Equipment for Safe Driving and Owning a Vehicle: Required and Restricted Equipment, Buying, Title, Registration, Plates, Insurance, Emissions and Disability Parking
Written for aiforu2 as the source for a practice-test bank and the on-device tutor for the Illinois driver's license written exam. The facts follow the official manual; the wording is ours.
Source: Illinois Rules of the Road, Illinois Secretary of State, 2025 edition, chapter 12 "Equipment for Safe Driving" (pp. 93–95) and chapter 13 "Owning a Vehicle" (pp. 96–100).
Required equipment
Driving a vehicle that endangers people or property is illegal. Required and working:
- Brakes: two brake systems with brakes on all wheels; the foot brake stops the car from 20 mph within 30 feet, the emergency or parking brake within 55 feet and holds it on a hill; motor-driven cycles need one brake.
- Headlights: two, on from sunset to sunrise, whenever wipers are needed, and when objects 1,000 feet away cannot be seen; dim high beams 500 feet before meeting and 300 feet before passing a vehicle; motorcycles and mopeds need one headlight showing objects 500 feet ahead, on whenever ridden; no tinted or smoked lenses.
- Taillights: two red lights visible 500 feet behind (one on motorcycles and mopeds).
- Turn signals: front and rear, visible 300 feet, on everything except motorcycles, trailers and semitrailers.
- License plate light: white, making the plate readable from 50 feet, on with the headlights.
- Parking lights: front and rear, required for a vehicle stopped on a highway at night (some towns allow unlit street parking).
- Safety belts: two sets in the front seat; vehicles built in 1965 or later may not be sold or driven without belts.
- Mirror: a rearview mirror showing at least 200 feet behind.
- Windows: approved safety glass, a windshield clear of snow, ice, moisture and distorting defects, no obstructions between the driver and the front or rear glass; no tint on the front windshield except a 6-inch strip along the top.
- Wipers, a horn audible from 200 feet (sirens, whistles and bells only on emergency vehicles), a muffler with no cutouts, bypasses or noise-increasing changes, and front and rear bumpers on vehicles of 9,000 pounds or less and all RVs; the suspension may not lift the body more than 3 inches off the frame nor vary more than 3 inches front to rear.
Restricted equipment
Loads projecting 4 feet or more behind need a red flag by day and a red light visible 500 feet at night or in poor visibility. Backup lights must be white or amber without glare and off when moving forward. One spotlight only, aimed neither left nor more than 100 feet ahead when meeting a vehicle, and no more than four 300-candlepower lights burning. Flashing or moving lights other than signals and hazards, and red lights visible from the front, are for police and designated emergency vehicles only. Running board lights: one per side, white or amber, no glare; cowl or fender lamps: two, white or amber. Studded tires are illegal except for rural mail carriers and holders of disability or Disabled Veteran plates living on unincorporated county or township roads between November 15 and April 1, farm tractors and machinery, and road-building machinery under 10 mph. Televisions or video monitors visible from the driver's seat are prohibited while moving, as is streaming video on a phone. Antique vehicles over 25 years old have special lamp, brake and signal rules. Radar jamming devices are prohibited in every vehicle.
Buying a vehicle
From a dealer, within 20 days the dealer sends the Application for Vehicle Transaction(s), the signed Certificate of Title or Certificate of Origin, and separate payments for title and plate fees and sales tax (which varies by city and county). From a private owner, within 20 days the Secretary of State must receive the application, the title signed in the seller's name, the title and plate fees, and the Vehicle Use Tax with a RUT-50 form: based on the model year when the price is under $15,000, on the selling price at $15,000 or more. From out of state, send the application, fees, the Certificate of Origin (new) or assigned title (used), a Bill of Sale, the registration ID card if transferring plates, and the sales or use tax.
Title, registration and plates
Registration records the vehicle and lets it use the roads; it requires an Illinois Certificate of Title, which proves ownership and is required for every vehicle and mobile home, registered or not. Registration is paid annually, with a $20 late fee more than a month after expiry; passenger vehicles and B-trucks (8,000 pounds or less) pay $151, motorcycles $41, autocycles $71; replacement plates $6 (one) or $9 (two), a replacement sticker $20. The registration ID card must be carried in the vehicle or on you. Passenger vehicles, trucks and vans display two plates, front and rear, with no frame covering information and no plate covers; motorcycles, mopeds, trailers, semitrailers and apportioned buses show one rear plate; truck-tractors and apportioned straight trucks one front plate. When you sell, remove and keep the plates: in Illinois plates stay with the owner, not the vehicle. A Temporary Registration Permit goes where the rear plate would, is valid 90 days (reissuable if plates are late), and is destroyed once the plates arrive.
Renewal: a postcard, email or notice arrives about 60 days before expiry; renew online, by mail, at a facility, by phone, or at some banks, currency exchanges and credit unions; put the sticker on the upper right of the rear plate at once, since an expired sticker can draw a ticket, though an online purchase receipt kept in the car proves registration for 30 days past the old sticker's expiry. Service members returning from a combat mission get the standard fee waived for the next renewal; members serving outside the U.S. in non-combat roles, civilian Armed Forces employees and Defense Department employees have 45 days after return to register or renew. Personalized and vanity plates take at least 45 days. Low-income seniors and disabled persons in the Benefit Access Program get reduced plate fees, one discount a year.
Mandatory insurance
Every vehicle operated in Illinois must carry liability insurance, and owners affirm coverage on each registration renewal. Minimums: $25,000 for injury or death of one person, $50,000 for more than one, $20,000 for property damage. Carry the insurance card (paper or on a phone) and show it to police on request; until a replacement card arrives, a binder, declarations page, certificate or the last payment receipt serves. Enforcement uses random computer checks and tickets, and proof is required at plate renewal. No insurance means fines, no registration renewal, and suspension of both the driving privilege and the registration until proof is shown; lying to renew brings criminal charges. The Illinois Automobile Insurance Plan helps drivers who cannot find coverage.
Emissions and disability parking
Under the Clean Air Act, vehicles in Cook, DuPage and Lake counties and parts of Kane, Kendall, McHenry, Will, Madison, Monroe and St. Clair must pass an IEPA emissions test before registration renewal; tell the Secretary of State if you move out of the area.
Residents with a permanent disability may get disability plates for vehicles titled to them (a household family member may get two sets if the disabled person owns no vehicle; corporations, schools and care homes transporting eligible people may too), and these plates do not exempt the holder from meter fees or time limits. Placards require a physician-certified disability and may be used only when the disabled person is present and getting in or out at the accessible space. Four kinds: the Meter-Exempt Permanent placard, for disabilities that impair access to a meter, which exempts the holder from meter fees and from time limits at meters over 30 minutes; the Permanent placard, which does not; the Temporary placard, for the period the physician sets, up to six months from the Secretary of State or 90 days from a municipality; and the Organization placard for groups giving free transport to disabled persons. Permanent placards expire on the last day of the holder's birth month in 2026, organization placards on April 30, 2026.
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