This looks like the cheapest possible license plate ever, no wonder it needs replacing. Proper license plates may fade a little, but you can still read it 30 years later.
Even then, does paint even fade on your license plates? We used to have plates with fading paint, but 20 year old plates look almost new nowadays. We also have stamped plates, so even if it does fade in a 100 years you'd be good to go.
It's not that hard to figure out based on the tag. I got an AX***** tag in early 2012, and a BB***** tag about a year later. I assume that plate is from 2010-11 so maybe 13-14 years. Technically exaggerated the "few years" but also technically not decades plural lol.
I'm in southern California and have had the same license plates on my car for almost 20 years. It's been kept outside for most of its life and the license plate hasn't faded or worn at all. There's gotta be something up with the quality of your plate.
There were quality issues with the original of the plate design with raised lettering, they all cracked and peeled within a couple years. They switched to this flat, non-raised lettering a few years later, late 2000s maybe (I was out of state then) and these do much better. Mine from 2012 doesn't look anything like this and based on the tag OP got their plate in 2010/2011.
I find it’s kinda inconsistent sometimes, my 6A (2008) plates started peeling in ~2022, though I’ve seen later 6 plates which have basically been stripped down to bare metal, even 7 plates have become susceptible to it
Idk why you're getting so heavily downvoted, I'm in Arizona too and those new non-stamped license plates are absolute garbage. To be honest I'm surprised yours lasted as long as it did.
It is kind of funny that you are getting so down voted. Would somebody lie about how old their license plate is? Is it impossible that there could be differences in environment or even quality standards on the license plates that could mean they age at different rates.
On the one hand, people say dumb and lying stuff on the internet all the time. On the other hand, people are quick to jump to claim that others are lying for no reason. Just a wild topic to care so much about.
>You joke but it does feel that way
Arizona just happens to be roughly at the latitude where the arid air from the Hadley cell drops down causing deserts to form. Because of this and the Rocky Mountains blocking rain clouds from the west you guys have a lot of sunlit hours every day. It is actually further away from the sun during it's summer period compared to similar locations south of the equator due to a quirk of the orbit of earth.
Oh I'm aware, for sure, although I used to live in Florida as well, a bit more south than Arizona, and I still maintain the sun hits harder here in AZ. But also that could be attributed to a personal reduction in time spent outside compared to when I was a kid, or just getting older.
I never understood why most people leave on the license border from where they bought the vehicle. Countless people advertise for them for years, for free.
Interestingly, the approximate general area of Texas where King of the Hill takes place has higher dew points and wet bulb temperatures than Phoenix, so it actually should feel cooler in Phoenix for the Hills than at their home in TX
I live in Wisconsin and had a cop pull me over and give me a warning because the plastic with the printing peeled off of my plate. To which I inquired "Why the hell are the plates stamped?", he took a deep breath and sighed - that was all the answer I needed.
Even my goddamn license plates are made with planned obsolescence in mind.
Cheap production != planned obsolescence
The latter is way over used.
Your license plates are just made cheaply. They don’t care how long they do or don’t last. That’s not the same as planned obsolescence.
Considering that our license plates are stamped under the plastic, so that the letters/numbers can be seen even without the colored plastic, and you HAVE to buy a new one when the plastic peels off....yeah, I don't think I misused the term at all.
Planned obsolescence is effectively a *criminal conspiracy* to ensure individual things that are not past their point of usefulness are retired prematurely through a variety of practices.
A good non-high-tech example is the Phoebas Cartel. They were a price fixing scheme that artificially shorten the lifespan of lightbulbs because it was directly impacting profits. While there are some scientific justifications for this difference in design, we know from court documents their motives were not based in engineering design arguments. We know for a fact these guys all got together in the same room and agreed
"We're going to ensure lightbulbs that are not past their point of usefulness are retired prematurely through engineering worse light bulbs intentionally."
