Cutting front plate?
 

I got two "plates not properly mounted" tickets for $196 each. Back in August and beginning of this month. I had the front plate on my dash.

I trimmed my plate so it just shows the british columbia and the numbers... since the full plate looks really bad on my bumper.


Just wondering if I should run into any problems with a customized front plate.

Depends on how anal the officers are. Technically, the plates are the property of ICBC and not yours, so...

I've seen some people scan the plates and put a vinyl sticker of them on the front (a ferrari and a couple Lambos), and honestly the fine for no plate ($89? $137?) is less than improperly mounted, so...

Cutting, bending or folding your plate is illegal.

My front plate is cut and I've never had any problems whenever I'm stopped by officers. This is a really, really minor thing. They just see that the front plate is attached and visible on my bumper and that's fine.

The Police can seize any plate they find being "misused" and return it to ICBC, the plate's owners. I know of defaced plates that were seized...you "rent" them from ICBC, they are not "your" plates.

I've run into some road blocks where the cops don't even mention anything about my plate. A couple of times I had NO front plate at all, not even on my dash.
So as long as its there on the front, regardless.. I assume 95% of cops will make it fly? I would assume so.

basically what I've done:
http://img268.imageshack.us/img268/3111/img0369db.jpg




edit: btw, the tickets I got were for $196... not that cheap.

Maybe it's just me but a clean, non-trimmed, non-bent license plate looks a lot better than a hack job plate.

Considering that one deliberatly alters a plate for strictly aesthetic reasons, you either leave it as is and accept the consequences or leave the plate alone altogether.

Again, maybe it's just me.

wow that's really cutting it close (no pun intended). most of the ones i've seen just have a bit of the bottom portion cut off/folded backwards to look better and to fit license plate brackets better. one could argue that they can't tell if the center letter is an F or an E from a bit of a distance

generally, police at roadblocks are looking for impaired drivers, not small things like no front plates or whatever so they'll usually just let you off since they're pursuing bigger crimes. i could easily see a cop pulling you over for that plate because of how small you cut it

but there's no going back since you've already done it, so i guess try it out for a few months and see what happens? you likely won't get hassled as often as you would if you didn't run a front plate at all, but you're likely going to get hassled more than the guy who just has a bit of the lower portion cut or folded

Options to consider...keep driving with for the cut plate and risk seizure of both plates, a fine and the cost of replacing them both...or spend what..$15-$20?? and get new ones. Just a further thought, it is llegal to drive a car without plates being displayed on it and you might also find yourself paying for a tow job as well.You choose, you accept the consequences.

Prohibition
3.01 A person must not drive or operate a vehicle on a highway unless displayed on it are

(a) number plates in accordance with this Division, and

x2

The hack job the OP has done looks like ass. A plate frame would look better than that hack job.

Something like this? http://i01.i.aliimg.com/photo/v0/494...e_Frame_So.jpg

Doesn't mean it's not still illegal - it may be a minor concern that cops won't bother with MOST of the time... but as zulu has pointed out, they're also entirely within the law to seize your plates and have your car towed, in addition to nearly $200 in fines. You get a cop who's bored and has lots of time on his hands... or has had a crappy day... or you give him attitude... or you have a bunch of other illegal ricey mods... and you may find he decides to apply the full extent of the law. (At which point you come back to RS to complain about what a douche the cop was and how we live in a police state, etc. etc.)

Which is exactly why I have my front plate mounted. I want to give the cops as few reasons as possible to pull me over.

There's lots of ways to mount a full plate and make it look tasteful, no need for hack jobs.

Tow my car because of a cut license plate? The chances of that are almost 0% so I'm willing to risk it.

Yes, I know it is illegal. I actually only cut it to fit my previous car and never bothered changing it because I like the numbers and its never been a problem. If a cop ever hassles me about that I'll gladly spend the $18 to fix it but like I said... probably never going to happen. It helps that my car is stockish too and the plate isn't ghetto cut at all. I've been driving almost 4 years with that license plate and not one cop mentioned it. You make it seem like cops are out to get us when most of the time they are actually quite reasonable.

As zulu says, you are REQUIRED to display the proper plates... if the plates are bent or cut, they can be seized... and with NO plates, your car is not allowed on the road... thus, it would have to be towed.

If you do end up with that almost-0% $200 fine and tow charge, you'll sure be wishing you'd just taken the $18 new-plate option and been done with it.

I believe Sami Salo's GTR sports a trimmed front plate.

I didn't ask if you guys like my plate or not, just asking if I should be a problem with the 5 O.
I filled the edges down so it looks normal, not seen in that pic.

I take it that it should be fine. They would probably be more interested in the other illegal mods.

ok I got my answers..
/thread

Didn't we answer that?

Yes, it's illegal. Will you have a problem? Maybe, maybe not. Consequences could range anywhere from a warning to a big fine and a tow.

How much of that is a "problem" is up to you.

Keep in mind that any one thing may be enough to attract attention, which would make a cop more likely to discover those other mods. The plate may be the only one that's readily visible, but it could still be enough to get his interested piqued and lead him to look deeper, finding the other mods.

But if $18 is too much to pay to help avoid that possibility, well...

Sami Salo can also pay as many god damn ticket he wants with the money he earns and won't complain about it.

Don't think this is the case here.

And IIRC, it's not actually trimmed. Its actually a sticker.

Also, there are roadblocks where the police look for a lot of things on the car. I went through roadblocks where the first thing the officer did was shine a light and look at my front end to make sure I had plates and no illegal lights or reflectors. I actually had clear side reflectors on my car which I swapped back to amber that afternoon. I was lucky cause that was one of the first things he looked for.

You hit one of those types of roadblocks and they'll probably say or do something regarding a cut front plate.

Good point.

The RCMP setup on the Shell onramp to hwy 99 and do random inspections, and luckily I've driven through them several times without being pulled over. I deleted those amber reflectors from my car by using European parts (no side markers required in Europe), so its hard to tell they are missing unless a similar car is right beside. I ditched the stock parts long ago - so I wouldn't want to give the officers a reason to pull me over with something as obvious as a plate and then start looking for the not so obvious things.

As Soundy already said about making your car a target for Police attention...

WHAT IS YOUR BIRTHMARK? Gary Larson, creator of...

could always run a towhook license plate :)

i got pulled over twice before on 2 different cars with folded front plates and all i said is, its not cut its just folded and they let me go.

bumping an old thread, since this thread was made how many people have been driving with a cut/bent front license plate and how many have been hassled? Considering slightly modifying mine to fit overtop of a german license plate

I ran a cut front plate for a while, never had any problems. Also ran no front plate and never had any problems. Also ran two different plates and never had any problems.