GT Newbie

Naturally I prefered NOT to have a front plate at all, but after asking around and hearing many tales of woe- decided that NJ was way too tough with enforcement and didn't need the hassle!
Actually, now that I'm used to it I don't think it looks too bad at all (photo was taken the day I brought her home with the temporary dealer's plate).

07 Tungston gray automatic with dark charcoal leather seats, side airbags, two-tone light graphite & black interior as part of "interior color accent/sport appearance package", aftermarket 6-gauge instrument cluster with message center/my-color (NOT the IUP package) "spoiler delete" option, active anti-theft & wheel locks.
For now, bone stock (and loving every second behind the wheel....!!).


[IMG]local://upfiles/53083/EB3EDC86DB754538A4D2A377C125BECB.jpg[/IMG]

likemike99

I initially had mine on, since in Hawaii it is the law as well. I had to take my car to get my hood painted and they took the plate off. (don't know why) since then I have not put it back on . it looks so much better with it off. If I get pulled over I will say I just got it back from the shop. so far 3 months plateless in the front.

Stone

MN needs 2 and it's no big deal having one on the front the car is beautiful enough that a little plate on the front does not screw up the look.

gatkins94

based on this......I"m guessing you're HOT!!!!

They do sell a bracket that allows you to mount it without punching holes in the bumper, just in case you need it.

BTW....I'd probably get a ticket for NOT having one, in a state that doesn't require them......

xbone

In SC we dont get need front plates, good thing, front plates make your radar signature way bigger.

white531

I live in tulsa okla. and only one plate requried,but my car came from arkansas and had the holes drilled out.When i striped the car with white stripes we covered two push pins with the tape and installed them.They look ok .

Volguus

You'll love this. After paying almost again the price of the car in luxury, shipping, and lease costs, I got an s197 into Romania. I had the money at the time and needed to increase my odds against Bucharest drivers.What you call "road rage"we here call "pulling out of the driveway."

So anyway I'm driving several months with temporary dealer tags while my plates come in.I'm a special case becausesincethey require two plates, and the long Eurosize whenever possible, it was somehow decided I'd get a long plate for the front and a square plate for the back. I guess that blew somebody's tiny mind'cos it took forever. Ultimately I get the car back to the dealer and insanely, decide to run next door for a Big Mac instead of staying to watch the work. After all, how much could they screw up license plates?

I gotta stop asking those kind of questions. Here's what I see up front when I get back:



After the initial shock, I realize this isn't so bad - the two screws that were rammed into the fascia were about as far from centered or aligned, horizontallyOR vertically, as possible, but since the plastic frame is a mass of slots instead of round holes, it was easy to simply loosen the screws, wiggle the frame straight and tighten up again.

Now the BACK was a different story!


In all fairness, the numbers were fully painted upon installation, but they didn't have plastic frames for the square plates, so as you can see they simply bludgeoned two self-tapping screws stright through the plate and into the car, again with no thought to alignment or centering. And yes, since the bottom of the fascia's plate area has a protruding "lip," the plate is indeed bent outward at the bottom.

In a textbook moment of "choosing your battles," I realized I wasn't going to get anything better out of these neanderthals and just said thank you and left. Straight to a car wash down the road in the attempt to degrease and desmudge the grease and dirt smeared areas around my professional installation. It was this car wash that strippedthe paint off the letters. The car wash guy said "I've seen that happen lately with the square plates." So, back to the dealershipin a blindly optimistic attempt to see what theyhad to say. "Oh yes, there was a run of square plates with bad paint. Most of them went to Land Rovers but it looks like you got one as well."That, and in Romania, the plates are made by the police, not prisons. And annoying the police around here about anything, usually gets you nothing but reprisals. And I can't blame any one factor too much, the entire culture is still stepping blinking out into the sun from communist dictatorship, the average native earns under $250/month and the typical car is a Romanian OEM 4-banger from Renault. A Mustang may as well be a flying saucer here, and as regards service I'd be expecting answers to questions nobody would even know to ask. Besides, I'm quite a handy fellow and I usually enjoy a challenge (grin).

So again, I choose my battles. I stop at the first auto parts store I pass; piles of square plate frames. Again, the frame can be mounted with enough latitude to counteract inept screw placement. The plate itself was a pleasant summer afternoon's relaxationwith a rubber mallet and a Sharpie. If I can find some 3M reflective tape, I can even fix the now-empty holes in the plate. Maybe I'm just getting old, or maybe there's increasingly truth to the adage "if you want something done right, do it yourself." Either way, I find myself complaining now only if I can't think of a way to solve the problem myself.

- K -

Daniel60

In South Carolina it isn't required, neither in Georgia. The rest I haven't a clue.