euro invasion

Has anyone noticed a growing number of cars with European plates in the US? Living in a tourist-based community, we get all kinds of people passing through town, and I always find it interesting when I see long rectangular European-styled license plates hanging off of BMW's or Audi's. I'm curious. Are we having a European insurgence or has the cost of importing automobiles just dropped?

The first guess is unlikely. The US has done anything but win favor with our European brethren, thanks to our invented war on Iraq. Why would they want to move here now? The second guess could be hitting closer to home, but doesn't the US require cars to be registered with American plates when entering American roadways?

Then I ran across a company listed at PPP that seems to have explained the Euro Plates phenomena. Custom European Plates sells custom embossed Euro-style plates for your Porsche, BMW, or Audi. Whether you're looking for an "Oh, Lord" for your Mercedes or a "farfignewton" for your Volkswagen, you can write your own plate on their website and have it professionally produced for your import. You can even include German letters like Umlauts, for that authentic Kraut look.

Then you can mount your new euro plate to the front of your car (but keep your *real* plate on the back, or you'll make the local law unhappy), and you can cruise around small Ozark tourist towns to fool the silly hillfolk into thinking that you are straight out of Europe.