Re: Front Plates

[SMILLER@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx]

Duane philosophizes about front license plates:

>Date: Tue, 25 Aug 1998 20:21:01 -0400
>From: DuaneCollie <drcollie@domain.elided>
>Subject: M3 Plate on the Front
>
>Do what I do...say the hell with it and don't run the front plate (big ole
>sheeet-eatin' grin).  Nuthin' ruins the look on the front end of an M3
>faster than stickin' an ugly-assed license plate on the bow of the car.
>Ya gotta be keeeewwwwwwllllllll. ...
>
>Haven't run a front plate on mine in 2 years.  No problems. But you do
>need to carry the plate in the trunk. If you get stopped - tell the cop the
>truth ("ahhhh...Officer, it looks like dawg-crap, dontcha think?"....) and
>he'll be cool and let you on your way if you show 'em you have the
>front tag in your possession - they want to make sure you aren't
>splitting tags.
>
>Duane Collie
>Tagless in Front, evermore
>Wanton violator of THE LAW
>National Capital Chapter

And I chime in - Duane, I used to run front plate-less here in CA, where
fix-it tickets used to be free.  I did this because of all the idiots and
n'er-do-wells that use the park-by-crash technique, making your
once-straight front plate look even more like (how did you say it?)
dawg-crap (all bent and mangled) than when the DMV sent it to you.

Then, some years ago, the voters, against my advice, passed something
known the world over as Proposition 13, which limits how much property
taxes the Gumm'nt can take from you.  Municipal revenues shrank, and
ever since then, cities and counties have been inventing new ways to
earn back the missing revenue (and then some).  So now fix-it tickets,
like missing front license plates, cost you a small bundle.

I'm not willing to risk having to pay the fine just to make my car look a little
better, so I put on the plates.  Of course, I don't own one of them pretty
E36 rolling sculptures, I'm pretty much stuck a generation back in one of
them E30 boxes, so maybe I'd think differently if my car looked nice...

And, somehow, I figure that if I just told the local cops that "Bubba Duane
says...", that it won't get me too far.

So how many other states make you pay $ for no front plate?

Scott Miller
Golden Gate Chapter
BMW CCA #44977
1990 325i/is hybrid

------------------------------

End of bmw-digest V9 #115
*************************