Random Thoughts... [Automotive Edition]

https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/fords-folly-water-dam

This dam in the woods, built by Henry Ford with only manpower and oxen, holds no water and serves no purpose.
...
...
If you think you see a wrecked car or two at the bottom, that’s because local teenagers used to push them off the top.

I must have missed that chapter of my teenage years. Never had a desire to just push a car off a dam.
 
Sweden and Finland have been using the same license plate format for 50 years or so, with three letters followed by three numbers. I live in a coastal town with a ferry line to Sweden so I see quite a few Swedish plates around.

Sweden recently ran out and had to invent a new format. They replaced the last number with a letter.

I know it’s a little thing but i‘m used to XYZ-123 and it messes with my brain. :p

C328E190-03A6-42FF-9288-84C6177231DB.jpeg
A60D6BE6-87C1-408E-B7FA-313EA6AD34C2.jpeg
 
Sweden and Finland have been using the same license plate format for 50 years or so, with three letters followed by three numbers. I live in a coastal town with a ferry line to Sweden so I see quite a few Swedish plates around.

Sweden recently ran out and had to invent a new format. They replaced the last number with a letter.

I know it’s a little thing but i‘m used to XYZ-123 and it messes with my brain. :p

View attachment 3556764View attachment 3556765
Do they have those lifetime plates where you have the plate the entire time that car exists?
 
Sweden and Finland have been using the same license plate format for 50 years or so, with three letters followed by three numbers. I live in a coastal town with a ferry line to Sweden so I see quite a few Swedish plates around.

Sweden recently ran out and had to invent a new format. They replaced the last number with a letter.

I know it’s a little thing but i‘m used to XYZ-123 and it messes with my brain. :p

View attachment 3556764View attachment 3556765
Brazil had AB-1234 for years and then in the early 90's, before we ran out, changed to ABC-1234.

Then recently we adopted a standard for all Mercosul countries and now the SECOND number is now a LETTER, but since the plates stay with the car, 0 is A, 1 is B, 2 is C, etc...It messes my head and I spend WAY too much time figuring out what the plates I see used to be.

1577888641565.png
 
Last edited:
Do they have those lifetime plates where you have the plate the entire time that car exists?

Yes, the plate stays with the car, unless it's deregistered and then re-registered for one reason or another. Usually the plate stays with the car from registration until scrap time.

You can declare it off the road which stops the insurance and tax, but it'll still be registered and wearing its plates.
 
Yes, the plate stays with the car, unless it's deregistered and then re-registered for one reason or another. Usually the plate stays with the car from registration until scrap time.

You can declare it off the road which stops the insurance and tax, but it'll still be registered and wearing its plates.
That's so bizarre to me, here every time car changes owners it gets a new registration and new plates.
 
The primary michigan plate format is ABC1234. When I first moved to michigan I wanted to get a personalized plate that happened to be the same format, and was denied. Their reasoning was that you can’t have a custom plate in the same format as a random plate. At the time they only made plates that started with B and C and The one I wanted started with an E so there wasn’t even a chance it was stamped yet, but they still said no. Now the state is up to E, so someone out there will get the plate I wanted very soon, if not already. Oh well.
 
The Lexus CT200H is a weird car for me. I really like the looks but cannot stand the drivetrain. I just want the hatchback with a good engine!.

used-2011-lexus-ct_200h-2011lexusct200hhybridgreatmpggreatdeal6157309991-13094-19364991-9-1024.jpg
 
The interior quality is poor on them. A buddy had one as a loaner when they were new and it wasn't very nice. I was able to pull a piece of trim off on the door without trying.

You’re only enforcing me to retain the golf after the lease. :p

At this point, a nicely option mk7 golf, maybe not even GTI or R, would be a fine car for me. Am I perhaps boring?
 
Last night, my car decided winter was over and added ten degrees to the ambient temperature display. It wouldn’t be a biggie but with “16c” outside and 20c on the climate control, it can’t be bothered to actually heat the air before delivering it to the cabin. ?

The ambient temp sensor was a whopping 20ish € and will arrive tomorrow morning.
 
That's so bizarre to me, here every time car changes owners it gets a new registration and new plates.
I mean TECHNICALLY we do have lifetime plates, but they are attached to the driver not the car. It requires that you have no gap in having the plates registered and on a vehicle but the only real barrier on keeping a plate until you are too old to drive is the fact they eventually become illegible.

Like you don't see them very often anymore and they might have since officially required everyone to replace them, but we have two kind of plates here, green lettering and red. Green plates are grandfathered in from before they required front plates.

My mother managed to drag out her "green" plate until around when she got the subaru in 2010 I think?

That being said we are too young for green plates so there isn't too much point in keeping a plate registered. I will probably try to keep the one on the beetle permanently registered though because its 1,2, 3 and an easily pronouncable 3 letters and was super easy for even me and my absolutely shit memorization ability.
 
I mean TECHNICALLY we do have lifetime plates, but they are attached to the driver not the car. It requires that you have no gap in having the plates registered and on a vehicle but the only real barrier on keeping a plate until you are too old to drive is the fact they eventually become illegible.
True in theory I could keep my current plates till all the paint peels if I wanted to.
I will probably try to keep the one on the beetle permanently registered though because its 1,2, 3 and an easily pronouncable 3 letters and was super easy for even me and my absolutely shit memorization ability.
I want absolute hardest to remember plate possible, just in case someone wants to call it in ;)
 
The worst plate to read back would something like 2S552 which you could probably memorize pretty well still but would be an absolute bitch to actually read accurately and probably be hard to remember if you don't write down
 
Top