Los Santos license plate guide

[Beez 5,091]

I grew up in Southern California and have seen the different license plates come and go. I've noticed some crew members cars with the incorrect license plate for the era of the car. If that's an artistic choice then no worries, do what you want, but since there are a lot of crew members from other states and countries who might not know the different eras of California plates I could make a quick guide so you can match the plate to the car.

 

Another thing to note is that in California the plates stay with the car. In most other states the plates stay with the owner and are swapped form car to car. What makes this interesting is that, say, a 1969 Camaro would originally have black plates. As it was sold from owner to owner over the years that plate would stay with the car unless it was sold out of state or an owner put vanity plates on it. Once the black plates get switched out they can never be put back on, so to find a car with black plates on it today actually increases its value and is sought by car collectors.

 

So without further adieu here are CA plates through the years.

 

1956-1962

 

1963-1969

 

1969-1986

 

1982-1987

 

1988-present

 

You'll notice that some years overlap.

I am not at my PS3 now and can't remember off the top of my head but I think all of these are offered in GTA except the first one.

 

 

[Pb76 3,952]

Nice guide beez, that top one always makes me think CQB 241......

[zmurko 7,622]

Nice guide. I just pick the color that goes best with the car's colour scheme.

[Beez 5,091]

Nothing wrong with that Z and I hope my words were clear in that case. However you would never see a modern car like a Zentorno with a black & yellow or blue & yellow plate.

 

I only change the plate color on the older vehicles in the game like my Warrener for instance.

[Torrid 653]

Yeah, there's also a white emissions exempt plate in the game too. I like to put that one on overly large powerful vehicles.

[LN-MLB 2,583]

Beez, thanks for posting this!

 

I sort of ignore those rules myself, and go with what I think looks best on the car.  Oddly enough, I don't have white plates on any of my cars, and I think it's just a personal preference since most of my cars are either blue, red, black, or orange.

 

I lived in California myself once, and I never liked the latest plate with the cursive writing for some reason.  It always looked too plain to me, and I much preferred the one that came before it with the sun.  I don't know if this was a hold-off from those years listed above, but I do remember seeing some trucks (although I don't remember the model years) that always had the blue plates.

Edited December 5, 2014 by LN-MLB

[ScottyB 2,086]

Cool bit of information. I had no idea that they were like that. I just use the best suited colour.

The ones in Australia for as long as I can remember have always been yellow with black writing as standard and you can buy a whole range of colours with custom content now too.

[PapOiteE 465]

Nice topic! i always thought these different colors were just to make license plates look cool lol.

[DHARMAjedi 2]

Good information. I didnt know these reflected the real cali plates.