A poster to Yahoo’s TakomaDC group generated some traffic yesterday when she asked people how they get old DMV registration stickers off their windshields. “Is it just a matter of huge quantities of patience with a utility knife?” she wondered. “These things are a bear!”

Another poster forwarded the following tip, which someone else had sent her a few years back when she’d faced the same problem:

I have had some success with this method. I use a product called Goo Gone (you can get it at CVS or a supermarket). It’s an oily liquid that smells like citrus. I make a pad out of a couple of paper towels and saturate it with the stuff. Then I squirt a lot of the liquid on the sticker itself. I tape the pad to the sticker, so the sticker is soaking in the stuff. I leave it overnight, then leave the car in the sun for about an hour so the sticker warms up. You still have to scrape, but at least it comes off.

I think the DC DMV needs to consult with NASA. If they used the same glue on the tiles on the space shuttle, they wouldn’t have any problems. It’s almost indestructable.

That didn’t keep more advice from pouring in yesterday. Try outsourcing, suggests another poster:

I normally go to a gas station where they have great scrapers for taking off such stickers. It usually takes one of the mechanics less than 2 minutes to get the entire sticker off – I tip them a few bucks and I’m on my way!

Recommends another poster:

You can also try rubber cement thinner. The major brand name is “Bestine” and can be found in any art or arts & crafts store. Essentially you soak the sticker in Bestine and then scape it off. The process takes several minutes, versus the overnight soaking with Goo Be Gone.

I don’t own a car, so I don’t get what the big deal is. Can any drivers out there shed light on this? Just how stubborn are those stickers?