A car’s license plate number is essential in its identification. Do you have a stolen car? Or you got into an accident with a driver who absconded from the scene? In any situation you find yourself in, consulting a license plate lookup service online could solve all your problems.

However, many people might now know their way around using these services. This article will walk you through a step-by-step guide to determining license plate numbers. Stick with us to learn everything you need to know about license plate lookups.

What Information can Plate License Numbers Provide?

Many people are ignorant of the amount of information they can get by just knowing the plate number of a car. In this section, we’ll walk you through the various types of information you can get from a car’s plate number.

1. The Vehicle Information

You can get all available information about the car from the plate license number report, including its owner’s information, accident history, sales records, engine capacity, vehicle make, etc. 

2. Traffic Court Records

This information is vital if you’re trying to track down a hit-and-run driver. You can use the license plate number to find traffic law violations by a driver, traffic accident records, driver’s license suspension or cancellation, etc.

3. Rebuild and Repair Records

This is another vital record needed if you plan to buy a used car. With the plate number, you can find the car’s recall history, current condition, full maintenance history, and other reports on the car’s health.

4. Public Records

You can also use the license plate number report to find out about the car driver. You could find out if they have any DUI history, arrest records, warrants, etc.

So, now that you know what information you can get with the license number, when exactly can you use this information? The next section answers it all.

When Should You Look Up Plate Numbers?

It is not enough to know how to look up these plate numbers. You need to know the situations in which looking up plate numbers can solve your problem. We’ve highlighted some situations below in which plate numbers can help give the information needed:

1. When Buying a Used Car

When buying a used car, there are chances of foul play had gone on before you came along. However, by using a free license plate lookup tool, you can find out everything about the car, from its ownership history to even traffic court records on the vehicle. So, this way, you could know if the car has any cases of traffic flaunting or if it hasn’t been serviced in a long time.

2. When Searching for Cars Involved in Accidents

If you ever get into an accident with a hit-and-run driver, all you need is their license plate number, and you can track them down. By looking up the car’s ownership history, you can find the current car owner and report them to the appropriate authorities.

3. When Reporting Suspicious Cars

You may notice a suspicious-looking car parked in your neighborhood. Before calling the police, you could do a little background check to see if it belongs to the neighbors. This could help ease fears and even prevent any crime.

How do You Look Up License Plate Numbers?

Now that we’re sure about the information you can get and the situations in which they’re usable, let’s go through the process of checking these plate numbers.

1. Using the EpicVIN page as an example, you simply log on to the website and navigate to the License Lookup page.
2. Then, you’ll enter the license plate number and the state in which the plate number was issued.
3. Hit the ‘Check Plate’ Button, and you have all the information you need.

Is the License Plate Number Report Trustworthy?

It is normal to doubt the information you get about a car. How do you know the information isn’t outdated? However, many of these USA license plate lookup websites ensure they get their data from reliable and quality sources. 

For example, EpicVIN sources information only from approved records. Also, you cannot get into any legal trouble from searching for any car as the process is fully legal. Examples of sources used for getting information about cars include:

• The Vehicle Data Registry
• United States Department of Transportation
• National Motor Vehicle Title Information System of the United States Department of Justice.

Conclusion

Looking up the plate number of cars shouldn’t be a hassle if you know the proper steps to follow. This article has highlighted all the information you need to know about looking up a car license, such as the information provided. If you need any information regarding a car’s license plate number, you can always use the EpicVIN tool for fast and accurate results.

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• SEC filings on Wednesday revealed Elon Musk sold $3.6 billion more in Tesla stock.
• Analysts speculate the proceeds will help cover Twitter’s deficits, raising concerns.
• Dan Ives stated that Musk is ‘using Tesla as his own ATM machine’ to fund Twitter.

The impact of Elon Musk buying Twitter on Tesla is getting scarier for investors. For the third time, after saying in April that he had “no further TSLA sales planned,” filings made on Wednesday revealed Musk sold 22 million more shares of Tesla, valued some $3.6 billion. That brings the total amount of Tesla stock that Musk has sold this year to $23 billion.

Just a few days ago, Musk promised that in the long haul, Tesla would benefit from his ownership of Twitter. But there’s growing skepticism from analysts that will happen. Dan Ives at Wedbush wrote in a report on Thursday that Twitter remains a nightmare for investors because Musk has been using “Tesla as his own ATM machine to keep funding” the social network. 

Tesla’s falling electric vehicle sales as countries around the world face their own recessions amid the ongoing fall out of the pandemic isn’t necessarily a shock. But it does present a problem for Tesla and its owner, who continues to use its shares to fund his refashioning of Twitter for his ventures to build out ‘the everything app’ that he refers to under the name “X.”