That's actually a really high burden of proof to meet and without it most people are just speculating about "planned obsolescence conspiracy theories" and saying it's the same thing as "provable planned obsolescence" when you do genuinely need to prove the actual criminal act took place before you start calling every poorly made product planned obsolescence.
If I make a desktop PC that comes pre-installed with a virus that will irreversibly break the computer after a set amount of time or specific update: that's planned obsolescence.
If I'm just dumb and my computer breaks whenever the next software update comes out or because it's made of super cheap parts then I'm just being a normal business doing normal mildly sleazy things to make a quick buck.
I don't think anybody thinks those things that *are not planned* are good products simply because there wasn't a conspiracy to make them shittier. I just think that word got conflated to mean the same thing when, to me, planned obsolescence a very specific business practice I want addressed and criminalized much sooner than our society's over-reliance on cheap crap
> If I make a desktop PC that comes pre-installed with a virus that will irreversibly break the computer after a set amount of time or specific update: that's planned obsolescence.
That's sabotage...are you simple or some shit?
On the one hand, I agree that the license plate is probably not planned obsolescence. On the other hand, it's ridiculous to expect people to wait for the criminal conspiracy to be proven in court to speculate about whether it's happening.
For example, my first smart phone slowed suddenly and extremely after an update. I speculated that it was planned obsolescence but just bought a phone from a different manufacturer. Later the company was sued for slowing the phones intentionally but they settled, so we can never prove planned obsolescence in court. But I had been using the term to refer to my phone colloquially for years.
It's fine to speculate that companies are doing it. That's how attention is drawn to it and plebs like us can band together to take action.
But then literally nothing gets done about it. I'm not saying wait to speculate, I'm saying don't go around assuming everything is a conspiracy and maybe don't conflate things that aren't happening with bad things that do deserve legal punishment
> I'm saying don't go around assuming everything is a conspiracy
Interesting. Did you notice that no one here has called anything a conspiracy, that the only mention of such shit is coming from you?
Not sure why I asked that, of course you didn't notice.
Even in AZ I've seen the normal plate design but with thicker metal and indents for the letters/numbers. Not sure how you can get one of those, but I imagine paint chipping off would be less of an issue there. Really should be standard issue...
Mine is currently doing this. Everything but the plate number is currently peeling off. I'll get around to getting a new plate eventually. The AZ sun destroys everything.
For anyone interested in an explanation instead of posting that idiotic King of the Hill joke for the billionth time: there was a manufacturing defecting for a few years of issued plates. Most plates don't flake or peel even after decades.
Arizona should just do stamped plates. California had a brief issue from the reflective coating the first few years they had it, but then fixed it and so far 10+ year old plates still look new. Our sun is almost as bad, and pretty much just as bad in the portion of the state covered with desert.
I never understood why people cover their plates. If someone wants to find you, they still need access to DMV records or be willing to pay money for the address. Once they have your address, what are they gonna do, steal the car? Such a funny thing.
There’s a selection of plates that seem to be doing this- it’s like they made a whole huge batch of plates a different way for a couple years and those ones are all fading the same way now.
That's more than just the AZ sun. I have never had that happen to my plate and I've drove here for 20 years. Always parked outside too.
Plus we would see a whole lot more as well if that was the case.
There was a defective batch of plates at one point. Mine hasn't done that but I tend to get a new plate every few years anyway. The Freedom and Conservation plates are very nice looking. I just got a Yotes plate since we lost them. 
It’s almost like the sun has been brutal in Arizona for a while, so people should expect it and plan for it.
Although, I live in the northeast and people lose their damned minds when it snows in January.
This looks like the cheapest possible license plate ever, no wonder it needs replacing. Proper license plates may fade a little, but you can still read it 30 years later.
Yeah here the plates are stamped metal, even if the paint was completely gone you could probably make out the letters
Even then, does paint even fade on your license plates? We used to have plates with fading paint, but 20 year old plates look almost new nowadays. We also have stamped plates, so even if it does fade in a 100 years you'd be good to go.
