? on magnetic Hov stickers

Aren't you afraid someone will remove your stickers?
Why not just stick them on as instructed?

 

You know, there are days I am happy that there is not a single mile of HOV lanes in MS. So much misspent money, jealous hate, and waste is generated by Single Occupancy HOV as run by California. Buying cars they don't want to meet goals they don't support, so they seemingly have to hide their part in the charade.

 

i've never had any of my stickered cars vandalized... except for having the stickers stolen. if you go magnetic you have to be very, very vigilant to never leave them on the car unattended, or they *will* be stolen.

 

Jim, the Prius may not have succeeded without California's HOV program.

 

Hawgwash. My region isn't the only region to embrace Prius in huge quantities without any such incentive.

 

Succeeded at what? Some days I think CA thinks it is 'the world' but it isn't. If Toyota had never sold a single Prius in CA it would still be a success.

 

I put the small sticker on the glass below the rear spoiler. Have you considered trying a magnet there? I also put a small sticker on the lower left front, on the chrome accent strip. I have never put one of the larger stickers on any of my three Prius' permanently, but instead have used magnetic sheet material trimmed to the size of the sticker, as you are doing. (Mine now has three layers of stickers.) I use just one of those "magnetized" stickers , on the right rear fender, when I remember to do so. On my '06 I rarely used it, and relied on just the front and rear stickers. Haven't been stopped yet....... A word of caution: UCBruins lost a magnetic sticker, which he believes blew off his car at freeway speeds. I didn't ask whether it could have been removed while the car was parked. Again, when I remember, I remove mine. But on numerous occasions I have left it while the car was unattended in public places.

 

By the way, you can't steal the stickers. They're designed such that they'll be destroyed if you remove them. If someone does remove yours, you can pay the state $8 for replacements.

 

You can steal them if the owner puts them on magnetized sheets so that they are easily removed from the vehicle without a trace. No damage to the sticker that way. Like removing a refrigerator magnet.

 

if they are removed carefully they will not be destroyed. then they can be "refurbished" and placed on another car. only under close inspection would you be able to tell that something's wrong with the sticker.

how do i know this? i did it myself when my car was in an accident. you see, when you request replacement stickers, you have to take off any remaining stickers on your car (the thieves never took all 4 of my stickers) and send them in to the DMV as part of the replacement request. during the time you are waiting, you can't use the HOV lanes. this was not an option for me, hence the 'refurbished' route...

 

The intent is to have the stickers permanently associated with a single vehicle. True, there is probably no way a police officer would notice non-permanently attached decals and pull you over for that, but if you are pulled over for some other reason, and the officer for whatever reason is ill disposed toward you and is LOOKING for things to cite you for, then I bet this would be one of them.

 

Since the stickers for eligible cars are readily available, and in a quantity that assures that they will remain so for a long time, there is no reason to steal them other than to vandalize a car and inconvenience the owner. Putting a green sticker on anything other than one of the few cars for which they are intended will not fool the CHP. Those guys can tell a PHEV from a regular Prius, just like we can.

 

There are two places in this country: New York and Los Angeles. Everything else you fly over.

 

you are making a lot of assumptions about the intelligence of criminals and scumbags.

the kind of people who steal these stickers do not own priuses, plug-in or not. they steal stickers and then try to sell them to other people who are very likely stupid enough to try putting the stickers on their car.

stickers get stolen. it happened to me and to people that i know. the hassle of getting them replaced far outweighs any perceived advantages to non-permanently attaching them to the car. that's just my opinion and my experience.

and seriously, the CHP have better things to do than closely eyeball passing priuses for the plug-in cues. i'll bet putting stickers on a regular gen-3 prius can easily fool a CHP officer 1/2 the time.

anyway, for the OP's sake, i'm 2nding the recommendation to apply the small sticker to the glass at the rear and use magnets for the side stickers. to be perfectly honest with some care and a hair dryer you can remove these stickers quite cleanly, so sticking them on is not going to ruin your paint. the glue comes off with a little bit of bug&tar remover and the finish is unharmed.

 

When the yellow stickers were in full effect, I saw many "standard" vehicles with the stickers affixed.

One thing I noticed with our new green stickers. You have to keep the documents with your registration, in case
an officer pulls you over he can request your green sticker documents. Hope everyone put that in your glove box!

 

that was true of the yellow stickers as well... in the end the glove box certificate is the true proof that you have solo HOV access.

 

Same here. I put a large sticker on rear glass (you can't miss it), and a small one on my windshield. I've had CHP ride behind me in the HOV lane on several occasions... So far, so good. No issues. *fingers crossed*