Why are states obsessed with front license plates?

Revenue.  I never had one on the front in California until I got a ticket while parked in the garage at SFO airport while traveling.  I guess they had idle time and decided to walk the garage to pick up some easy money writing tickets.

In reply to John Welsh :

Thats frustrating, My car is a 95 but build date of 11/93 

Professor_Brap said:

In reply to John Welsh :

Thats frustrating, My car is a 95 but build date of 11/93 

Really? 

If title says model year of 1995 then it will be 2020 before you can get Historical Plates 

Born and raised in ohio. I never ran a front plate, pulled over too many times to count and it was never brought up. My girlfriend, now wife, drove off the new car lot with her brand new car and got pulled over within two blocks for no front plate. 

Also here in Texas we have stupid registration stickers on the windshield. Tiny little square things. A state trooper passed me going the other way on a 75mph road turned around and pulled me over because he saw the sticker was expired. I'm pretty sure he could read the license plate number if he can see that tiny little sticker.

In reply to Nick Comstock :

Aren't those stickers color coded by year? That's how they do our windshield inspection stickers here, and every now and then someone will get popped by a chip going the other way. 

I shall chalk it up to the same level of bullE36 M3 as "your tires looked bald" for a seatbelt check when traveling in a 55 zone. 

In reply to RevRico :

No they are all blue and white and only have the month and year on them. I asked my state trooper neighbor later that day if the had plate readers that could tell if the registration was out of date and he said no, some guys are just that good. Said he couldn't do it but his supervisor was notorious for picking them out going the other way. 

Daylan C said:

In reply to Rusnak_322 :

So how often I wonder do these cops that rely on that go to pull somebody over for no front plate than see, just for example, my Kentucky plate on the back of the car and realize they have nothing?

I wonder if that was why my mom was pulled over and given a warning in the DC/NoVA area on their way up to New York with Florida plates. She told she was driving with traffic possibly in a pack so its my assumption that the cop chose the one car without a front plate. Then saw it was from Florida and gave them a warning afterwards. 

Patientzero said:

-By how defensive you are with that post I'm assuming you're in law enforcement?

Not even remotely.  I just think you're kind of being a dick about this.

I do not know if this is still true, but 10 years ago and more states with two license plates got more matching highway funds from the federal government. Glad I live in PA, but have been pulled in NJ for no front plate. Cop then apologized! He was pedestrian and waved us over.

Shouldn't this be in the Minor Rants thread?

WonkoTheSane said:

That's an automated license plate scanner, which will instantly notify police just driving around a parking lot or along the street at normal speed whether you have unpaid registration, insurance, warrants out against you, etc.  

If someone hasn't paid for their registration or insurance, or they have warrants, I have no problems at all with the police stopping them. 

Pay your bills (especially your insurance, so when you run into me there will be coverage), and don't commit crimes.

As for the police spending time driving around parking lots, they may do that elsewhere but I've never witnessed it here - I think they're generally too busy doing other stuff.

I'd just as soon not have a front plate on my cars either but that's purely for aesthetic reasons, so it's not really a compelling argument.  There are much bigger things to worry about.

Never understood criticism of cops doing their job and believe me I don't like obnoxious cops.  It's when the E36 M3 hits the fan and they don't do their job we should be complaining.

Back on topic it doesn't bother me here in my thankfully non-state.

What bothers me being from Europe is that the tags don't stay with the car for it's lifetime but have to be surrendered upon sale.  I'm sure there are good reasons for it however.

And if we're gonna complain about laws direct them towards the politicians.  They're the ones that write them or at least allow the bureaucrats to write them. 

Not only does NC not hae any front plates, but I see people who apparently moved her driving with their NC rear plate and an out of state plate on the front.

I'm pretty sure that's a big no-no

Since Kentucky is not a front plate state, many people here have custom plates on the front, and since UK Basketball ranks just below Jesus with much of the commonwealth, many of them are UK plates. One of which, looks like a real plate but it says "I AM 4 UK"

That is a real plate with those letters, it belongs to a man in Corbin, and they're on his 57 Chevy.

He's gotten numerous, and I mean numerous, parking tickets in the mail where someone was in a two plate state parked illegally, and the cop didn't think to check to see if the plates matched, and wrote the ticket to the fake plate.

I caught the story on the local news a few years ago, I might be able to find it.

In reply to BoostedBrandon :

True story on the 57... And because of government, he is not allowed in many states because of those tickets he did not legally incur.