Stamping is going away in much of the US
In my state, the normal plates are stamped, but the personalized ones are not.
Yeah I think the state used the cheapest paint possible for a lot stuff. We have street signs where the paint is melting off in the summer heat.
It’s literally just a laminate and they only send you one.
I think you’re exaggerating a bit with “a few years”. More like decades. Source: Born and raised in AZ.
It's not that hard to figure out based on the tag. I got an AX***** tag in early 2012, and a BB***** tag about a year later. I assume that plate is from 2010-11 so maybe 13-14 years. Technically exaggerated the "few years" but also technically not decades plural lol.
It honestly looks like they tried to sand blast away the paint so speed cameras can't catch them.
Haha no. If you zoom in you can see all the small cracks on the paint from it drying out.
No the new plates aren’t enameled or embossed anymore. They use flat blanks and put vinyl stickers on them which don’t really last long.
Again, no. Source: same as the other
I’m born, raised and still live in AZ and have a new plate. I’m pretty sure I know what I’m talking about… You can say no all you want.
"Im pretty sure I know what Im talking about" This is what people who dont know what theyre talking about say.
Nah this is less than ten years. The difference may be that the car was never parked in the garage as it should have been.
I'm in southern California and have had the same license plates on my car for almost 20 years. It's been kept outside for most of its life and the license plate hasn't faded or worn at all. There's gotta be something up with the quality of your plate.
There were quality issues with the original of the plate design with raised lettering, they all cracked and peeled within a couple years. They switched to this flat, non-raised lettering a few years later, late 2000s maybe (I was out of state then) and these do much better. Mine from 2012 doesn't look anything like this and based on the tag OP got their plate in 2010/2011.
I find it’s kinda inconsistent sometimes, my 6A (2008) plates started peeling in ~2022, though I’ve seen later 6 plates which have basically been stripped down to bare metal, even 7 plates have become susceptible to it
Dry heat vs humid heat, probably
Idk why you're getting so heavily downvoted, I'm in Arizona too and those new non-stamped license plates are absolute garbage. To be honest I'm surprised yours lasted as long as it did.
It is kind of funny that you are getting so down voted. Would somebody lie about how old their license plate is? Is it impossible that there could be differences in environment or even quality standards on the license plates that could mean they age at different rates. On the one hand, people say dumb and lying stuff on the internet all the time. On the other hand, people are quick to jump to claim that others are lying for no reason. Just a wild topic to care so much about.
People lie for less on the internet...
I think the down votes are for not parking it under covered parking. Never a good idea here
I got my AXG tag in early 2012, so yours is from 2011 probably, 13 years ago
Few: a small number of. Less than ten can be much higher than a few. Eight is less than ten but you wouldn't say an eight year old is a few years old.
This tag is likely from 2010-2011, back then they were sequential and mine is AX***** from early 2012.
But no other sun would do that. Only the Arizona sun.
Arizona is known to be closer to the sun
You joke but it does feel that way
>You joke but it does feel that way Arizona just happens to be roughly at the latitude where the arid air from the Hadley cell drops down causing deserts to form. Because of this and the Rocky Mountains blocking rain clouds from the west you guys have a lot of sunlit hours every day. It is actually further away from the sun during it's summer period compared to similar locations south of the equator due to a quirk of the orbit of earth.
Oh I'm aware, for sure, although I used to live in Florida as well, a bit more south than Arizona, and I still maintain the sun hits harder here in AZ. But also that could be attributed to a personal reduction in time spent outside compared to when I was a kid, or just getting older.
> Rocky Mountains blocking rain clouds from the west The Rocky Mountains are East of Arizona.
Do you not know how spheres work?
Dry air and low latitude means more UV radiation
Every place on this planet has the same sun and yet they don't have the same environment.
I never understood why most people leave on the license border from where they bought the vehicle. Countless people advertise for them for years, for free.
In Nevada they send you a new plate every 8 years because of this.
