how do you "read" a license plate?

Question

like what do the numbers and letters mean?
how come my neighbors' license plates look nothing alike, as fas as numbers go?

Answer 1

This has changed over the years. Plate numbers are issued to the license agencies in "lots". Since there are so many places to get them, there is no rhyme or reason anymore. Florida used to have the first number by size of the city (Miami was number 1)

Answer 2

In a way it depends on the state. I'm originally from Indiana and there you could at least tell what county a car was from by the plate number. They did 2 digits a letter than more digits. Each county had it's own number in alphabetical order. For example 88 was Washington county and 37 was Marion county. So if you saw a car with a plate number of 37b1234 you knew they were from the Indianapolis area.

But I think they've started getting away from that. Only so many permutations for the 26 letters of the alphabet.

Otherwise plates are more just random numbers/letters that go in a database with your name and car attached to it so when someone in authority needs to know who owns the car and so forth ... well, they know.

Answer 3

The numbers and letters don't mean much of anything, unless you have a wheelchair symbol that means someone is riding with a disability.
The plates are for the police to identify you or the car in case it was stolen, wrongly wrecked, or if you commit a crime and you may be using the car as a get away.
The police have all car plates on file in case of emergency. No plate can be the same as another because of crime, unless a duplicate is made by accident.

Answer 4

They are usually just a series of letters and numbers. Say they start at AAA000 and go to ZZZ999. That's a lot of possible combinations. Some states, like ID, WY, and MT have a county code on the plate.

Answer 5

Unless they are vanity plates, the numbers and letters are simply tracking systems for each state to track a specific vehicle ID.