Well that Escalated Quickly

I leave my Garmin(s) plugged in to the 12V receptacle 100% of the time. By doing this they detect when you power the car off and automatically shut themselves off. They also power their self on when you turn the car on. I've used many of them this way for a long, long time and never a problem.

 

Is there any reason besides HOV lane rights, to put those stickers on? Just curious.

Also, this:



seems absurd. Would never happen in BC: cars simply do not roll off the dealer's lot without a license plate.

 

Apparently there is some latitude on placement. They are still ugly.

There are lots of differences between the US and Canada. The BC parking rules would be one of them. Never been anyplace where for certain hours you can park in the right lane of a 4 lane street and totally block traffic, like Burnaby. Another would be the requirement of every 3rd song on the radio has to be a Canadian recording artist. Don't you Canucks get me started.

 

Then there's our half-adopted metric conversion. We straddle both systems in a lot of areas, always in danger of a groin pull...

Yeah, but that "your license plates are in the mail, on their way thing", I just don't get: it's wild west.

 

I my state we DO leave the lot with a plate, but it's temporary and limited to 30 days max. Don't paint all 50 states the same. That's like me saying BC is like Quebec.

Car licensing is handled by the state, not the dealer. It's and internal control feature. You know, the cashier does not reconcile the bank book . . . that sort of thing. The dealer creates the sales paperwork and mounts a temp tag. You take the paperwork to the tag agent with $$$$. They assign a permanent tag and also create the vehicle title, and collect all the cash to remit to the state. Shortly there after you receive your title document in the mail. I'm sure there are state variations to this.

 

Here basically: you can't be on the road without a "plate", either the metal one, or a temporary day-by-day one taped in the rear window. Dealerships typically arrange to have an insurance agent in-house at time of pickup, with a handful of plates and all the paperwork.

 

Dealers here in Virginia enter the information electronically into the state system and print out a temporary tag. The permanent ones are then shipped to the dealer.
In Virginia, the license plate stays with the owner when a car is sold. It then can be reused on another vehicle. Years ago. in Ontario, Canada, the license plate stayed with the vehicle when it was sold, IIRC.

 

Yeah here it's not the case, new owner, new plate, and you surrender the old plates

 

As Mark57 mentioned it varies by state in the U.S. When I lived in California the license plate stayed with the car, assuming the new owner also lives in California. When I moved to Georgia I was surprised to find out that if you sell your car you remove the plates and they go onto your new car.

If you buy a car from a dealer they give you a temporary plate (actually made of paper) and you can drive up to 30 days with that until you either get new plates or sell your old car and get the plates from it. However for private sales there is no temporary plate, the new owner has seven days to register it, and again either get new plates or reuse plates from their recently sold prior car. Creates an odd situation with cars running around with no license plate. As long as they have a copy of the bill of sale they are okay, at least in practice, the police seem to not hassle people. A lawyer would probably say don't drive it until you have a license plate, but then how do you get it home. People used to put handwritten "Tag applied for" pieces of paper taped to where the license plate goes, but that's discouranged now, as long as you have your paperwork with you in the car you are usually okay.

 

Sounds like other rules/laws I've seen in Canada. Having an insurance agent in-house at time of pickup, sounds like the government wants to keep insurance bureaucrats employed, much like Oregon and Canada not having self service gas stations. Time to drive the costs out of everything transacted and reduce the price. BTW I really enjoyed my visits to beautiful BC, and the banter and fun with my friends there.

 

The insurance company is quasi-private, not gov, and the insurance agents are completely private enterprise. It's typically not your usual agency, I guess they're hoping for repeat business. They get their usual commission I'd guess.

The idea of all these cars on the roads sans plates sounds sketchy as hell to me lol. Handy if you needed a stolen car for a bank heist (or worse...). Just snag one and toss the plates.

 

Darned if I know.

 

In Virginia you either need to provide proof of insurance or pay an additional ($400?) fee per year for the registration.

 

Yeah wait what, I missed that: not typically the case.

However, we happen to live in the one metropolitan area of BC (if I'm not mistaken) that doesn't allow self-serve. Thankfully there are neighbouring communities without this nonsense. I think I've provided gas revenue to the City of Coquitlam maybe twice, in 28 years.

Edit: ok, us and Richmond:

Why are there no self-serve gas stations in Richmond or Coquitlam? | The Province

 

Read this article, I then rest my case.

 

Apparently in Vancouver (except for the areas you mentioned) they have stations with both full serve and self-serve in the same station. We had that in the U.S. when I was growing up ("Check under the hood sir?") but by the time I started driving full-service was rapidly disappearing. A few years ago I was in Vancouver during winter, one night I pulled into a gas station, got out and started pumping, temperature below freezing as I recall. An attendant in a green fluorescent hooded coat came over and asked if I needed any help, I said "No thanks I got it." How friendly of him I thought. I mentioned this later to a co-worker, who told me that I had probably gotten into the full-serve lane. Meaning I probably paid too much, but oh well my company paid for it.

The reverse of this was one time when I was in Holland (in Noordwijk for those familar) and I pulled into a gas station in a residential area where there was no attendant. I don't mean there was no one in the attendant's booth, there was no attendant's booth, it was a fully automated self serve station. Although I assume someone stops by daily for cleaning and to check on things. I couldn't buy gas though because the pumps wouldn't take credit cards, only chip cards. I don't mean the chip that is in modern credit cards, I am referring to the stored value cards they have in Holland that can be used instead of cash.

 

I'm not sure, don't gas up that much in Vancouver, but I believe the mixed full-and-self service stations are steep decline, and were there virtually completely due to it being mandatory. Left to market forces I'm sure full-serve would be gone.

Also in decline, is gas stations in general, in downtown Vancouver. If I'm not mistaken, basically... one:


Plus a couple of boat refueling stations, out in the water. Mayor Moonbeam's vision is nearly complete.

 

No self-service in NJ (except for diesel), but all that full-service means is that the attendant comes out and starts the pump running. I can't remember the last time they checked under the hood or even cleaned a window.