California DMV Loophole Allowed Jobs to Drive Sans-Plates

http://www.macobserver.com/tmo/article/california_dmv_loophole_allowed_jobs_to_drive_sans-plates/

by davethenerd • 15 years ago

98 124 15 years ago

I wonder if this also applies to used cars; if you don't mind driving a bit of a clunker, you could do this affordably. A twenty year old car does not depreciate in value significantly over six months.

edit: hm, looks like it only applies to cars sold by a dealer.

zach3• 15 years ago

So basically, Steve got a new Mercedes more often than I get new shoes. Now that's what I expect out of a multibillionaire. Good to see he at least kept himself in new-car smell on a regular basis, and certainly kept a local dealer quite happy.

gcb5• 15 years ago

he probably got cancer from all the volatile compounds that gives new cars that smell.

electromagnetic2• 15 years ago

Uh, they stick an ozonator (ozone) in the car at the end of the factory run. Used car dealers frequently use them. Due to the fact the Ozone will bind to almost anything volatile, the air is effectively sterilised and gives it that "new car smell".

tl;dr: you're a douche; your internet access should probably be revoked

gcv2• 15 years ago

Oh, chill out. The article says the car was leased. He probably had to pay some kind of premium to keep his leases down to six months at a time, but it's not like he was buying a new $120k car twice a year.

zach3• 15 years ago

I'm not upset about it or concerned with the financial arrangements, I'm just kind of amazed by the concept.

On top of the self-expression of never having license plates, he got one of the finest cars in the world delivered to his driveway, brand new, twice a year. I'm guessing not only did he never have car trouble, he never needed to take it in for maintenance either.

That's hard to beat as far as perks of being a really rich guy go. Not my personal taste, but I can't deny its appeal.

Steko3• 15 years ago

Steve Jobs driving a car for 6 months actually might increase it's value. I may be exaggerating slightly but I bet it didn't cost all that much.

cvg• 15 years ago

I'm not sure that he had to get a brand new car every six months. He could have created a new lease on the same car every six month from a leasing company. That should have been enough to satisfy the law: http://dmv.ca.gov/fee_calc/feecalcfaq.htm#plates

nlh4• 15 years ago

I think you nailed it on the head here. This is the most likely scenario for what actually happened.

Anechoic• 15 years ago

>Now that's what I expect out of a multibillionaire.

I suppose it makes up for him not living in a gated fortress.

zach3• 15 years ago

The thing that's fascinating about people with that much money is that they have a lot of freedom to express themselves within their lifestyle.

Cars are a very particular expression of that. So Larry Ellison has a custom all-aluminum roadster, Steve had his German sedans, and ESRI's Jack Dangermond is noted for driving a Taurus wagon.

But just having a Mercedes AMG isn't the same as leasing a new one every six months. But as has mentioned, he may have simply leased the same vehicle on successive six-month terms. That's a very good point and I'd suspect that was in fact the case. It's an even cleverer maneuver and simply sounds more like what Steve would do.

davethenerd• 15 years ago

I think it's beautiful. This let him buck authority and beat the system at the same time. There was a monetary cost involved (and it could be argued that the system beat him out of fresh registration fees every 6 months), but... still. You gotta admire the gusto. ;)

gcb5• 15 years ago

that's the most moronic thing anyone can do.

pay extra to the dealer. pay registration of a new car every 6mo. hassle of dealing with it.

i imagine how many iphone prototypes the dealer found in the glovebox of hundreds of returned sl55 over that time.

dangrossman• 15 years ago

4 years / 6 months = 8. 8 cars, not hundreds.

gcb5• 15 years ago

you paid the 30% 'out of dealer' devalorization, of a SL55 AMG, plus leasing profits which shouldn't have been easy for this kind of arrangement, times 9, to have 4 years of car without plates.

do that math for that, smart guy, and i dare you to disagree it was moronic.