Ultimately, Elon promised Tesla shareholders they’d benefit from Twitter. He also promised he wouldn’t sell any more Tesla stock. It’s up to Tesla investors to decide whether he plans to keep his promise.

“Elon is Tesla’s brand. He needs to pull it together,” Loup Ventures’ Gene Munster told Insider earlier this week. Some, like major Tesla shareholder KoGuan Leo, have gone so far as to suggest that Musk has “abandoned” his duties at the carmaker, and called for a new CEO to replace him.

Meanwhile, Insider has reported on a slate of problems for Twitter that include: advertisers that have suspended their activity on the platform; the failure of Elon’s reimagined Twitter Blue; growing concern around the rise of bigotry on the platform; and Elon’s troubling political tweets that seem to be adding to the non-stop swirl of controversy around the company. 

In his note to clients, Ives maintained an outperform rating for Tesla, indicating that he expects Tesla’s rate of return to do better than its peers despite signs that it won’t be the best performer in the batch.

Munster, for his part, further admonished that Elon would cause long-term damage if he does nothing about the number of issues arising from the billionaire’s purchase of Twitter. 

The broader market is also worried. Tesla’s stock has dropped 31% since Musk bought Twitter at the end of October. When you track how the stock has held up since Musk’s offer to buy Twitter in mid-April, it’s down 52%. It should be noted that tech stocks lost trillions of dollars in value this year due to a drop in consumer demand, inflation, and the overall market correction from the astronomical multiples seen the year before.

Tesla faces other issues besides Musk’s Twitter problems. The company is no longer the main electric car maker on the block in multiple countries. Since new entrants have carved out their own market share and traditional automakers have successfully launched a series of hybrids and their own EV models, Tesla has seen a rise in competition in the US, China, and parts of Europe. 

It was only earlier this month that Bloomberg reported that Tesla was slashing some of its production output in China by 20% to 30%, a sign that the reality of sales didn’t live up to what they were projected to be. It’s been also reported that the EV maker lowered the cost of its cars in China in an attempt to boost sales. It worked, but Tesla ultimately lost out to its Chinese competition, BYD.

“More activism and growing investor frustration will force the Board of Tesla to confront some of these issues head on in the near-term. This is a moment of truth for Musk and Tesla,” wrote Ives.

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Hyundai’s evolving roadmap for its N division has surprises in store, some due to emissions, some for the benefit of enthusiasts. We know the Ioniq 5 N will open the hot-hatch account for the automaker’s electric era in 2023. Speaking to CarExpert, Hyundai Executive Technical Advisor Albert Biermann, formerly the head of R&D, explained part of the ICE revamp happening alongside the electric introductions. The 2.0-liter turbocharged four-cylinder that began the N adventure in the i30 N hatchback in Australia in 2018, and that powers a brace of N and N Line models in global markets, will be cut from the N lineup due to Euro 7 emissions regulations. The suggestion is that the engine could be replaced by an electric powertrain in the smaller offerings.

All Biermann would say about that was that “a C segment N EV … could be a hatchback.” Till Wartenberg, head of N brand management, elaborated to CarSales, with, “Within the next six to eight years we will have more markets, so maybe prolong one or the other i20/i30 N we have now until we phase out and have the electrified vehicles we’d like for N and the acceptance of customers and a full portfolio also in EV.”  

With the 2.0-liter put on the shelf, it’s expected the 2.5-liter in the Sonata N Line will pick up the mantle and continue powering a second-generation i30 N sedan, which is our Elantra N. Biermann said, “The i30 N is quite safe, at least the sedan version, so we will see the next-generation car with a new petrol engine, as it’s already in our long-range plans.”

The good news for some markets is that the 2.5-liter in the N Line is already more powerful than the 2.0-liter in the proper N cars. The bad news for markets with Euro 7 regulations it that they might not get it, either. Biermann added, “Other markets like Europe are dreaming, and there’s a good chance there will be no further combustion engine N cars in some markets with Euro 7 regulations looming.”

Just because Hyundai holds back certain engines from certain markets, the automaker doesn’t want to hold back the visceral feedback of an ICE powertrain. Biermann told CarExpert at the same event, when driving an N EV “the idea is to come pretty close to the feel and sound of the DCT in the i30 N hatch,” down to “the same some jolt and downshift vibrations you experience in our ICE N cars.” An “N e-shift” virtual dual-clutch gearbox with real paddle shifters, speakers, and some sort of feedback system will be responsible for sound and fury that includes a virtual popping rev limited and a virtual crackling overrun. Hyundai’s tested the setup on the RN22e rolling lab, and it’s being fine-tuned on the Ioniq 5 N. In case you were wondering, yes, you’ll be able to download more vehicle character sounds over the air, and yes, of course you’ll be able to turn the system off.

