EBMCS03

Anyone running European plates in the front along with the US plate in the rear? I assume cops are against it.

What if you make your own Euro Plate? that says ie. CA | XXXXXX where XXXXXX is your plate number and CA indicating your state.

Like so.



Front plate is required here in CA for me but I dont want them. BUT then again I dont want to get stopped for front plate and then also get fix it tickets for other things on the car...

What should I do?

1.) Leave it no front plate
2.) Put the dang plate on and shut up.
3.) Use a Euro plate representing my CA plate.

I figure the Euro one would attract MORE attention than no front plate, but it looks GOOD!

Delta

I was thinking of the same thing. Have euro plates at the front which represents my actual NJ plate. But knowing how strict cops are, it will probably never work for me .

saurabh

If you have a Euro front plate then you must have a Euro back plate also...otherwise it will looks weird

Also, youre in the US, not Europe so stick with the actual California front plates.

In my opinion front plate doesn't look that bad. People here in the US are used to seeing front plates on so when they base their judgement on the car's looks, the front plate doesn't even play a factor.

stream

I have no front plate--looks cleaner to me. I've lived in CA for 15 years and have received 2 tickets for no front plate. Both times were when I got pulled over for something else & convinced the cop that I didn't do what he said I did, and it gave him an easy out--gave me a no front plate ticket--so in a way you could say it was a good thing! It's a fix it ticket.

Putting euro plate on front won't get you out of a ticket--it's not an official plate, so I don't see the point--it ruins the clean lines of the front.

EBMCS03

But you can only see one side at a time no?

Humm well officially stuck on decisions again.


Oh ya.. and I really dont want to drill holes in the bumper either... Tape?

JayJay

THe 5 just looks a bit weird without a plate on the front but it could be that im just used to it being in europe and all.

rodybmw

I have had German plates on my BMW's since 1984 here in the Los Angeles area. They have not been representations of the CA plate, but the actual German "Zoll" plates that came with the cars when I bought them. All the cars in my sig (except the 318i) have been either German models that I imported to the US, or Euro Delivery US models, so they had real German export plates. The only one (after the 318i) that I did not pick up in Gemany was my wife's X5 (obviously...since it's built in South Carolina). However, I like the look of Euro plates on cars so much that I had a custom German plate done for the front of the X5. It looks like a Munich plate (starts with "M" and has two letters and four numbers).

In the 21 years that I have been driving in LA with German front plates I have NEVER been stopped or hassled for it. I have probably been stopped by the police maybe 10 or so times and been given tickets for speeding, tints, etc., but none of the cops said anything about the German plates.........Now watch me get stopped tomorrow for the plate

By the way, they had drilled my original bumper to put the German plate on at the Euro Delivery center, but when I put my M-kit on I did not want to drill any holes. So I used the same double sided foam tape that came with the rear trunklid spoiler to attach the plate to the front bumper. The first few days I had to occasionally press on the corners that would lift up slightly (especially when it rained and it got wet, but after doing that for three days or so it stopped lifting off and has been on securely ever since. One thing was that since I already had holes in the license plate, I used super glue to attach a couple of the white plastic screw covers on the holes so that it looks like it is attached with screws. I think if it looks like there is no screw holding the plate on some punk kids might get tempted to just pull on the plate and swipe it

Here's my preference list:

Best look: German plate
Next best: No plate
Hate it: US plate

I dont like the look of the US plate on all BMW's, but I think on the E60 it is even worse. The size of the plate and the chunky plate holder just don't let the lines flow and it looks like it does not belong there..........besides the US plate on the front of the E60 looks too much like a weird small mustache (sort of like Hitler's mustache).......but if some people like the look of the US plate that's great.....they don't have to worry about getting tickets.

rodneyremington

I've never had front plates on any of my cars here in California and never gotten a ticket. I even imported a vehicle from out of state without a front plate and it was inspected and passed. I think people with otherwise 'conspicuous' vehicles (ie. dark tint, obvious performance mods) are the ones that generally get the front plate tickets. All my cars look basically stock so I don't really draw attention to myself.

EBMCS03

Thats my problem... i have dark tints... but thats about it... everthing else is stock.

So its a double whammy... dark tints and no front plate.

uwsc11

I also kept my front plate from my Euro delivery. It looks great in my opinion, but it does risk a ticket. Especially since more and more city's are putting up red-light camera's at intersections; cops are making sure you have a valid CA front plate. Otherwise they may not know who to mail the ticket to.