My experience was different. Pleasanton DMV. Sometime I will write up all they put me through to get my YOM plates approved. Suffice it for now to say they did require to inspect two identical plates, with one having the correct (for the car model year they would be applied to) year reg sticker attached and visible. I had originally submitted the correct 1974 plates but with a later sticker and which after several weeks in Sacramentos's hands, were rejected. Same plates submitted later with the correct 1974 sticker - approved. BTW the form they have with the requirements listed, does not include this sticker requirement. GRrrrrr...

Interesting Jeff...
The year sticker requirement just doesn't make sense to me as the annual registration would move up that each year.
I found this from the CA legislature. (nothing about stickers there )
AND verbiage about "old car hobbyist" being a resource for validating year sequence of plates ! I am thinking the list would be a great tool. This data base may be much more needed and powerful than you thought.

https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/bi...201520160SB1429

Regardless, you can buy the sticker for the year that you require on Evil Bay.

https://www.ebay.com/sch/m.html?_odkw=&...rs&_sacat=0

That's odd, since the car was originally sold in So. Cal, and I bought from 2nd owner who bought it in 82. It's a CA original car, but yeah, after looking at it, the plate isn't original, according to the website I looked at. Interesting though. It has SOME smog on the original engine, but not sure what came stock and what didn't (had the charcoal canister )

‘72 914 5/72 production plate is 773 THA.

1972 mfr date Feb

161 UDG

313 NPA 1975

Not a 1972 plate, later issue.

Not a 1972 plate, later issue, probably 1977.

Is this car a 1975 model or a 1976 model, with a late 1975 VIN date and can you be certain this is the original CA plate for this car when brand new? I ask because the plate is a little later than the other 1975s and there were 1976 models that have an earlier plate.

I am pretty sure that this is the original plate because I have had this car since Oct. 1977. I looked at the vin number and it is around the middle of the range for the vin numbers of 75 cars.

I listed it with the 1975 car but plates probably issued in 1976, maybe car sat on the dealer lot for a few months before selling, or maybe it was a dealer demonstrator car

I'll look up my /6 when i get home, don't have the plates but it's listed on the title.

Meh, either my /6 came from out of state or the registration lapsed at some point, the plate listed on the title is from the '80s.

1QHQ500

I spoke too soon, i actually found a pic with the original license plate on the car!

218 DJW

You’re probably right, 172 NNV is from my 76 930, it was delivered to the dealer on 03/30/76.

Andy, were you the original owner of that 6? If so, did you buy it in ‘71? That’s the only way the plate could be original to that car.

Perhaps /6 #374 also sat around on the dealers lot for a few months before it received its plates.

We need to consider that this list can only study the issued order of license plates by DMV in its rough and approximate order that we have categorized by model years, and that there appears to be minor timing overlaps where an earlier car received a sequentially later plate. it is reasonable to recognize a minor amount of tolerance in the timing of when an original plate was issued, relative to the model year of the car - because the process is inexact. Contributing factors are that certain cars may have sat unsold on dealers lots for awhile and that plates were sent to every DMV office in the state in small groupings, which resulted in plates not having been issued in perfect sequence by VIN number. As long as its a close enough match I think its reasonable and that is the real benefit to this study.

And then i found this today while cleaning out the garage ...

Get those babies restored and keep them with the car.

This is from my 1975.
Not a lot of info from previous owner

Click to view attachment

From 1980 or later, not original CA issue to car in 1975

Know of anyone who does that kind of work?

There are several plate restorers - google can find them for you. I used Mojo, they did a marginal job to my eye...surely there is someone better.

How about some more info on the 1975-76 year plates?

1970 CA license 061 BJW
photo from 2004, before I owned the car.
Would love to get those plates back on the car...

Click to view attachment

I bought a car just to get the plates off of it. They were a perfect matching set of California blue plates. The car was a 74 1.8 L. But it was in terrible condition. It had been sitting in the high desert in Nevada for a long time. After I got it home and had the plates checked, it had about a mountain of back DMV fees. Well over $600 I believe. Now they just hang on my wall all shiny and blue.

If you look at the photo some genius used a piece of nylon rope and ran it into the car, through the firewall to control the throttle on the engine, from inside the car. That was a first for me to see that.

Is there any way to make these DMV fees disappear? A friend of mine who ran the plate number for me and found out all this information said absolutely not. He said that they do drop off but since he ran the plates that resets the timer on the back fees.

Total shame because both the plates are perfect. There's not even a scratch on them. I really wanted to put them on my 74 2 liter. The guy I bought my car from wouldn't give me the original blue plates.....dick move.

MB

Martin, sorry to say these would not be original to a 1974 CA car. Looks like they were issued in 1979.

Yeah, what my plan was was to get a personalized plate that was 237 VZC and then just use the Blue Plate instead of the modern California white plates. That's no longer an option since that number still has back fees on it. And they've stopped the use of 3# 3 letter combos for that reason.

Pretty sure these are original on my '73. Either way, they're staying on it.

Click to view attachment

No, sorry, those were later-issued plates, not original to a CA 1973 model.

Still looks good with the blue and yellow. Nothing wrong with the late 70’s / early 80s.

I love the blue California plates on the 914, regardless of whether they are the correct year or not. 99% of the people who see them won't know the difference.

237 HBQ '73 2.0 Blue and Gold
gg

Finally got the California 914HPN blue plates officially reassigned to my car. I’m calling them “914 Horse Power Now” as she now along with the rest of the build has a strong 2056 with the needed hp.Click to view attachment

^ A very, very cool plate for a 914 given a famous 914 racer's initials are HHH, and Hurley signs a fair bit of his stuff that way.

That is a very cool plate..

PA allows original year plates to be used on antique vehicles with matching registration stickers too. Crappy pic quality but registration stickers are 73 and 74. Car is an early 74. For you California guys the round sticker on the rear window is a bicentennial US Geological Survey from Menlo Park 1980 vintage. Not sure the 914 would be alive today if it didn’t migrate to California for half of its daily driver life. Any San Jose State Alum out there.

Click to view attachment

Not 100% sure these are original but the PO said they were and he had owned the car since 1978.
This is a 1973 car
Click to view attachment

1977 or later according to the first post listing.

797 JDD 73 2.0

That sounds original to 1973. Post a photo?

1973 Letters G-K for the most part.

1975

Sorry, not a 1975 CA plate. Later than that.

That was on the car when I bought it in 1986. I think this car was an out of state car. It had no EGR or CAT lights or other smog on it when I bought it. It was a stock 2.0 four.

069 JBB

1973 car (mine)

https://bringatrailer.com/listing/1973-porsche-914-17/

Agree!

My build date is 10/73 and I think they are original plates
221 KOP
Click to view attachment

^ Seems to make sense.

My 1973 914 is a late 1972 build (September or October?), the 193rd car for the 1973 MY by the VIN sequence. It wears its original CA plates 187 GTT.

A guy working in the office park back in the early 2000s started the restoration of a silver/black 1973 911S coupe…until the car came back from having its paint stripped and the shop involved told him he'd be better off finding another silver/black 911S coupe in better (and original)l condition. So he did. He eventually drove it to work one day, a Southern California car gorgeous in silver, and it was wearing blue/yellow plates...with 188 GTT. So wish I had gotten a picture of the two cars together.