If you order a car from a dealer in Ohio, to be shipped to that dealer in Ohio, the factory installs the front license plate bracket automatically, for free. A big, honking, ugly, riveted monstrosity that cannot be removed without damaging the bumper. Not what I ordered.
I was in court some years back and the judge had a man up before the bench that was ticketed for not having a front license plate on his Corvette. VA requires both front and rear. The man stated it ruined the lines of the vehicle so he didn't put one on the front. He then showed the judge a picture of the vehicle. The judge then started pondering out loud why VA has the requirement for two plates. He thought that it would be cheaper for all involved if it was only one plate. He sighed and then dismissed the charge. However, he told the man that regardless of how it made the car look, it had to have two plates, so get the front installed post haste.
Exactly the way I feel Conrad. Ohio was considering removing the front plate but it was halted somewhere in the process, it may come up again in 2015 when the climate for such change will be better. I too have not run a front plate since around 1990.
I am really surprised that you guys are getting away without running a front plate (in a state that requires it). We also use 2 plates on a car and you absolutely will get popped for not displaying a front plate.... and it will not take decades either. And on the third of fourth stop for the same thing, some other mechanism will kick in and involve a tow truck.
We also get hit around here for missing or expired inspection stickers (required annually). Any individual LEO on routine traffic duty will do this but there are also roving little groups of LEO and state DOT folks who visually inspect each and every single car passing and pull everybody without a sticker or the incorrect colored one.
Brian
I've received a performance award or two while driving without a front license plate and the LEO didn't say a word about it.
Here in Ohio, the police don't stress a lot of importance to something as trivial as a front license plate, most of the time if you are cited its because the cop is being somewhat of a book follower, or its secondary to something else, kind of like a seat belt violation. This is my experience in Ohio, which is mostly suburban/rural, of course there are exceptions, but Ohio police around my parts seem to be preoccupied with other things. My idiot brother-in-law the cop even commented that cars look better with no front plate. Agreeing with me does not make him better, he still exhibits moronic behavior.
Since this is a thread about nothing at all did you know that if you use a bit wd-40 on the little renewal stickers the great state of ILL-inois sells for $101 that it leaves nothing at all?
And, there are little pellets you can buy to sprinkle around the plant that will alter the soil acid/base relationship and change the color of the flowers. Blue, white, or pink. I would not spray WD-40 on my hydrangea plant, it would wilt to nothing.
Police generated income through CS citations is not as important in other areas of the country.
Snip...
Traveling across the US in '11 and again in '12 (both ways), I went through about, oh, a gazillion highway construction areas, and this was just Illinois! All of them were marked with dire warnings of the penalties for speeding, hitting a road worker (funny but I already thought that that would be bad? ??) etc. but only in Ohio did I ever see any LEOs with speed measuring equipment in any of those destruction....er, I mean construction zones.
Brian