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DETROIT (AP) — Fuel economy for 2021 model year vehicles in the U.S. stayed flat with 2020 as people continued to buy less-efficient trucks and SUVs, according to an annual government report published Monday.

The fleet of new vehicles got 25.4 miles per gallon (10.8 kilometers per liter) for the model year, while greenhouse gas emissions dropped by 2 grams per mile to a record low of 347, the Environmental Protection Agency said in its annual Automotive Trends Report. The 2021 fuel economy figure ties a record set in model year 2020.

The performance came under fuel economy and emissions standards that were relaxed when Donald Trump was president. Requirements will start to increase at a higher rate in 2026 under standards adopted by the Biden administration.

The EPA said in a statement that all vehicle types are at record low carbon dioxide emissions, but “the market shift away from cars and toward sport utility vehicles and pickups has offset some of the fleetwide benefits.”

In the 2021 model year, cars and station wagons, the most efficient vehicles, fell to 26% of U.S. new vehicle production, well below the 50% market share as recently as 2013, the EPA said. SUVs were a record 45% of new vehicle sales for the 2021 model year, while pickup trucks hit 16%.

Stellantis, the former Fiat Chrysler, had the lowest fuel economy and the highest emissions of all manufacturers at 21.3 mpg (9.1 kilometers per liter) and 417 grams per mile of carbon dioxide. Tesla, which makes only electric vehicles, had the highest mileage equivalent at 121.5 mpg (51.7 kilometers per liter), and zero carbon dioxide emissions.

Nine manufacturers were above their EPA carbon dioxide emissions standard: BMW, Volkswagen, Kia, Nissan, Hyundai, General Motors, Mazda, Stellantis and Mercedes. Five were below their standards, meaning they emitted less than allowed: Tesla, Subaru, Ford, Honda and Toyota. Automakers can meet the standards with credits they accrued or bought from other manufacturers.

The EPA said that since the 2004 model year, average fuel economy in the U.S. is up 6.1 miles per gallon (2.6 kilometers per liter), or 32%.

It said that gas-electric hybrid production reached a new high of 9% of all vehicles in the 2021 model year. while electric, plug-in hybrid and fuel cell vehicles were 4% of nationwide production.

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Over 50 million vehicles in the United States have unrepaired safety recalls, according to the National Safety Council. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration urges all vehicle owners — including fleet operators — to follow any interim safety guidance provided by the manufacturer and to contact their local dealership to fix the recalled part free of charge.

Recently, Ford Motor Company recalled an estimated 18,808 2017-2018 Super Duty F-250, F-350, and F-450 4×4 vehicles due to a driveshaft issue. Specifically, a radial damper inside the driveshaft may move out of position over time, which can cause a driveshaft imbalance and result in a fracture.

This is a serious situation as a fractured driveshaft can cause a loss of drive power. Moreover, the vehicle could roll away if the parking brake is not engaged. Both scenarios increase the likelihood of a collision.

To fix the problem, dealers will replace the driveshaft, at no cost to customers. Owner notification letters will be mailed Jan. 9, 2023. Owners can reach Ford customer service at (866) 436-7332. Ford’s number for this recall is 22S74.

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Lego has announced its next automotive release, the Nissan Skyline GT-R from “2 Fast 2 Furious.” The 319-piece kit is part of the Speed Champions series, Lego’s line of officially licensed car kits.

Like the car used in the movie, the kit is based on an R34-generation Nissan Skyline, built between 1999 and 2002. Lego’s version does a fairly good job of depicting the actual JDM supercar. It’s instantly recognizable as an R34, especially with its squared-off headlights and iconic stagger-sized afterburner taillights. Overall, it’s one of Lego’s more accurate adaptations to the low-resolution medium of plastic bricks. 

In addition to the base car, both the film and the plastic car have six-spoke aftermarket wheels, a body kit, and gigantic wing on the trunk. There’s even a nitrous oxide bottle where the passenger seat should be. The kit also comes with a figure of Paul Walker’s Brian O’Conner, the series’ cop turned street racer turned secret agent protagonist.

Lego has offered other picture car kits, such as James Bond’s Aston Martin DB5, the “Ghostbusters” Ecto-1, and “Back to the Future” DeLorean. They’ve also made the 1969 Dodge Charger from the original “The Fast & the Furious” installment. Many of these have been sold in both smaller kits in the Speed Champions series, and as larger standalone kits. 

