Q. I recently discovered when I went to AAA to renew my registration that my personalized license-plate number was incorrectly made/recorded some 20-plus years ago. When I originally got the plate, I had a 300ZX car, and the license-plate number was a play on my name and included “300.” In 2002, I got a Lexus 300 and transferred the plate to the new car. But recently at AAA, the clerk was checking something and couldn’t find my plate in the database. Wouldn’t you know it – originally, the person who did the paperwork typed in three letter O’s and not zeros, so my plate has been incorrect all these years. How should I handle this?
– Rowena Briggs, Cerritos
A. Let it roll, Rowena.
The clerk helped you, although it would have been dandy if you were told how and why.
The Department of Motor Vehicles doesn’t use zeros on personalized plates, but does allow letter O’s.
You couldn’t tell the difference, right?
Neither could many cops.
Now, with standard license-plate numbers – the ones the Department of Motor Vehicles just issues to those who don’t want to pay for a specific sequence – it is a different story.
“On personalized license-plate configurations, the DMV only allows the letter O, the number zero is not allowed,” Ronald Ongtoaboc, a DMV spokesman, told Honk in an email. “On standard sequential plates the DMV uses both the letter O and the number zero.”
Why?
Because the cop who just pulled over someone with a standard license-plate number can easily tell the difference.
On cars, for example, a standard plate sequence is number-letter-letter-letter-number-number-number.
So it wasn’t exactly what you wanted to hear, Rowena, but you have a fun story to tell friends, right?
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