liber8er3• 15 years ago

Approaching 4 years of driving with no plates on the same car here in California. Just leave the paper dealer plate(the one with the dealership name/logo on it) on the car. Cops wont ever pull you over for lack of plates, even if youre missing the front plate as well, as I am.

gcb5• 15 years ago

did that too because DMV was loosing my papers for a while. drove almost one year without plates. no one ever complained. I had 'dealer' plates on both ends.

otoh, a friend got a ticket for missing front plates.

liber8er3• 15 years ago

They won't pull you over if they see the dealer plate on the back though. I had a cop coming towards me, flip a U when he saw no front plate, see my dealer plate, flip another U and go on his way. This was after about 2 years of driving with that dealer plate, mind you.

If you get stopped for something else, you'll get ticketed. It's a fix-it ticket though and costs around $25 and two minutes to get signed off.

lanstein6• 15 years ago

You must not live in SF then. After four fix-it tickets for no front plate, I caved.

there• 15 years ago

in chicago the meter maids are strict about no front license plate, so when i moved here i quickly got a ticket for it (which was $50, i think). i had gone 6 years with no front plate and didn't want to put one on.

i had a personalized license plate on the back that i no longer cared about and i discovered that when i told the dmv that i lost the front plate (which was true, since the car had no front plate for 6 years outside of chicago) they gave me a temporary plate while the replacements were being made, which cost me all of about $10.

the temporary plate expired in 6 months, so for 6 months i was able to avoid having a front plate. if i had kept the car for longer, i would have just told them the plates never came in the mail or something, paid the small replacement fee again, and gotten another 6 month temporary plate.

chaz• 15 years ago

I did this as well. Even got pulled over for speeding once and was issued a warning. CHP chuckled when he saw that I was well beyond the limit for not having plates affixed to the car, and asked me to get them on the car.

New cars are so common in CA that if the car is a late model and looks reasonably good, you'll never have a problem. Parked on the street, they can't see the dates on the registration that's stuck to the windshield. Just make sure your registration is paid and your insurance is up to date.

fletchowns2• 15 years ago

Try driving between 1-5AM, cops are looking for absolutely ANY reason to pull you over during those hours (looking for DUIs).

anigbrowl2• 15 years ago

So you've avoided paying taxes on your new vehicle for 4 years. Thanks a lot, Mr. Freeloader.

ck22• 15 years ago

Now explain why he liked to use handicap spots and find the DMV loophole for that.

Or how he seeded Apple by selling something that would have landed him in federal prison today.

felipemnoa4• 15 years ago

>>handicap spots

Cancer could qualify him for that, maybe?

falling• 15 years ago

Your first claim is false.

ck22• 15 years ago

This was before he had cancer and his own biography author made the claim.

Natsu• 15 years ago

http://www.switched.com/2008/08/26/steve-jobs-is-alive-and-p... [2008]

Note that he might have had or qualified for a handicapped sticker, given how sick the cancer made him, though no one appears to know for sure. And I could definitely see him not wanting to put the sticker on his car if he had one.

It appears to be the same car, though, right down to the missing license plate.

cpeterso• 15 years ago

Tourette syndrome?

(cf. Curb Your Enthusiasm)

mahyarm• 15 years ago

Did he use them everywhere or just at apple?

He's rich enough to pay the fine once in a while when it happened if it was outside of apple too.

rdl• 15 years ago

It's more that you get towed, vs. fined. Even if you're a billionaire, it's annoying when someone tows your car.

mikeryan• 15 years ago

Can anyone explain the advantage to driving without plates? It seems that being the Mercedes AMG would be just as easy to identify as the Mercedes with the APPLE1 plate.

oneplusone• 15 years ago

Minimalism. A reflection of his design philosophy.

lanstein6• 15 years ago

Though strangely, he left the dealer plate on.

lanstein6• 15 years ago

Out here? No way, you probably see at least five of those a day.

liber8er3• 15 years ago

Anonymity. Silver SL's, even AMGs, aren't exactly uncommon in the area.

