Bumper stickers and license plates

[PeterGunnLives]

I once got a used car from a private party, that still had some dealer's license plate frame on the front and back. I replaced both with plain black ones. One time when I took the car into a dealer for some work, I took it home and found they replaced the plain frames with theirs without asking!

 

[Stearmen]

It's almost smiling, isn't it? But I don't think I've ever seen a bumper sticker on a front bumper.

Sometimes I will see a vehicle with the entire back plastered with stickers proclaiming for all and sundry their beliefs. Mostly, however, I just conclude that they believe in bumper stickers.

It's even worse here! I have seen entire trucks covered in political bumper stickers, and I am not talking about old rust traps, but nice late model trucks!

 

[LizzieMaine]

It's less political beliefs here than it is, basically, any subject upon which the car owner has any thoughts whatsoever. You can look at the back end of someone's car and tell immediately where they and their kids went to school, the state they lived in before they moved here, the airport code for their favorite vacation spot, the kind of vegetables they like to eat, the sports teams they support, their drinking habits, the type of pet they like best, and the precise number and gender of the people in their family. It's like a rolling intelligence dossier.

And you usually see this type of thing on "upscale" cars, not old beaters or pickup trucks, and most often high-end SUVs. The stickers on pickups are usually an NRA, military-branch, or Maine Lobstermen's Association logo on one side, a Peeing Calvin or a sports logo on the other, and in the middle an "in memoriam" to a fallen friend or relative. And the stickers on beaters are usually there just to cover the rust until the next inspection -- on my old Toyota I used to have a picture of a panda wearing a Che Guevara hat over the slogan "Power To The Pandas," which was just the right size to cover the rust.

 

[LizzieMaine]

The Era had its own sort of loud, visible wheeled advertising of one's beliefs --

 

[MisterCairo]

A few individuals even dislike the idea of the maker's name on their vehicle, possibly because it is "common." Personally, I think it is something of a cachet to have a certain dealer's name on your car, although I'm sure it's display value would be highly localized.

It would have to be quite the dealer so that its name would lend cachet to the vehicle.

Duke of Kent Chevolds?

 

[LizzieMaine]

Better than buying from "Kingfish Ford," I guess.

 

[Inkstainedwretch]

Better than buying from "Kingfish Ford," I guess.

But ideal for the Fresh Air Taxi Service.

 

[BlueTrain]

We bought most of our cars from a dealer who had been lieutenant governor of Virginia. To be honest, though, it was really the car itself that we were proud to own. Only the first one was purchased new, the other three were used.

Speaking of cars, I think it's too bad that certain brands have disappeared, like Pontiac, Oldsmobile, Mercury and even Rambler. There were others that were gone before I bought my first car, like Desoto. Most of the English cars are no longer even made, like MG, Rover, Austin, Triumph and so on. All those dealers still in business are selling Subaru's, Isuzu's, Lexus's and so on.

 

[vitanola]

The city in which I was raised had (and has) a successful auto dealership of long standing. They have been installing their logo on the trunk lid of every car sold since just after the War. Their logo actually seems a bit out of place on most modern cars, but in Cleveland Ohio and environs it is both iconic and ubiquitous.

 

[Stearmen]

There was only one bumper sticker on any car in my immediate family. It was the used 72 Cutlass Supreme of my Mom. It came with a Yamaha, different strokes for different folks sticker. She never bothered to take it off, even though we had solvent that would do it. I think, she secretly liked it!

 

[MisterCairo]

In the UK, the dealer's name appears on the license plate.

I tolerate the dealer on the frame, but will be shortly removing it. The name at the bottom is covering up our Provincial "slogan" - Yours to Discover:

 

[LizzieMaine]

I don't like state slogans on number plates. Mainers have had to drive around with VACATIONLAND on our cars since 1937, which is basically the same thing as saying TOURISTLAND. Feh.

 

[Fading Fast]

I don't like state slogans on number plates. Mainers have had to drive around with VACATIONLAND on our cars since 1937, which is basically the same thing as saying TOURISTLAND. Feh.

Not commenting if it is good or bad policy (that's politics), but based on this from today's WSJ:

"...If enacted, Maine would lay claim to the second highest top individual rate in the country at 10.15% after California’s 13.3%..."

You would have another option for a slogan.

Kidding aside, I'm with you in that unless you truly have a killer one (like NH's "Live Free or Die") - leave it off. And if Maine must put something on the plate, go for something more organic to the nature of Maine - something about the coastline, lobster fishing, pine forests - not something that sounds almost pandering.

 

[LizzieMaine]

LEAVE MONEY AND GO HOME

 

[Inkstainedwretch]

We've had "Land of Enchantment" on our license plates forever. I'd prefer our unofficial motto:
"Thank God For Mississippi. If It Weren't For Them, We'd Be Last In Everything."

 

[Stearmen]

I don't like state slogans on number plates. Mainers have had to drive around with VACATIONLAND on our cars since 1937, which is basically the same thing as saying TOURISTLAND. Feh.

At least your not Colorful! Isn't that what people call the crazy guy on the street corner yelling about the end of times?

 

[Stearmen]

Kidding aside, I'm with you in that unless you truly have a killer one (like NH's "Live Free or Die") -

I fill a little bit sorry for the inmates that have to make those license plates!

 

[Fading Fast]

I fill a little bit sorry for the inmates that have to make those license plates!

That is harsh or, maybe, tough love - there's a life lesson there, but wrapped inside some painful irony.

 

[ChiTownScion]

LEAVE MONEY AND GO HOME

Pity Missouri: at one time they were known as the Puke State. Never made the license plates, though. Just as "Land of Lincoln" won out over "the Sucker State" in my state.

I always thought that Indiana's "Crossroads of America" was a tad pretentious. I would have preferred, "Indiana: Pull My Finger." And for Wisconsin: "Eat Cheese or Die."

 

[Fading Fast]

We've had "Land of Enchantment" on our license plates forever. I'd prefer our unofficial motto:
"Thank God For Mississippi. If It Weren't For Them, We'd Be Last In Everything."

As Mississippi, which, only moments ago, had been happily going about its day just being a State in the Union, slowly tries to pull itself up off the ground, it wonders to itself where the unprovoked blow to the head from behind came from.