Patientzero said:

-In many cases adding a front license plate screws up aerodynamics and cooling which in turn hurts fuel economy

-At least half (not verified) of new cars don't even come with a mount but you still get ticketed for not having one but the manufacturer isn't required to put one on.

Can we please get rid of these? /rant

I'd like to think this is all rhetorical, since this thread has been posted a thousand times in every online car forum, but........

1. The whole aerodynamics argument is such old hat. Sure, if you're driving something ultra-slippery like a corvette....maybe you get a tiny change. But assuming that's your own car in your little profile pic, I hardly think you're personally  concerned with fuel economy anyhow. There are a billion ways America could reduce fuel consumption in vehicles. Front plates aren't the killer here, lol. Giant SUVs, America's love of huge pickups, etc....This is such a lame argument, it's hardly worth arguing at all. Ban SUVs and we can all save 50% in fuel milage, not 0.1% ......

2, Modern cars have cooling capacity well in excess of what they need. A license plate there isn't "screwing anything up. If it were, car companies would just MAKE a license plate holder off to the side in the first place. I've always lived in front-plate states and have yet to have any cooling issues, whether that be in my 1980s car or my brand-new ones, or my tow rig. All have plates in front of the radiator to some degree. 

3. Ironically, almost all major countries that manufacture cars for the US market (Germany, Japan, Korea to name some) require front plates on their cars. The reason some new cars sold in the US market don't have the mounts are 1) because the manufacturers know that not all states require them and 2) because cars sold in different international markets use plates that are different sizes and shapes (see: EU, Japan, Korea, US), so they can't easily make an integrated plate holder that will fit all of them and not look silly.

3a. This isn't new anyhow. Hell, my 1987 Integra had the license plate screwed right into the plastic of the front bumper. Most cars you see at dealers in front-plate states had the brackets installed by the dealer or at the port, not at the factory.

3b. They know that all the wannabe cool people will pay extra money for things like tow-eye plate holders and stuff = more accesory sales money.

4. We all know this argument is all about looks, has nothing to do with all the other BS arguments.

5. I'd love to ditch my front plates. Because they look dumb. Let's all just be honest here about our motivations and not make all the same lame arguments about aero and cooling. 

Now, as to "can WE change this?" Sure, you can. Run for office, write your legislator. Almost every state legislature every year has bills introduced to address this issue, and other things like allowable tint levels. Once the politicians think there is enough support for them, they generally get through eventually. But the reality is that the great majority of normal citizens just don't give a E36 M3 and more than they care what crappy tires are on their appliance cars. Honestly, the only people who complain about it are "car people," and many of them don't even care much if at all. 

In reply to BoostedBrandon :

Is UK Basketball now below Jesus? 

In reply to John Welsh :

Depends on if it's Sunday or not.

In reply to irish44j :

Cooling can be a slight issue on some vehicles.  Look at the newer F-150s.  The boosted ones have the plate frame shifted over to the side instead of centered like the N/A trucks to allow for better airflow to the intercooler. 

rslifkin said:

In reply to irish44j :

Cooling can be a slight issue on some vehicles.  Look at the newer F-150s.  The boosted ones have the plate frame shifted over to the side instead of centered like the N/A trucks to allow for better airflow to the intercooler. 

right, but that's where the manufacturer designed it to be. I was speaking to "intended stock locations" not "wherever people just decide to put it."

I was more talking about the bros in Subarus and Civics who move the plate to the side on a tow hitch bracket because "it looks cool" not because of cooling issues. 

In reply to nutherjrfan :

In Delaware you have the option: tags can go with the car (valid 2-year tags is a great selling point in the beater market) or you can keep them and move them to your new car. They can even be bought and sold independently of the car itself. 

I always liked how Italy did front plates pre-EU. The rear was normal sized, the front was half or less, just enough so that the numbers were legible.

mad_machine said:

I always liked how Italy did front plates pre-EU. The rear was normal sized, the front was half or less, just enough so that the numbers were legible.

If we did that in America, we'd have morons trying to figure out why the small plate won't fit on the back and the big plate won't fit on the front. Or DMV would have to provide an instruction sheet.....

Here in SD they change the color of the registration decals on the plates every year and you can rest assured that the highway patrol officer passing you the other direction has plenty of time to spot the little blip of last year's color before you pass.  

A trooper friend of mine mentioned in passing one time that on a lot of cars the high visibility reflective material on the plate is often more visible than the factory reflectors. In a state where the odds are good that eventually I will be stuck in the snow in a low visibility weather situation maybe the extra reflective material is a good idea. 

I've always loved the painted on the hood tags.