I returned a rental car in FLL Thursday when another returning customer walked in and told the agent he had been pulled over because the registration on the car was expired by three months. He claims he was almost arrested.

I always check the car for dings and such, but have never thought to check that the registration was current.

Good idea! I never thought about registration info either since the rental company should keep the records up to date and current so the customer doesn't have to worry. I will from this point onward.

I had something stupid happen to me near my home in New Jersey. I had rented a Hertz car the previous evening at LGA and driven home. At 5 a.m. that day, I was driving into Manhattan, where I would return the car.

The cop pulled me over for not signaling a right turn onto the NJ Turnpike entrance ramp (signal to whom at 5 a.m?). He probably just saw the out-of-state plate and was curious what I was doing there. He asked for my license and registration, as usual.

My license was OK, but Hertz keeps in its NY rental cars just a photocopy of the registration, probably because they don't want the originals to disappear! The NJ cop insisted that photocopied registrations were invalid in NJ, and he gave HERTZ a ticket! Yes, Hertz. It didn't even have my name on it. I turned in the ticket with my car, and the guy just shook his head in disbelief. I have no idea what happened after that.

Bruce

Three years ago in SLC, I picked up a car at Alamo with a temporary plate(tag). I was planning on taking the car to Wyoming and Idaho and so looked over the the plate carefully, sure enough the temporary plate would have expired while I had the rental and was driving out of state.

i had this happen twice - both times with National - during a month rental. The registration expired mid way through the rental so they had a replacement car towed out to my hotel and took the old one back.

I would have thought that the rental agency's system would have known better than to rent a car for a month if the reg was about to expire. anyways, now I make sure myself

Speaking of temp. registrations, I routinely refuse to rent cars with paper license plates in the rear window, etc. Why should I have to drive around in a car with a sign that essentially says, "Please pull me over and check this cheesy thing out."?

Here we go again with a chicken story--back then we actively looked for cars w/temp tags--they looked less "rental" than cars with tags. Particularly in those days when Florida rental car tags were Z or X plates, or North Carolina R plates (FLA stopped this practice after the MIA murders)it was very helpful in those areas.

Another example: In Georgia, a plate-sized piece of paper with the agency's logo is a valid temporary tag. Take it out of state, you get problems.