I envy you guys so much Here in Europe, if you would not have a licence plate on front on your car, you are exactly 1 police car from losing your licence, fee large as fck and sometimes confiscated car. Crazy

 

Europe does seem to have that authoritarian bent to it...probably because of its history of benevolent monarchs, no doubt.

Here in California, the cops don't seem overly-interested in pursuing those without front license plates. Sitting on my front porch one day, I took a survey and found that between 25-30% of cars passing by [sample size approx. 200] did not have their front plates [especially Tesla's where it is closer to 90%].

Both of our cars are sans front plates and have been for many, many years [without issue]. I do ride with the SnS in the trunk, just in case. Rather than come up with some lame excuse, I figured I would just slap it on in the officer's presence and take it off when back in the garage.

 

Two hundred cars passing by your house in a day? That’s absolutely crazy ……

 

Same here in Oz!
No-one but no-one ever drives around here without both rear and front licence plates (we call them number plates here).
And woe betide anyone who dares change any of the numbers or letters with a pen or tape, if you are caught doing that it's lock him up and throw away the key!
It's all about the greed camera revenue.

 

Not really. I live on the main residential street of a small town of about 35K people on the edge of a metro area that has 13M people. It's LA so there are lots of cars.

I would say that [depending on the time of day, of course] 100 cars go by [both ways] every 10-15 minutes.

 

Right. Sounds like an idyllic place to be or not to be.

 

Think of all the accidents that have occurred country-wide involving people driving to inspection stations, probably 90% or more that result in no action necessary. Maybe random inspections would be a better (but still unnecessary) option.
We won't bring up the emissions and wasted fuel that result from those trips to inspection stations.

 

I believe the Europe reason is just because speed cameras. On some cars, like Bugattis or Alfas, the front plates looks ridiculous. At least in italy or swiss, the plates are smaller.
Once someone hit me during parking and I put my front licence inside car behind the front screen. Visible as possible, and I went straight to the garage to fix it. Of course a police stopped me and it was an incredible shitstorm.
.

 

California is a big place [like Texas]. If I wanted to hide out somewhere, there are unlimited opportunities to do so. My street has an enforced 25mph speed limit so it's not like I am living on the 10.

And although the weather here is about the best you can find anywhere [depending on the micro-climate you prefer], and the opportunities to pursue just about anything are still abundant, there are many negatives that are well known. That's why I am in the process of building a home on the Pacific coast in Central America and looking forward to spending a lot of time among incredibly nice, family-oriented people who could care less about politics.

 

Hello all, I am now a proud owner of a 2016 Jaguar F-Type S 3.0 V6 Fully optioned out. She was in a bit of a front end smash but on her way to recovery. I have been finding bits and pieces that have been omitted and neglected when it was previously repaired and bringing her back to original glory. Last week I upgraded to 20" wheels and tires and am now preparing for the dreaded coolant pipe/supercharger coupler replacement job.
Hi GeorgeIII, would you mind posting a picture of the mounting location for your SnS plate holder? I installed mine to the center bolt under the front lip but the plate hangs a bit too low and will drag when exiting my driveway. It definitely looks lower than yours.

 

Another kind of front license plate solution I've used on other cars is this one linked below. You use multiple zip tie loops to secure it to the grille and you can place it wherever you want (the zip ties are not visible after bolting on the front plate). Unfortunately, the SnS plate holder solution does take away some ground clearance based on the factory mounting location it uses.

 

Scratchbuilt,

I will try to get a close up picture for you tomorrow. However, I am sure my S&S is attached as yours. What I wanted was for the plate not to be straight but rather angled upwards so that in the rare instances I use it the airflow would hit the plate and then be directed into the center air duct. What I did was gingerly bend the two long steel rods. I took a heat gun and very slowly bent the rod at the point that it attaches to the plate. I did not risk overdoing it but after some time it bent upwards enough to give me an angle I was happy with.

As I have stated previously, the plate is hardly, almost never, on so I do not worry about it. I also have a Maxton front splitter which means my plate would be even lower than a stock lip. If you look at my photo you will see that the plate is just above the splitter. I am careful with any kind of inclines not because of the plate but because of the splitter.

 

Thanks for the prompt reply, much appreciated. I like the idea of bending the mount a little. I'll see how it goes when I send the splitter out for paint. I am tempted to machine a second notch on the post to give me a second (closer) position to attach the plate. I too leave it in the trunk and having a mounting bracket attached adds to the validity of the "I forgot" explanation when you show a cop how quickly the plate can be attached and removed.

 

That will work….good luck.

 

Oh, you are right! … I have been so foolish, wasting money on cancer screenings, and supporting my school district for putting security measures in place, when the statistics don’t bear out the need for any of it! Somebody better tell Boeing. But in the meantime we need to get everyone on board with a Sto N Sho!!!

 

I've always thought that "Expected Value" is a valuable concept for everyone to be aware of, at least on an intuitive level (all the better if people can learn how to calculate the mean of a distribution though, since I've found that some people lack said intuition).

In other words:
One shouldn't play Russian Roulette just because the odds are good...



On the actual topic of the thread:

In the two years that I've had it, I've yet to scrape with my Sto n Sho.
I do have a precautionary habit of approaching iffy-looking ramps slowly and/or at an angle, however.

 

"Officer, thanks so much for the reminder. You know, I don't get to drive it as much as I'd like, and I always forget I need to put the front plate on it. Luckily, I have it right here in the trunk." Even better if you have it within reach and can stow it on the dashboard before the local constable sidles up to your window.

 

As a long time Boeing stock owner I believe the problem with that once great company evolved from straying from their engineering roots--kinda like DEI influenced manager and executive hiring initiatives. Rather than ensuring the doors, windscreens and whatnot on their airplanes were secure or their landing gear were installed properly, Boeing has gotten to where it's more important that some non-engineering social experiment is in an executive position or on the Board of Directors. Apples and oranges in your argument as I see it.
I do appreciate your lame attempts at analogies, comparing automobile inspections to cancer screenings and school safety measures (whatever they are) however.

 

Not sure how I would explain myself if I got stopped. "seriously officer, I bought it a year ago with the good intentions of installing it, but I just keep forgetting..."

S&S neatly packed with my car bits in the basement, oh well.. dB

 

In CA, it's a simple fix it ticket. I've gotten one in the 25 years that I have not run a front plate, and that was an add on to a parking ticket.

As for inspections, while CA does have Smog inspections every two years (after a grave of 6 years on new cars), they don't check anything else.