I bought my Ridgeline a few days ago (love it!) and have a question about something the financial guy at my dealership told me. He said that the plates which will be allocated to the truck will be commercial plates. I am a first time new-truck buyer (I bought a Land Cruiser used many moons ago) and am completely ignorant on the difference between commercial plates and "regular" plates. So what is the difference (if any)? I live in California. Thanks in advance for your help.

See my post.
http://www.ridgelineownersclub.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1171
Same thing happened to me. I guess trucks require a commercial lic plate in California. :(

Commercial plates required in CT too. Have something to the weight of the truck? :rolleyes:

It has something to do with an obscure rule in the CA vehicle regulations that says that a pickup is designed for the carrying/moving of property rather than as a passenger vehicle like an SUV or car. It is therefore declared a commercial vehicle and you pay a specific amount extra on registration based on its weight alone (other commercial vehicles pay for their gross weight which includes trailers and the like, pickups never use a ladened weight). You can find more information on the CA DMV pages if I remember correctly. I have heard these complaints over the years from family members who live in CA. MA used to require commercial plates for pickups and some SUVs also, but has changed the regulations.

This is correct. California law essentially forces all P/U owners to pay for commercial plates. You can get around it, but it's difficult and not worth the hassle. Incidentally, a commercial plate in CA has only one alphabetic character in it, which I believe is always the second.

There is a bonus to this though. Commercial vehicles can park in yellow curb zones for 20 minutes at a time. This is occasionally useful when only a yellow zone is available and you have to run into a nearby store. They are intended for commercial trucks loading and unloading, but if you're going to have to pay the higher registration fee, you get access to the benefit. :)