Front license plate in CA

I have the clamp-on quick release from Plate Clips. Installed in seconds and released in seconds and it's very durable.

 

We have just the solution for you (ignore that the link says 488):

Carbonio Performance - Ferrari 488 No-Drill Plate Mount

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1gfvWasNIxY[/ame]

 

I drove in California for 45 years and never had a car with a front license plate. I don't know how many times I was pulled over and it never came up in conversation.

 

In California it is purely a fix it ticket. Used to cost nothing but no longer. I got pulled over, yes actually pulled over, for not having a front plate about 4 years ago. Cost me $25.

 

I have a Stow n Show mount for my 308 and my scud. They cost like $50, can be mounted with double-sided tape under the bumper, and look/work great. I keep my front plate in the trunk but put it on when I park on the street when you're most likely to get a ticket. Takes 5 seconds to mount or dismount. Great solution.

 

I think things are getting a bit more complicated in the modern world as camera-based plate readers for parking patrols and freeway toll systems become more prevalent.

In the last 10 years, my wife was cited in the San Francisco Bay Area for not having a front license plate on her Honda Pilot and my daughter was cited in San Diego for not having a front plate on her (/my) Honda Accord. Both where while the vehicles were parked. As was already mentioned, both were low fee "fix it" tickets (but more than $25!) requiring a cop sign-off after the plate had been replaced (and both also required getting new plates since the front plate had been lost).

I have the original rear California blue plate on my Ferrari. I also have the original front plate still in the original DMV envelope. It is 34 years old and has never been mounted on the car. So far so good. If I get a fix-it ticket, I will mount the front plate, get a cop to sign-off and then pay the fine (and probably remove the plate again).

 

I've been driving in SOCAL since I got my license back in 1975.
Eight cars and not a one of them has a front plate.
One ticket in all those years. $10 fine (IIRC) after a cop signed off.

That said, I do carry the front plate inside all of them.
The very few times I've been stopped, I explain that I took it off for a car show, and either going/coming/or forgot. Never been an issue.

It's probably had more to do with how I say it than what I say - with respect and contrition.

 

Exactly. In about 20 years I have been pulled over at least once a year with no tickets. Some of those for going way too fast in a Ferrari with no plates.

 

It depends on where you get pulled over or park. Beverly Hills goes through their parking garages looking for front license violations. In their city it's a fix it ticket with proof of correction via mail.
West Hollywood also frequently gives the ticket while parked, they also also proof of correction by mail.
I think it was Encino where I got a ticket, and proof of correction was only by CHP. The CHP officer wrote me up for tinted windows when I showed up with the corrected plate.

 

I have a factory bracket. Holes are actually under the bumper so not visible if bracket is removed. I personally think it looks good and is a good solution. Avoids parking tickets and once less reason to be pulled over.

 

Ohio is a 2 plate state as well. In just the last week or so a bill to go to one plate was shot down again in the state legislature due mostly to the law enforcement lobby.

Here in Cincinnati the metro area covers 3 states, two of which are one plate states so I don't stand out at all. Of course there is that new cop just out of the academy and looking to flex his/her new muscles.

I have seen a few people with removable front plates mounted on a slide out bracket much like a scaled down trailer hitch receiver.

 

+1 have never had a front plate and have never had an issue...don't bother

 

While it's true that the police are not likely to give you a ticket for no front plate, the parking meter people often give tickets for cars parked in the street without front plates. So, it's good to have a front plate you can tack on for such circumstances.

Also, I'll note that I was speeding once on Mulholland and was flagged down by a cop standing in the road. He couldn't prove that I was speeding so he couldn't give me a speeding ticket, but he tried to give me a ticket for no front plate. Fortunately, I had just moved to CA and had GA plates on the car (GA doesn't require front plates), so he couldn't do anything.

 

Times are defiantly changing. I am hearing more and more of people in California who went ages without a ticket now getting multiple no front license plate citations. While some are from a police officer stopping them many are from parking infractions. In other parts of the US electronic toll collection is an issue for infraction and I can only see it getting worse.

 

Love California, but moved to AZ. No Smog (76 308), no front plates, and gas is cheaper. AZ is a great place to live and there is no fuss.

 

Yup. Been in CA 18 years. Only 1 ticket for not having a front plate, and that was while parked in the long term lot at LAX. Sitting duck for the city tax collector, er, parking enforcement.

 

I made my own with a hammer, screwdriver for a form mandrel and a bench-top vise. I made one set for another 308 buddy about 2yrs ago... easy to make another set if you don't want to buy the Carbonio one.
Carbonio Performance - License Plate Mounts

My cobbled together one:
http://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/308-328-sponsored-yellow-compass-group/474285-removable-front-license-plate-clip-2.html

Its comes off super quickly for when I go to a concours event and need to remove the plate.

 

I still don't plan on mounting a front plate, but I am puzzled about something ...

It looks to me like the space between the two front "fangs" on a US-spec bumper is designed to fit the smaller North America style license plate.

Why are there no solutions to mount a plate there?

 

Going on 11 1/2 years of ownership without ever putting the front plate on, not even once but I do have the front plate mounted on the "PlateClips" ready to go in my trunk just in case.
My 308 lived with me in NorCal for two years, lived with me in Central Cal for three years and lived with no here in SoCal for eight years and counting without ever getting pulled over. "Knock on Wood"

 

private email sent. Are the steel or aluminum?

 

I've never had a plate on any of my cars here in S. Cal. I did have a CHP hop into his car on the side of the hwy S bound I5 near Laguna saw him put on his lights lights I was going 60mph in the slow lane with no traffic (weekday @ 10am) SUV's flying by me and he pulled me over JUST for not having a front plate nothing else. Thank God he was able to address this obvious massive breach of law and save the world on his shift.

It was a $25 fix-it ticket I just temporarily doubled side taped the plate to my front bumper, hit the local sheriff's dept here to get it signed off tore the plate off there in the parking lot and tossed it with my spare tire.

I figure it's cost me $.70/year in maybe 1.2M miles to not have an ugly plate up there

 

At the risk of sounding naive, are there any drivers organizations, petrol head foundations, motorist activist groups pushing back against these unnecessary laws? $10, $25, $125 is probably just a mild irritant in the Ferrari ownership world, but this is more about principal than anything else. Over aggressive smog, silly boutique gas blends, homeland security crushing classic cars. Some of you may like photo radar, stop light cams, over the top CARB restrictions, that's fine. Just looking for an advocate on the other side for some balance.

 

I live in (extreme) Northern Calif., (we consider San Francisco as Southern California) and being rural, we are not bothered much except as an excuse to pull you over after a dinner outing. I have considered the "hot rod" solution of a disappearing plate that electronically slides up horizontally, and also my old stand-by solution of mounting it up behind the bumper so that it is barely seen. For now, I will leave it in the pouch behind the passengers seat and hope for the best.


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I guess I just don't see this as a big deal. Now if you had a few glasses of wine at dinner and were driving home not having a front plate is an excuse for a LEO to pull you over . Then how much of a big deal is a DUI/DWI.