Three Reasons Why You Should Remove Your Plates From Your Used Car

Whether you sell your used car to a dealership or you send it to a salvage yard, make sure you remove your license plates. A lot of people forget to do this in the process of cleaning out a vehicle and making sure they have removed everything important from every nook and cranny. If you do not remove your plates, you could find yourself in an unpleasant situation. Here are three reasons why you absolutely need to remember to take your plates off your used cars before you get rid of them:

The Salvage Yard Crushes Them into a Car Cube

Unless you directly ask a salvage yard for help removing the plates, the plates get crushed right along with the used cars. It becomes part of a recycled cube of metal, and you cannot get them back. Additionally, if you needed those plates, you are stuck paying the fee for duplicate plates the next time you need to put them on another car.

Other People Can Legally Drive Your Used Car

If you sell the vehicle or trade it into a dealership and do not take the plates with you, anyone at the dealership can legally drive that car around. That could get you into a lot of trouble with the police if the police run the plates and find out that the plates belong to you. If they do not have any other information to go on during an investigation, accident, or other crime, guess who's door they will knock on? Avoid unexpected police visits and charges out of the blue by taking your plates with you.

Car Thieves Can Steal the Vehicle

Despite the fact that most car dealerships place used cars in holding behind a locked gate until the cars have been cleared for sale, it does not stop car thieves from brazenly taking something off the lot. The first thing they will target is any car of value and any car that still has a set of plates on it. Your used car with plates becomes a sweet ride for anyone playing the real-life version of Grand Theft Auto.

The dealership is out, you are in immense trouble for property damage, and the thieves may get the car to a chop shop before it can be tracked down. Forgetting your plates is not an excuse. Get them back as soon as possible to avoid any trouble.