Winner for OP headline.

We don't use stickers in my current state, but in all my years of driving in Pennsylvania, I've never had a sticker come loose. It's strange that whomever is making New York's stickers is having such an issue with adhesive.

Also, it sucks for drivers to be pulled over, but I'm assuming they're not getting ticketed if the sticker just fell off.

This reminds me of my current inspection sticker. It is sticking, but the red background that makes it a 2010 sticker has faded completely. I've noticed plenty of other stickers that are likewise faded.

Moreover, this fading doesn't seem to be limited to Massachusetts 2010 inspection stickers. New Jersey IFTA stickers seem to be fading as well: [www.iftach.org]

@tbax929: Funny, I just noticed recently that my current PA emissions sticker (same basic material as the inspection sticker) has started to peel away for some reason. I wonder if it came from the same vendor's bad glue batch.

@tbax929:

You'd most likely be mistaken,cops don't normally care what the excuse is, they've heard it all before. People might be able to fight the tickets, but I bet they're still being issued.

This happened to me about 7 months back.
My inspection sticker was lying on my dashboard for about a week, until I finally got around to it with some scotch tape. Crisis averted.

Just show the cop the sticker that fell off and you are good to go. They know they are faulty and unless you give them a reason to suspect otherwise you have nothing to worry about. If you lose the sticker, just show up to court with your receipt of the inspection and you should be fine. NYS also keeps a computer database of all inspections for any vehicle, and it can be run against that.

A minor inconvenience but it's better than getting all furious about something that could of been fixed with a little tape.

@jmiracle: They probably figure the place to argue about the ticket is in court, not with them.

My registration sticker is falling off my windshield. It's annoying because I know I could get pulled over for it. Then again it's not my fault but I just don't want to go through that hassle.

@TheBursar: It's sad when scotch tape will work better than the adhesive on the sticker you had to pay for an inspection to get.

@cabjf: Usually ticketed while parking. Don't think anyone got pulled over for this.

The fact that you have to have some stupid sticker on your car in the first place is asinine. Just another way so squeeze money from drivers.

@TheBursar: In Illinois you'll get pulled over if you're sticker is out of date. But, we also have registration cards that come with the sticker - sometimes the officer will just issue a warning if the sticker fell off but you show the card. Usually, though, they just write the ticket - I guess they figure the judge will throw it out if you challenge it, but if you don't challenge it then it's just revenue. No loss to them either way.

So when they fix the adhesive people will be complaining that they can't get the sticker off of their windshield. Gawd, I hated having to scrape the stickers off the windshield when I lived in Upstate NY...granted my registration always came due in late January which meant I was out in the driveway in sub zero temperatures with a razor blade trying to contort my body in such a way that I could actually scrape the sticker off while wearing my heavy winter jacket.

@TheBursar: Oh, it goes on the windshield...that's why you only get tickets when parking. Ours goes on the license plate, which is why they can use it as an excuse for a traffic stop.

I still can't get the 2001 MA sticker off my windshield and the Chicago City stickers are apparently held on with super glue and demon thoughts because last time I tried to take one off, I lost skin on my thumb. Perhaps NY should look into whatever they are using.

@Spaceman Bill Leah: Try warming the blade of whatever you are trying to use to scrape the Massachusetts sticker off.

Not only that, but the registration stickers (also famously unsticky) begin to wilt off the inside of the windshield within a matter of weeks. Aaaaaaand... (wait for it) "improperly securing your registration sticker" is a ticketable offense! My wife and I actually got a ticket because a single corner of our sticker had begun to sag after a day in the sun.

More great NYC gotcha traffic enforcement: defective stickers creating ticketable offenses.

My NYS inspection sticker (acquired in May of this year) is already half-peeled off of my windshield. When I get around to it, I will scotch tape it up there - I'd rather have it peeling than clinging so hard I have to take a razor blade to it.

This is news? The DMV put out a service bulletin about this months ago. They're also waiving the replacement sticker fee, and you just call up the place you had your inspection at to get one.

@TheBursar: Think again - people get pulled over in PA for having out of date stickers in addition to no sticker. My bro was traveling down the highway at ~60 and a cop with a radar unit on the side of the road saw his inspection was 2 months expired (he could tell by the color, don't think he can read the numbers on it), and promptly pulled him over and ticketed him.

@Rachacha: I'd much rather scrape and apply copious amounts of nail polish remover to get an old sticker off than give the local police any reason to ticket me. As it is, I've already had to scotch tape my wife's new registration sticker because it didn't even pretend to stick when she got it.

I'd be interested to see if they've fixed this by the time my registration comes up for renewal in September.

Holy crap, and I thought I was the only one who was having issues with my sticker staying on the window.

@burnedout: CT used to do the license plate ones, but they're easy to steal. They finally switched over to the interior windshield ones a few years ago, but the downside is that the adhesive is TOO effective. It took me half an hour to get my old sticker off (with WD-40 on hand!), and there's still junk on my windshield after multiple cleanings.

@Rachacha: Agreed. Took me half an hour to get mine off this May. Such a pain.

