After decades of driving various european cars without a front license plate, I finally got a ticket. $155 USD.

The officer was professional and polite, but had no interest in how I was trying to preserve the clean lines of a fine automobile.

I will go search the older threads on this subject, but if anyone has a workable "temporary" fix let me know. If I show them I have one attached, the fine is reduced to $10 and the ticket erased.

 

When I saw the post I figured it must be California where the probability of getting a ticket for some niggling infraction is proportional to the lack of revenue due to corruption and mismanagement of our confiscated money--in other words pretty high over the last few years.

Doug

 

hey #4, can you tell me if it was a local officer(and which municipality, if so) or a State trooper? That's bad news if the DPS is cracking down on that type of 'violation'. I've avoided tickets in mine, and I've been pulled over maybe 3 or 4 times various things since I've had it (going on 6 yrs now)...and its never had a front plate on her, nor gotten any indication of the DPS's concern for one.

 

Yeah, the city here is low on funds too.

I actually got two tickets. He was ready to do a third one until I found the current insurance card (first one I gave him was just out of date by 3 weeks). He got out of the car with ticket #1 already written, so I think he started out in a bad place.

 

It was a local officer, city of Carrollton. I have been skipping this Texas law for years myself. He stopped me for running a stop sign (said I did a rolling stop) and I guess he just decided to maximize his time.

 

I am tempted to get one of the license plate hidden mounts like this one:
But I am a bit concerned about what happens on the occasions when I grind the bottom of the nose on some incline or parking curb.

Right now my front plate is located in my trunk. "Gee officer, I just got these plates and can't find the correct mounting bracket, but here's my plate." So far I haven't had to deal with it.

 

That one nice thing about North Carolina---but I don't think they would appreciate by other plate.

 

You know in texas you can now use many differant custom ones. Including the long skinny ones. I ve seen several in black now at work on jags and they fit nicely in the lower grill area. As long as the numbers are there and it says texas its legal.....

 

Interesting. I'll have to look into that. Thanks for the info.

 

I have an Altec remote control license plate bracket and I love it. When I'm out in the country (where cops have other things to worry about) or out of state (as I am now), I have it retracted. When I go into Dallas, I just hit the remote control and I’m all legal. It cost a little over $100 and I think it was well worth it. As far as hitting curbs, I have scraped it a couple of times but nothing serious and no damage; you just need to be careful. Also, I plan to buy WhiteXKR's front parking sensor mod when it comes out this fall/winter.

Mark

 

Interesting reading about the Texas law.
You might want to print this out and call a lawyer???
Ask the judge about the EXACT law you violated????

See the attached .pdf

bob gauff

 

I live about 10 miles from the South Dakota border and my girlfriend lives in South Dakota. I've never had any trouble with the Minnesota police, even when pulled over for other offenses, but I've been pulled over twice in South Dakota and given warnings for no front plate. I'm still running without one. I just am extra vigilant when I go into SD (except when I go to Sioux Falls, since the police there don't seem to care either). The funny thing is, I actually bought my car in South Dakota with no front plate bracket.

 

The front license plate thing seems to be one of those bonehead decisions that some politician made once upon a time for some reason and since the law is there on the books it will never go away. Same for daylight running lights. If there is some important reason to have lights on during the day in the front of the car and also to have a license on the front of the car, why not follow this to the obvious conclusion that it would also make sense to have a light string and license plates along the sides of the car as well?

Doug

 

Actually in researching this for loopholes, it turns out the lights along the side are required. Your side markers must be in working order. Never had anyone check those, but it is on the books.

You must get new plates every 5 (6?) years in Texas as the reflective material on the plate wears off. This makes it difficult for the police to read *cough*radar*cough*.

 

Can a cop in one state actually give you a ticket for violating the laws of another state? I would have thought that answer would be no.

Mark

 

There must be revenue shortfalls through DFW, I have seen City of Grapevine and Southlake all over the place, the road right by my house has just been wided to 4 lanes w/median, but they kept the speed limit at 30mph.

Sounds to me this was a "while I am at it” for the ‘Rolling Stop’ (I hate that term)

This is interesting b/c I am contemplating putting a UK Style plate (with my TX Tag #) on the front - I have lost count of the number of cars we have had over the years with no plate on the front, and nothing has happened, but as I sit here and think about it any of my stops (for speeding and rolling stop sign) have been in cars w/front plates attached.

I don't know if its true, but its my understanding the reason TX requires front license plates (unlike say Louisiana) is b/c its a border state and the border patrol has to be able to see from the front that is is an American can.

 

Utah requires a front plate as well. I have one on my X Type but not on the XK8 (no mounting bracket). Haven't been stopped yet.

 

What I meant was the necessity of having ANY lights on during the daytime, let alone the front ones. If you have a problem seeing a car coming your way in the daytime, your problem is probably beyond what daytime running lights will provide. I fully agree that in dusk or foggy conditions, it is wise to have some lights on. But here in sunny SoCal having lights that are on all of the time is idiotic. If a case can be made for these, then surely a case can be made for having lights on all around the car at all times. For that matter, a good case could be made for pedestrians to be wearing daytime running lights as well so that drivers can see them better.

Doug

 

Good question. I'm inclined to think no, but one of my warnings was a written one. The first time the officer said, "Minnesota, like South Dakota, is a front plate state, so you'd better put one on."

This is what I got the second time I was stopped (with my address and License number removed):

 

I live in Illinois where front license plates are mandatory. There was a bill in our legislature to eliminate this law 2 years ago - it was tabled for further "study" - yea, right! It would save our state $800,000./yr not to have these stupid plates. I tried a retractable front plate assembly .... worked fine until I about scraped it off on a cement bumper stop & a dip in the road. My XK8 is much too low to accomodate one of these. So instead of mounting the plate normally on the 2 bumperetts in the grill, I chose to get another plate mounting device that I think is used on the sedans(???) The plastic plate holder has a slight curved top that almost conforms to the bottom "lip" of the grille opening. I screwed the plate holder, which is now mounted much lower, onto the plastic grille lip. Used 2 flat screw nuts to back the mounting screws to give it support & then installed my Illinois plate on the holder. Looks a whole lot better than mounting the plate in the center of the grille. It has a slight downward & backward angle so it's profile is not as obvious. Source of the plastic plate holder was local Jag dealer.