The Truth About Cars With Out-of-State Plates in Montana
Out of state plated cars in Montana are not our enemy. Unless you've had to drive a vehicle with out of state plates recently, you'd have no idea how rudely some Montana residents are behaving towards them. It's disturbing.
Let's cut to the chase - some Montana residents are flat out aggressive to cars with out of state plates, especially California plates. Giving the finger, tailgating, cutting them off, yelling things like "go back home", etc. It's such a terrible, embarrassing look for Montanans.
Here's the thing that these rude idiots aren't thinking about - even though it's not at all cool to treat tourists like crap, but those California plated vehicles might very well be driven by your neighbor. Or me. Or a visiting friend. Whatever. It's not OK to harass cars with out of state plates.
There have been stories online from local Montanans when they found themselves having to drive a car with California plates. What a wake-up call. A recent post in the Facebook community 'Secret Bozeman' read as follows:
"So I’ve had a rental car with California plates for less than 24 hours since my truck is in the body shop, and the amount of hostility I’ve received is unbelievable. I have been yelled at, flipped off, and honked at multiple times for absolutely no reason. As a native of Montana, I’ve never been so ashamed of some of these people."
Not surprisingly, there were nearly 500 responses. We Montanans can't help but chime in about Californians...not matter what the issue. But what WAS surprising? How many respondents had experienced the same thing as the OP. Rental cars around here (for some reason) occasionally have California plates.
Perhaps this was a small wake up call? A shred of enlightenment? A moment of clarity about impulsive bad attitudes? It's worth a few minutes of your time to go to original post and read the responses. I've linked to the FB community above.