Plus, you don't have to worry about red light cameras.

icebraining2• 15 years ago

Anonymity? How many plate-less Mercedes are there in CA?

joejohnson• 15 years ago

How common are Silver SL's without a license plate in that area?

thret• 15 years ago

The advantage is that you can't prove it was his car. Even if every other Mercedes AMG is registered, there's no way to prove that his is the only one without a plate.

fletchowns2• 15 years ago

VIN is visible from the outside of the car

awm• 15 years ago

My best bet is he just didn't want to have to deal with the DMV...

lanstein6• 15 years ago

If anyone happens to see this, the best thing I've learned this year is that you can do all your DMV business (at least in CA) at any AAA office, if you're a member.

ghshephard• 15 years ago

Parking Tickets. Steve had a habit of parking basically wherever he felt like it.

lnguyen• 15 years ago

They can also use the VIN that's readable from the windshield.

rokhayakebe• 15 years ago

If you are Steve you probably ask yourself "Why must I do this?" about 20 times per day.

hugh38• 15 years ago

Are we sure we don't have this backwards?

Perhaps it's not that he got a new car every six months because he really disliked plates. Perhaps he just got a new car every six months because he really liked having a brand new car.

Heck, I would. I wouldn't always get the same car, like Steve Jobs, but then again I wouldn't always wear the same clothes either.

andrewacove• 15 years ago

I guess he'd have a good answer for the "Tell us about a time you hacked a (non-computer) system to your advantage" question on the YC application.

icebraining2• 15 years ago

Before that, he and Woz used the Blue box[1] the latter had built to make free calls.

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_box

philwelch• 15 years ago

I assure you, the telephone network back then was still a computer system.

sev• 15 years ago

It states:

The permit the dealer provides for display on the passenger side of the front window is valid until the plates and stickers are received by the customer, or for six months from the sale date, whichever comes first.

Assuming he received them a month after purchase, since another clause states that one would no more than 45 days after purchase, how is that a loophole?

X-Istence• 15 years ago

He leased his cars ... didn't own them.

ugh2• 15 years ago

His decision to go with the lettering on the car (“SL 55 AMG”) seems much stranger to me. At least if you buy the (much cheaper) C-Class you can actually decide whether you want lettering or not. (I don’t have a car and don’t want one but my dad recently asked me whether he should go with or without the lettering. I told him to go without, that seems much classier and better looking to me.)

nlh4• 15 years ago

That's actually not an option from Mercedes. All MBs come with the lettering -- however the lettering is attached basically with a dab of (pretty strong) glue, and to remove the badges requires nothing more than a concentrated heat source, a pair of pliers, and some solvent to clean the residue.

It's more of a "mod" (albeit a simple one) than an option - and most people actually consider _removing_ the lettering to be quite tacky. Why? Because the people who often remove the badges are the ones with the less-expensive model cars (i.e. the SL550 vs. the SL55) and who want others to think they have the more expensive version :)

ugh2• 15 years ago

My parents bought the car from an official German MB dealer and it was an option.

Eyalush• 15 years ago

I don't really consider this a DMV loophole. It's just constantly driving a new car. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to "uncover" this loophole, it just takes a wealthy individual to be able to afford the the lease premium to do this if they are motivated enough.

mattheww• 15 years ago

I'm told by a family friend who was Jobs' neighbor that his license plates were stolen regularly by his fans. This was probably how he chose to solve that problem.

avree• 15 years ago

For what it's worth, I lived near Jobs' growing up, and not once heard of his plates (or anyone in that neighborhood's) plates getting stolen.

jellicle2• 15 years ago

Except there's no loophole. Registering the vehicle at purchase (or at beginning of lease) is required. Cal DMV will then send you plates. At which time your paper stickers expire.

Besides, his vehicle wasn't displaying the temporary plates either.

