Frankly I don't know how this guy stays in business. He's got a two digit dealer number, so he either has been around a long time or he's got clout. Dealer numbers in Illinois are like all other things concerning license plates, a function of seniority and clout.
(In Illinois, dealers get a master number and have to buy a minimum of 4 duplicates, labeled with the master number followed by A, B, C and D. Illinois has been issuing dealer plates since 1912 with the same numbering system since at least 1936. The last major change was in 1959 when dealer plates lost the 'DEALER' legend where the slogan was on car plates, and got D/L off to the left. No major changes since then. There are over 7000 dealers in Illinois, so a two digit number is hard to come by.)
In some other states, when someone purchases a dealership, they can "inherit" the dealer plate number, or open numbers may be recycled after a while. I suspect that this may be the case here. For example, Toyota's Chicago Region has MFR plate #13 and they certainly have not been around as long many other dealers.
Perhaps if the dealer is Kankakee, connections with the former governor or even the current Speaker of the House help in the clout dept?
He's had that dealer number under that name since 1990 at least, so probably. But I still don't know how he stays in business. The service dept is just as stuck up, they don't want to work on your Toyota unless you bought it there. Most every one here either goes down to Champaign or up to the various Chicago dealers for a better deal and better service. I've even complained to Toyota about these guys.
Oddly enough I don't think they had MFR plates until 1948. The reason I say that is the original #1 was Preston Tucker. MFR plates were not like dealer plates. The 50 plates for Tucker were 1-1 through 1-50. I don't know what year they switched over to letters. I would have thought that #1 would have been Ford if they'd gone back much further.
I also think the reason they went to numbers for MFR plates is that there were only single letters on dealers until sometime in the 50's/60's I remember seeing a dealer with AC as a suffix when I was a little kid in Chicago, but only once when our neighbors were using a dealer car because theirs was in the shop. That was over a period of 5 years.
As for clout. Denny Hastert has no clout with the License Plate Dept. Clout is strictly a function of the State government level. There are a lot of low numbers around here, but I live half a block from Georgie. Once you get a low number, it's nearly impossible to lose it. Many of the low numbers around here are still FOG's, despite the fact Jessie White has had the office of Secretary of State for 7 years now. The local museum has a corner for all 3 governors from Kankakee. Len Small (indicted), Sam Shapiro, and of course, Georgie. Len Small also had a lot of influence on low numbers, since he also was Secretary of State durning the teens when Illinois was first issuing numbers. The best connections for low numbers have always been directly with the Secretary of State's office. During the
90's it was rumored if you wanted to get a really good number, you had to not only contribute the 'standard' fee, but also a check to the Ryan for Governor campaign. But the statute of limitations has probably run out on those.
It is a violation of a dealer's franchise agreement to refuse to service a Toyota just because it wasn't purchased at the dealership. Of course, they can have creative scheduling conflicts, etc.
The 2 character alpha suffix is just because there may be more than 26 plates issued to a dealer or manufacturer. For example, my suffix in Mass was ARM so my plate was 7_ _ AR
Illinois seems to have a penchant for indictable governors. Besides the 2 you mentioned, there was Walker.
OK, I go to license plate meets here and have not yet seen a two letter suffix on an older dealer before the 60's. I have tons after 1990. I know they could have, they apparently just didn't.
You forgot Otto "Let's Go to the Races" Kerner. I still swear Shapiro got indicted for something, somewhere along the way. Small beat the rap and if Shapiro was indicted, he beat the rap, too. So that would make 3 for 3 on Kankakee governors. The Kankakee State Mental Hospital got renamed the Shapiro Developmental Center. Some honor, eh? They've got an entire park named after Len Small, that's where the museum is. Wonder what they'll do for Ryan. We get some wierd honors in this state. There used to be something called the Willam C Rogers memorial drainage ditch up near Lake Cook road. (I think it was named after Nixon's first secretary of state or something.) How about the George Ryan Memorial Gambling Casino?
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