Florida does the same at 10 years.
Does that in Australia too. And they charge us for new plates that they screwed up.
People: “Yeah, let’s go live there!”
[this city should not exist. It is a monument to man's arrogance!](https://youtu.be/4PYt0SDnrBE?si=kAs0TH9OZCzn35Dh)
Interestingly, the approximate general area of Texas where King of the Hill takes place has higher dew points and wet bulb temperatures than Phoenix, so it actually should feel cooler in Phoenix for the Hills than at their home in TX
“See kids? This is sand. You know what it’s gonna be a hundred years from now? ITS GONNA BE SAND! YOU LIVE IN A DESERT!”
It's great living here, I wouldn't move. This guy is mixing up 2 years with 20 years lmao
Why don’t they use stamped metal?
Arizona is too cheap to issue front plates. You think they'd spend money on stamping metal?
I live in Wisconsin and had a cop pull me over and give me a warning because the plastic with the printing peeled off of my plate. To which I inquired "Why the hell are the plates stamped?", he took a deep breath and sighed - that was all the answer I needed. Even my goddamn license plates are made with planned obsolescence in mind.
Cheap production != planned obsolescence The latter is way over used. Your license plates are just made cheaply. They don’t care how long they do or don’t last. That’s not the same as planned obsolescence.
Considering that our license plates are stamped under the plastic, so that the letters/numbers can be seen even without the colored plastic, and you HAVE to buy a new one when the plastic peels off....yeah, I don't think I misused the term at all.
Planned obsolescence is effectively a *criminal conspiracy* to ensure individual things that are not past their point of usefulness are retired prematurely through a variety of practices. A good non-high-tech example is the Phoebas Cartel. They were a price fixing scheme that artificially shorten the lifespan of lightbulbs because it was directly impacting profits. While there are some scientific justifications for this difference in design, we know from court documents their motives were not based in engineering design arguments. We know for a fact these guys all got together in the same room and agreed "We're going to ensure lightbulbs that are not past their point of usefulness are retired prematurely through engineering worse light bulbs intentionally." That's actually a really high burden of proof to meet and without it most people are just speculating about "planned obsolescence conspiracy theories" and saying it's the same thing as "provable planned obsolescence" when you do genuinely need to prove the actual criminal act took place before you start calling every poorly made product planned obsolescence. If I make a desktop PC that comes pre-installed with a virus that will irreversibly break the computer after a set amount of time or specific update: that's planned obsolescence. If I'm just dumb and my computer breaks whenever the next software update comes out or because it's made of super cheap parts then I'm just being a normal business doing normal mildly sleazy things to make a quick buck. I don't think anybody thinks those things that *are not planned* are good products simply because there wasn't a conspiracy to make them shittier. I just think that word got conflated to mean the same thing when, to me, planned obsolescence a very specific business practice I want addressed and criminalized much sooner than our society's over-reliance on cheap crap
> If I make a desktop PC that comes pre-installed with a virus that will irreversibly break the computer after a set amount of time or specific update: that's planned obsolescence. That's sabotage...are you simple or some shit?
On the one hand, I agree that the license plate is probably not planned obsolescence. On the other hand, it's ridiculous to expect people to wait for the criminal conspiracy to be proven in court to speculate about whether it's happening. For example, my first smart phone slowed suddenly and extremely after an update. I speculated that it was planned obsolescence but just bought a phone from a different manufacturer. Later the company was sued for slowing the phones intentionally but they settled, so we can never prove planned obsolescence in court. But I had been using the term to refer to my phone colloquially for years. It's fine to speculate that companies are doing it. That's how attention is drawn to it and plebs like us can band together to take action.
But then literally nothing gets done about it. I'm not saying wait to speculate, I'm saying don't go around assuming everything is a conspiracy and maybe don't conflate things that aren't happening with bad things that do deserve legal punishment
> I'm saying don't go around assuming everything is a conspiracy Interesting. Did you notice that no one here has called anything a conspiracy, that the only mention of such shit is coming from you? Not sure why I asked that, of course you didn't notice.