@acknight: Yup. It takes about two weeks to get in the mail and required information that I didn't have at the ready (didn't have the receipt so they wanted the odometer reading at the time of the inspection). Because I'm a stickler for rules I was nervous driving around without it (my old one flew out the window) for those weeks but I was never stopped.

This happened in my state a couple of years ago. It's not that the state can't find a vendor that makes sticky stickers. It's that they don't want to pay what it costs so they go with a vendor who offers a low bid but can't do the job right.

@tinyrobot: "My wife and I actually got a ticket because a single corner of our sticker had begun to sag after a day in the sun."

Surely there was more to that ticket than just a corner. Like maybe you and your wife fit some profile or something, or the cop couldn't bust you for what you actually did so he pulled wrote that ticket.

And I do know about d!ckweed cops having been pulled over in NJ for the "flickering license plate light" because I had several (drunk) college friends in my car while I was the sober driver. Of course after I went to my trunk to get my box-o-spare bulbs taken from the junkyard, the cop really didn't have much to say.

@tbax929: Our stickers in Arkansas were quite the opposite. Arkansas discontinued vehicle inspections in 1993. My sticker from 1993 is still on my old pickup truck and shows no signs of letting go.

@Jeff_McAwes0me: But your car MUST be inspected, why won't you think of the earth and the children!

$21 for inspection? Upstate people have it nicer, it's $37 in the metro area.

Somehow, our 2010 inspection sticker is still sticking. Guess I can say that our mechanic definitely must've done a good job on that (he removes the sticker and applies the new one for us).

But, our registration sticker on the other hand... it's only been 3 months and that thing is already half wilted!

@katstermonster: Use GOOGONE - it turns adhesive into gloop after you allow it to sit for 5 minutes, which scrapes away easily with an old credit card.

@burnedout: yeah but you'd be surprised....if i'm pulled over for X the cop will notice the sticker is the wrong color. and the inspection sticker is more noticeable than the registration sticker (which goes on the plates in NH) so they won't let you inspect a car unless you have proof of registration.

@tbax929: Aren't the PA stickers on the license plate itself? The NY ones are in the window so it could partly be the heat is making the glue fail more often.

Here in TN, I still have a New Jersey 1996 new vehicle inspection sticker on the cracked windshield of my 1996 rattling catalytic converter equipped Dodge Dakota. The sticker has faded some but never peeled off so that was some good adhesive...

Inspection? Meh.

@Spaceman Bill Leah: Service stations usually have a nifty special tool, I know from my years of Cook County super-stickers.

@gover57:

Googone is just repackaged lemon oil at four times the price.

You'd think they'd be able to run your plate to see if you passed safety and emissions. Wouldn't that make sense?

Then all the meter maid would have to do is scan the VIN and license plate to verify the plates are on the right vehicle, and the database would tell if everything was kosher.

@lawnmowerdeth: ... and the other drivers, and the pedestrians, and your own dumb self? Sure, they check for emissions with most state's inspections, but they also check things like lights, brakes, emergency brakes, functional suspension, horn...

@andrewe: I get my googone at the dollar store (and it's not a tiny bottle either)... where can I get it for $0.25?

This is the first time I've heard of the inspection sticker failing to stick. Usually it's the registration sticker next to it. In most states, this is a little colored sticker that goes on the license plate, but nooooooooooooo. New York has to be different. New York has to have this scannable bar code crap on its sticker, so it has to go in the window.

Still, I have lived in some part of New York State since 1993, and I have been re-sticking these for most of this time using Scotch tape, which hasn't failed me yet. I bet the problem has to do with whoever's brother in law was given the contract to produce these things. FAIL. Epic FAIL.

@Jakuub: don't forget mirrors. since i am assuming there aren't humans with eyes on the back and sides of their head. in NH if we fail the safety portion, we're technically not allowed to drive the car until the problem is repaired. Emissions we have 30 or 60 days to fix.

@winstonthorne: although scotch tape won't really work if you have a car prone to internal condensation

@deeness: Which brings up a common argument the opponents of health care reform have offered, namely that you wouldn't want your health insurance run by the same people who run the DMV. Well duh. The DMV is run by the state government, not the federal government. State government agencies vary very widely in quality, to say the least. It is therefore even more ironic that some opponents of health care reform who don't want to be outed as such have suggested allowing the states rather than the federal government to administer whatever "public option" comes out of Congress. I don't have to tell you that's a recipe for disaster.

@Xerloq: but i'm certain there's still a code stating that the inspection sticker must be visible or something like that.

I've never had a problem with registration or inspection stickers falling off. They've all needed a mechanic with a razor blade. And any removable stickers I've ever had have stayed on fine and come off easily.

How f*cking hard can it be for a vendor to find and use glue that sticks? Didn't they do any quality testing before selling their stuff to a state government?

All they need to do is call the street sweeper meter maids who put those fluorescent green "Shame on you!" stickers on your car. Those things stay on forever!

@AlexJP: You're not alone. My 2010 Massachusetts sticker has almost completely faded since I got it two months ago.

@Veeber: If our stickers can last a year or two in the TX heat (new cars get a 2-year inspection, once a year after that) I'd think they can make one that would stick through a NY summer.