In 2019 an R35 Nissan GT-R Nismo became the first Japanese car licensed by Lego. They haven’t done much with the Nissan relationship since (Datsun 240Z, anyone?). Though the movie tie-in makes for good marketing, we’d prefer to see a regular Skyline GT-R kit without the Y2K-era graphics. Nevertheless, it makes a good addition to the many Corvettes, McLarens and Lamborghinis they’ve already made. The Skyline GT-R goes on sale in January 2023.

As the best-selling Detroit pickups evolved from no-nonsense two-doors with huge beds to luxurious four-door sedans with a small beds as toughness-enhancing styling touches, most pickup drivers lost the ability to haul 4×8 plywood sheets (and other long items) without that stuff sticking out of the bed. GM’s Chevrolet Division solved that problem in clever fashion, by designing a four-door pickup that could seat five adults in Buick-grade comfort and convert to a two-seater with an eight-foot bed. This was the Avalanche, built from the 2002 through 2013 model years. You could make the Avalanche perform better off-road (and, more important, look more outdoorsy) with the Z71 off-road package, but the early Avalanche also had an option package that made it better on-road: the Z66, available for 2002 through 2006 rear-wheel-drive 1500-series Avalanches. Here’s one of those rare Avalanche Z66s, found in a Denver-area yard recently.

The Avalanche didn’t sell as well as The General had hoped, but plenty of owners just loved the “midgate” feature that did what folding back seats did for some sedans in the 1970s. The Z66 package cost $835, same as the Z71 package (that’s about $1,370 in 2022 dollars), and provided a firmer ride plus smooth-on-the-highway all-season tires and a locking differential.

These badges told the world that you paid extra for a truck that handled better on pavement, rode more comfortably, and towed better than the Z71. That seems to make sense, but few Avalanche shoppers felt that way.

This one got hit hard by a junkyard shopper who wanted nearly all body components forward of the windshield, but I think it was in decent cosmetic shape when it arrived here.

The interior was stuffed full of parts discarded from adjacent vehicles, but you can tell that the cab was quite comfortable back in 2003.

The diamond-plate-influenced upholstery inserts look… industrial.

The engine is a 5.3-liter Vortec V8, otherwise known as “the truck LS” by drifter types looking to do a cheap driveway V8 swap into a title-challenged BMW E46. This one was rated at 285 horsepower.

You’ll find one in every car (or truck). You’ll see.

Pickup… and SUV. 

The TV commercials for the early Avalanche weren’t just macho. They were celebrations of cruelty directed at less masculine (i.e., non-Avalanche-owning) males.

What are you doing?

When some weenie coastal-elite-liberal type asks the rough-hewn Avalanche owner to break a dollar for parking-meter change in front of the New Sheridan Hotel in Telluride, the protagonist doesn’t clout the (presumably) vegetarian BMW E28 driver with an axe-handle and leave his twitching corpse in the gutter (because it’s a television commercial during prime time). Instead, he converts his Avalanche into a pickup and takes the dollar. These mean-spirited ads may have backfired with the suburban commuter demographic most likely to buy the Avalanche, however, so they ceased not long after the Avalanche’s appearance in showrooms.

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Nissan has had its ups and downs in recent years, but the automaker hit the mark with its overhaul of the Z, so there’s hope for the brand in the future. Nissan just released its latest EV, the Ariya, and has plans for other electrified models, apparently including a future Leaf.

Nismo is a division of Nissan Motorsports, and it will play a significant role in developing a new electrified performance car for the brand. Nismo’s CEO, Takao Katagiri, told Autocar that Nissan is developing a new sports car for North America and Europe. He said of the UK, “this region is very, very special for us, especially for performance cars. So one thing I can say is, please wait. We are going to introduce an inspiring model to the UK market under the Nismo brand.”

Katagiri told Autocar the vehicle would come in hybrid and electric formats, but we’re likely to see hybrids hit the streets first. Company executives had previously told the publication that a performance EV would require solid-state batteries – a technology that is years down the road at best. Nissan could have solid-state batteries ready by the end of the decade, but it may be years before they’re ready for a sports car.

Nissan just released the new Z, but its other iconic sports car is going away after 2023. The GT-R will be discontinued, leaving the automaker without a halo performance option in its catalog. A hybrid or electric sports car would fill that gap for Nissan, and electric motors could open the door to even crazier performance for the brand.

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In Japan, where so many apartments aren’t much bigger than the cabin of a Bentley, it probably doesn’t makes sense that Aston Martin plans to build a luxury home with a vista overlooking Tokyo.

