida just so that she would't have to try to get it inspected in Maine. This is illegal, of course. You're supposed to change it after 6 months, just like you're supposed to change your license before six months have passed. The car had no driver's side door. No door at all. It was a one door car.
She finally binned it in a snow storm.
Anyhow...
We're getting REALLY off-topic. Though, well, I suppose the thread has mostly reached its own conclusion.
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