Vehicle License Plates

File:GTA IV Number Plate.JPG

An unassigned Liberty City license plate in a pre-release screenshot for Grand Theft Auto IV.

Vehicle license plates are introduced in Grand Theft Auto III with the player's ability to explore in a three-dimensional environment making plates viewable. The feature has very little use aside for cosmetic purposes.

Description

License plates in GTA III and Grand Theft Auto: Vice City are static textures, with all plates in GTA III reading LC R29 (the LC could stand for Liberty City). In GTA Vice City, some vehicles retain the LC R29 plates; others have blurred and illegible versions of the Florida state plate.

License plates are dynamic in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, generating random 7 character license numbers that consist of both letters and numbers. The pattern is: two letters and two numbers, then a space, then a number and two letters (e.g. AA00 0AA). Each of the three major cities in San Andreas have their own plates and some vehicles have their own custom license numbers. Note, however, that during a session of play, all cars of the same model will have the same number plate (for example, all Landstalkers will have the same plates). These will change if a new session of play is started, even if stored in a garage.

A Los Santos plate in GTA San Andreas.

For Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories and Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories, license plates in both games feature an "LC" (Liberty City) and "VC" (Vice City) prefix, respectively, followed by a four-digit number. While still more varied than in GTA III and GTA Vice City, the games only offer a limited number of license numbers, with each of them specific to certain vehicles' models.

In Grand Theft Auto IV, license plates do not have an actual letter-number combination. Every vehicle that has a license plate has "LIBERTY CITY" in large blue capital letters. If a player zooms in with the analog sticks, or with a sniper rifle, they can see that it says "Liberty City State" . These license plates are almost an exact clone of the current New York license plates, as seen here. It is possible that the plates were intended to have a letter-number combination, much like the vehicles in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, but it may have been forgotten during the game's development. Trailers, however, have numbered plates. In Grand Theft Auto IV, the license plate from the beta version of the game can be found on the back of fuel trailers (which can be seen in the gallery below).

A San Andreas plate from a Grand Theft Auto V pre-release screenshot.

In Grand Theft Auto V , the license plates resemble the current California plates, but have "San Andreas" written on top instead. There are 8 random characters on each plate; the pattern is two numbers, followed by three letters and three numbers (00AAA000). Also, there are multiple types of plates including modern white plates with red cursive state name resembling modern California plates, red embossed state name on white resembling the 1982-1987 California plate, gold embossed state name and serial number on black resembling the 1963-1969 California plates, and gold embossed state name and serial number on blue resembling the 1970's California plates. For this reason, GTA V contains the most realistic plate combinations in the series.

There's a special variation of license plates only seen in North Yankton, which features the same things, except "Yankton" in a red stripe, unseen in SA plates. Only appears in snow vehicles, as North Yankton is a snowy place. These are based on 2001-2006 South Dakota license plates.

Custom plates

Main article: Custom Vehicle License Plates

Custom plates are typically vanity plates featured on special vehicles, such as vehicles belonging to certain individuals or custom vehicles. Such plates has been seen in use in both GTA Vice City and GTA San Andreas. In San Andreas they cannot be saved in garages, if they are they simply revert to a usual seven digit plate.

Trivia

• In real-life, United States license plates are issued by the the state, rather than the city like in GTA San Andreas and GTA IV. In Grand Theft Auto V, the license plates read "San Andreas", the name of the state featured in the game.
• In Grand Theft Auto V, the license plates commonly say "Goatse" on them. In real life, Goatse is a website containing an image of a naked man stretching his anus with both hands.
• In GTA V, one of the Downtown Cab Co. missions require the player to drive a man to the docks to deal with some bikers. Next to the bikers is an Albany Emperor with a license plate reading "ROMANB", another reading "NIKOB" and a bike with "LUISLOPEZ".
• The first plate available in Los Santos Customs to the player is the same one featured in GTA: San Andreas, but always says San Andreas, as opposed to the ones in GTA: SA that say cities on them.
• In real life, California, New York (which San Andreas and Liberty State is based on) and Florida requires both front and rear license plates. So it is strange that many vehicle in GTA games only have one in the rear or sometimes no license plates at all.

Gallery

The license plate in GTA III. A handful of vehicles, such as the Landstalker, still feature this plate in GTA Vice City. The "Floridian" plate in GTA Vice City, common on most road vehicles. The unadorned Vice City plate in GTA Vice City, used on most industrial vehicles and low-grade vehicles. A Los Santos plate in GTA San Andreas. A San Fierro plate in GTA San Andreas. A Las Venturas plate in GTA San Andreas. Note the license number is reversed for this particular vehicle (the Hotdog) due to design error. A license plate in GTA Liberty City Stories. A license plate in GTA Vice City Stories. The unnumbered license plate used on road vehicles in GTA IV. The numbered license plate used on trailers in GTA IV. A license plate in GTA V. North Yankton plate in GTA V.

See Also

• Vehicle Details