Of course, the home, designed as it will be by Aston Martin artists, will feature an automotive gallery. And after one’s parked his car, he can enjoy the wine cellar, in-house cinema, gym, and the private spa.

The four-story property, already sold (price not revealed) and due for completion in about a year, is the British brand’s first collaboration with homebuilders in Asia, but it is not the first time Aston has dipped a toe into projects other than automobiles.

In 2018, the company launched a power boat, the AM37, a $1.6 million toy that was the result of two years of research and development. Supposedly designed with similar proportions that Aston applies to its vehicles, the top trim level AM37S makes an estimated 50 knots derived from its twin 520 horsepower Mercury petrol engines. Aston Martin even got into the personal luxury submarine game.

Aston has also partnered to build a 6,000-square foot  “house” called Sylvan Rock in the Hudson Valley in upstate New York, costing $7.7 million, and is collaborating on the construction of a 66-floor, high-rise condominium in MiIami. Top price for a unit: $50 million. But the view is very nice.

For the so-called “holistic” extravaganza near Tokyo, Marek Reichman, executive vice president of Aston, said: “The influence of Tokyo culture, with its amazing history and style, holds an important creative space within our design studio. I see fashion, architectural and even culinary references being considered by our team.” Japanese luxury real estate developer firm VIBROA is working with Aston Martin on the project, with an eye toward expanding the carmaker’s presence in Asia.

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Easily one of the most controversial additions to cars in the past 10 years is the introduction of artificial powertrain sounds. And that’s entirely understandable. On internal combustion cars, it seems so needless, because the natural noises could be amplified instead of creating a digital facsimile. Worse, the fake sounds usually sound fake and unpleasant. In most internal combustion cars with such augmentation, I try to turn it off. And you would think that would be the case with electric cars, since they’re pretty close to silent.

And yet, I actually rather like the sounds in EVs. Let me explain.

While I dislike sounds that attempt to recreate natural ones, I don’t mind them if they’re trying to be something else entirely. Those internal combustion sounds live in a sort of uncanny valley where they’re so close to reality, the areas where they miss stand out and make them unpleasant. Many EVs, on the other hand, go with a completely artificial and imagined soundscape. Perhaps most successful are the latest BMW electric cars, such as iX, that feature sounds created by film composer Hans Zimmer. They have a futuristic, but growly noise that avoids being grating.

Additionally, the relative silence of electric cars takes away a helpful sensation for gauging what the car is doing. There’s no aural feedback for your acceleration and deceleration like you get with an internal combustion car. It can make it harder to determine how fast you’re going or whether you’re decelerating enough. Another instance where sound is so helpful in internal-combustion cars is with shifting. When I’m driving a car with a manual transmission, I  mainly shift by ear, unless I’m trying to shift at redline every time. Sound is a genuinely useful piece of feedback, and artificial noises can help with that.

Our long-term Kia EV6 hits these key points for me. First, the sounds are connected to your throttle and acceleration, so they add that helpful feedback. Second, they’re all unique and aren’t based in reality. And yes, I’m using “they” because Kia gives you three options to pick from.

Stylish

My favorite so far is “Stylish,” which is a slightly high-pitched whir or whistle that sounds high-tech and adjacent to motor whine. I also like that the frequencies tend to fade into the background of light wind and road noise at cruising speed, so it doesn’t get annoying at cruising speeds.

Dynamic

The second sound available is “Dynamic,” and it’s my least favorite. It has a lower, more mechanical sound, sort of like gears in a transmission. It sounds more aggressive and can be fun when driving hard, but at cruising speeds, it’s more dominating and can get tiresome. Check it out.

Cyber

Then there’s “Cyber.” I liken it to Stylish’s deeper-voiced cousin. It has similar noises, just all pitched down. It also has a more aggressive vibe than Stylish, but not as annoying to me as Dynamic. The lower sound stands out to me more at highway speed, so I prefer Stylish, but depending on your hearing, you may prefer it. Take a listen.

All of these have default sound profiles, but they can each be customized even further. You can adjust the maximum volume, as well as the sensitivity to throttle inputs.

And critically, they can be turned off completely. While I do enjoy having a little sound with my driving experience, the fact is that the relative silence of electric cars is a huge perk to many people. Adding back sound takes that away. So I genuinely appreciate that Kia offers the option to shut it off entirely.

I think some automakers, such as BMW may have slightly better soundscapes, but Kia has some darn solid ones. And the customization and option to toggle them off are exactly how such a feature should be implemented in new electric cars.

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