Deutsch100

Effective January 1, 2019:

AB 516: License plates
Auto dealers will now be required to place a temporary license plate on newly purchased vehicles. It is estimated the state loses out on collecting $19 million a year on tolls from recently purchased vehicles that don't have a license plate.

This was always such a perk and fun to "have a new car longer", not having CA license plates on the car. I can kind of understand why this is being done, but still a bummer!

Holson

Hah! I moved here from Boston and was always astonished that people can drive new cars without license plates and that I can walk in to a dealership and drive off with a car.

exhaustgases

Funny then in Boston if you buy a new car then you have to wait a month for the license plates? No one is going to buy a new car and leave it at the dealer to get banged up and scratched.
So they must rent alot of trailers there so people can haul the cars home? And oh they have no trip permits there? Sounds like a different country in that state.

pdeacon

It doesn't work like that. In MA you either have your existing plates transferred to the new vehicle or you are issued new plates. This is all handled at the DMV and usually by your insurance agent or the dealer but you could do the transaction on your own. All of this can be accomplished in one day without much fanfare. This process insures that all vehicles are properly registered and insured. No vehicles are allowed on public roads without plates. Another incentive for the commonwealth is that the vehicle now gets in the state tax system so the owner can be billed for state excise tax based on the value of the vehicle. This is in addition to a 6.5% sales tax. Not exactly another country but an expensive place to live. That's why the nickname Taxachussetts! Hope this helps.

Sarlox

Well, in WA we have a 1.1% of the value of the car tax to register a vehicle. Get this, that is an annual cost, but it is on top of a 10.3% sales tax when you go to purchase the car. To register a new Gwagon, it's like 1,800 each year plus $15,000 in sales tax. WA has no state income tax but government gets their money that they waste somehow. And its going to get worse. Record levels of corporate and government debt that is going to roll here in the next few years (that debt has to be replaced and any cost) combine that with massive unfunded liabilities with SS and Medicare, and we're in for a rough ride for the next decade or two.

SierraFoxtrot

But, those politicians are so good at spending other people's hard earned money...