Except that’s exactly how it works in many states. If you want to keep your personalized plate, you have to jump through hoops, but it defaults to go with the car in the two states I’ve lived in.
Interesting, it's actually not allowed in the 3 states I've registered a car in. In NJ, they wouldn't even allow transferring a regular plate from our old volvo (registered in my dad's name) to our new town and country (registered in my mom's), because they were owned by different people as far as the state was concerned.