Look, MacObserver and all the rest of you fanboys: Steve Jobs just decided to disobey the law. There's no loophole. There's just a guy who thought the lines of his car were spoiled by license plates and who decided that, fuck it, he's a billionaire and the laws didn't apply to him.

Jobs was an asshole and a scofflaw. He'll be remembered for doing great things with Apple. Quit trying to whitewash the rest of his life. By the time you people get done with him, his Wikipedia page will talk about how he spent four hours every day feeding puppies and orphans. Sheesh. Knock it off already.

rtrunck• 15 years ago

Disobeying vehicle registration laws does not equal being an asshole. I doubt anyone actually makes it through a day without breaking at least one law. Quit being an asshole yourself and at least provide a legitimate reason why he was an asshole.

1gor• 15 years ago

   provide a legitimate reason why he was an asshole.

Judging by his fanboys' comments, this should be guilt by association.

damncabbage• 15 years ago

Parking in disabled spaces[1][2]. :)

  [1] http://folklore.org/StoryView.py?project=Macintosh&story=Handicapped.txt
  [2] http://www.cultofmac.com/2613/steve-jobs-still-parking-in-handicapped-spaces-the-pictures/

nhebb• 15 years ago

> at least provide a legitimate reason why he was an asshole

Well, since you're asking ... I admire Steve Jobs the entrepreneur, but Steve Jobs the dad qualified as one [1]:

"Jobs's first child, Lisa Brennan-Jobs, was born in 1978, the daughter of his longtime relationship with Chris Ann Brennan, a Bay Area painter. For two years, she raised their daughter on welfare while Jobs denied paternity by claiming he was sterile"

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Jobs#Personal_life

pacomerh• 15 years ago

Oh man, you read my mind, I couldn't agree more about everybody trying to whitewash the rest of his life.

randomdata2• 15 years ago

he's a billionaire and the laws didn't apply to him.

It is more likely the other way around. People who see that kind of major success are people who refuse to listen to others. Not obeying the law of displaying a license plate is just an extension of the demeanour that allowed him to become a billionaire in the first place.

hugh38• 15 years ago

I see dozens of people failing to obey traffic laws every day. Few of them appear to be billionaires.

electron1c• 15 years ago

There are no temporary plates to display. All you get is registration paperwork to keep in your glovebox.

jellicle2• 15 years ago

This is false. The dealer will issue you a temporary permit which is taped in the front window.

cma• 15 years ago

>Registering the vehicle at purchase (or at beginning of lease) is required.

Not if you've properly backdated your stock options.

johnyzee• 15 years ago

There's an anecdote that he parked his car so frequently in the handicap spot in front of the Apple office that some jokesters one day changed the wheelchair into a Mercedes insignia. Reportedly Steve was none too pleased.

Zimahl• 15 years ago

This is a lot like David Letterman and his numerous speeding tickets he would get in Connecticut. He's rich and a $200 fine doesn't mean the same to him as it does to us. That's what he'd spend on an expensive NYC lunch. The same goes for Jobs.

I read the article thinking it was ridiculous. Adam Carolla, who has a podcast I listen to regularly, complains all the time about the 'chicken s' tickets he gets for not having a plate on the front of some of his sports cars. I can't imagine the tickets you would get for not having a rear plate. Every time a cop looked in your direction you'd get pulled over. Seems like more hassle than it's worth.

Jobs should've just gotten the California legislature to issue an iPlate - something designed by Jobs/Apple that looked good and the proceeds went to something worthwhile, like an Apple-approved charity.

julian37• 15 years ago

Some European countries impose traffic fines relative to the offender's income.

http://articles.sfgate.com/2010-01-11/news/17823924_1_mph-li...

jamesbkel• 15 years ago

I'm curious to see what options he chose for the interior such as the stitching and leather.

California DMV Loophole Allowed Jobs to Drive Sans-Plates

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