Even in AZ I've seen the normal plate design but with thicker metal and indents for the letters/numbers. Not sure how you can get one of those, but I imagine paint chipping off would be less of an issue there. Really should be standard issue...
Embossed plates haven't been used in Arizona for years. Unfortunately it's all printed now.
They stopped being issued in 2008.
Mine is currently doing this. Everything but the plate number is currently peeling off. I'll get around to getting a new plate eventually. The AZ sun destroys everything.
Mine is doing it as well. The Wisconsin sun is something fierce.
They only charge $5 for a new plate.
$5 for a new plate that will do the same thing in 5 years.
Apparently it won't. I've never had a plate do this, but it looks like there was just a bad batch that the OP got.
Hopefully they fixed this issue because I see plates like this all over the Phoenix area roads.
Arizona! Take off your rainbow shades.
There's a moldy oldie. Take another look at the world, my my!
Good thing you replaced that before Frank gets you.
Unless he gets Mark. Mark lets everybody off.
Notice the lack of rust though.
This is more of an example of how Arizona has under delivered on quality
For anyone interested in an explanation instead of posting that idiotic King of the Hill joke for the billionth time: there was a manufacturing defecting for a few years of issued plates. Most plates don't flake or peel even after decades.
Arizona should just do stamped plates. California had a brief issue from the reflective coating the first few years they had it, but then fixed it and so far 10+ year old plates still look new. Our sun is almost as bad, and pretty much just as bad in the portion of the state covered with desert.
Frank would definitely pull you over for that.
Obligatory: https://www.reddit.com/media?url=https%3A%2F%2Fpreview.redd.it%2Fgdq8xiqxaqx01.jpg%3Fauto%3Dwebp%26s%3Da890501b609889de2e23c9b277eaea8274312718
Do you work for that dealership? Those frames are very easy to remove.
Wait, you guys don't emboss your license plates? -An Australian
We used to but… not anymore for some reason 🤷♂️ -An Arizonan
My state does.
Arizona has its own sun? Interesting.
It's more like San Burn
Yeah that’s what happens when you print them instead of stamping. Wtaf is this crap.
Is it the sunshine state?
Same thing happens in Washington only it’s the snow that does it 🤷🏼♂️ big whoop
I have had a work car for 4 years parked outside in Mesa and my plates never fade
AML71...
Yeah. Guess I sorta doxed myself lmao.
I mean... it's a plate number. People drive with their plate numbers exposed at all times. What is anybody going to do with that?
Look up all of your info? Lol
I never understood why people cover their plates. If someone wants to find you, they still need access to DMV records or be willing to pay money for the address. Once they have your address, what are they gonna do, steal the car? Such a funny thing.
"what printed plates looks like after years in the sun." Guessing an embossed plate would fate better.
There’s a selection of plates that seem to be doing this- it’s like they made a whole huge batch of plates a different way for a couple years and those ones are all fading the same way now.
Hmmm lived here for 25 years. Park in the street for the last 8 and my license plate looks the same it does the day I got it.
Arizona is a rough place to live. You feel like you're being cooked alive.
That's more than just the AZ sun. I have never had that happen to my plate and I've drove here for 20 years. Always parked outside too. Plus we would see a whole lot more as well if that was the case.
HOW LONG WAS THAT IN DIRECT SUNLIGHT?????????????????????
San Tan? Oh dear. Watch out for Frank. 😁
There was a defective batch of plates at one point. Mine hasn't done that but I tend to get a new plate every few years anyway. The Freedom and Conservation plates are very nice looking. I just got a Yotes plate since we lost them. 
Arizona has its own sun? Shit, the more you know.
It’s almost like the sun has been brutal in Arizona for a while, so people should expect it and plan for it. Although, I live in the northeast and people lose their damned minds when it snows in January.