Vanity Plates in NJ

[zonedguy]

Howdy fellow NJ motorers,

I'm awaiting the delivery of my 08 LiB MCSa as part of Week 23 but had a NJ specific question so I thought this would be a swell place to ask it. I saw mention somewhere here on NAM that in NJ if you want Vanity plates on a new car, you have to let the dealer know. Being new to the state and the process of purchasing a new vehicle I was wondering if someone could help shed light on this process? I definitely want custom plates and don't want to miss my opportunity. Thanks,

James

[jerzrunr]

you can take delivery from the dealer with the regular plates, and then just apply for the new ones on your own schedule. thats what I did, but i bought it used from a non-mini dealership. which dealer are you ordering from?

[zonedguy]

Thanks for your quick answer jerzrunr! Now I just need to decide what to get!

I ordered from Prestige MINI because they were the only dealer in the area that returned my emails or phone calls within the first 24 hours. My experience with them was pretty good and Dan Southwell, my MA was extremely nice and prompt with follow ups.

Prestige was also very accommodating even when I was late for my scheduled drive and consultations. Yet something that struck both my friend and I was that I felt like I had a far greater awareness of MINI features and differences between models than any of the MAs I encountered merely from reading MINIUSA.com and NAM.

Morristown (from whom I would have likely placed my order based merely on slightly better convenience) took 6 days to send me an email that wasn't a generic-gee-hope-we-answered-your-questions-even-when-we-didn't-call form response, never got a call. Princeton sent me one form email of the exact nature described above and never responded to my calls. Manhattan was even worse, took them over three weeks to acknowledge me which was way too late at that point.

[jerzrunr]

I think dealerships are like doctors - they like to make you jump through the hoop of coming in to see them to make sure you're not wasting their time.

Mo-town is great for service, and their site has best prices on MINI gear that you can pickup or have installed there (get internet pricing but dealer install).

Here are some of the ideas I was chasing for license plates. Ideas are liberally stolen from others. MINIMAL MINIMUS ESC POD EZ 2PRK MINISQL FUN SZE FUN S1Z FUN SIZ FUNS1ZE ITY BTY ITL FIT SLOTCAR ACT SIZ ACTLSIZ VMMVMMM MINITUD COOPAH NANOCAR PEPSQEK PINTSIZ 4 CORNR 4CORNER 4CORNRS

[jerzrunr]

BTW - I got "ACT SIZ" so don't bother trying to get that one

[NightFlyR]

Here are a few i am toying with EZONGAS / H8S X ON / SPD D MON/ V8 2 S4

[MalteseFalcn]

NJ's MVC website is real useful, cuz once you get a user ID (by mail), you can play on the website to see what's taken and what's not.

AC2LSIZ is available.

I just snagged TAGUR1T.

[inimini2007]

"INIMINI" spelled front & back. She couldn't decide the color, so I said "Just go INIMINI MINY MOE!"

[Miniac1]

James,

I used to work at Princeton MINI so I can answer your question. You cannot order vanity plates via the dealer in the state of NJ. NJ requires you to register the new car with regular plates first and than you can apply for the vanity plates. However.....If you are transferring vanity plates from another car to your new MINI, then the dealer can take care of the transfer.

If you have other questions, feel free to email me at Miniac1@aol.com

Debbie Franks
Mini Owners of NJ

[zonedguy]

Thanks Debbie! That is really helpful to know!

I'm not going to steal anyone's license plate ideas, have a few of my own that diverge from the typical MINI type plates, but we'll see. I'm trying to come up with something that references my beautiful Lightning Blue.

Originally Posted by jerzrunr

I think dealerships are like doctors - they like to make you jump through the hoop of coming in to see them to make sure you're not wasting their time.

I agree and unfortunately think this is likely the cause of my poor experiences above. However my emails and calls were not generic handshake type solicitations; my initial contact was with PDFs of the build I wanted from MINI USA and a desire to place the order within the next few days pending a quote from them and a couple questions I wanted answered. As a result my expectation was that they would immediately engage me and I was already willing to spend ~$30k and wasn't going to need them to convince me or devote a significant amount of time. Oh well! Water under the bridge at this point.

[inimini2007]

"ZONDGUY" or "ZNEDGUY" or "ZONEDGY"...Jersey uses 7.

[zonedguy]

Hahah indeed! I have TX, CA, and OK plates with ZONDGUY on them, but I'm considering something else for my MINI as I think it deserves something original. Thanks for the help!