As of version 8.XXX of the Valet Manager app, the vehicle search/damage lookup occurs only if a vehicle has 6 or more characters in the license plate field.
The system will retrieve the stored color, make, license plate, and damage screen for vehicle entries that meet this criteria.
This new behavior is designed to prevent "duplicate" vehicle profiles where partial license plate entries would cause the system to have a conflict. For example, two gray Hondas with the same 3 digit entry would cause the system to hang when saving the second vehicle entry.