Front Plates on Ferrari in Cali?

[LamboRider]

Originally Posted by Skidkid

Brian is right. No issue for me about front plate.

I think front window tint is just asking for trouble. You get away with one thing. Start piling more and more issues then they just won't ignore you.

Originally Posted by 1974gt4

with a daily driver or something nicer...LAX and OAK are kind enough to ticket you. Also at the Marin County Civic center parking lot, YES with cars that are not moving.

Don't ask me how I know...

This just happened to me, should have listened and duck taped it on as a temp

[craiggo]

Originally Posted by Perfusion

Think about the field day that could be had near large colleges and universities with all the out-of-state students... No, that just wouldn't fly...

Actually, you are correct, they do have field days at these locations. Once you become a resident, which college students are, you have 30 days to register your car or risk being cited and the penalty is steep. I guess you could drive back and forth everyday but that's rare here in CA.

Fed's have NO jurisdiction over the front plate and it's very unlikely one could even get a case in Fed court. You drive in CA you agree to obey the laws....just that simple.

[arizonaitalian]

Originally Posted by AMA328

I'd very much like to know the answer and legality of this, too...can CA ticket an out of state car for not having a front plate?

They can hassle you and try to find out if you are in the state for "too long" (I don't know the regulation on "too long". I'm pretty sure they can ticket you and say "tell it to a judge".


I got pulled over "for not having a front plate" recently and my car is an AZ car and was in CA temporarily. I told the officer that and he said "you need to register it here if you keep it in CA more than a few weeks" and then he let me get on with my day.

I've also been on a drive with a few exotics here and all of us got "checked" by a cop and then he pulled over those with CA rear plate and not front. He told the unlucky driver that he let the other cars go because they had either out of state plates or "no plate" (meaning new car temp registration still - which folks leave on for as long as they can get away with it here).

Sucky thing is that I am now thinking about keeping the car here for the next year...and I certainly do not want to drill holes in the front. So, I've got to register it here (sucky time at the CA DMV), smog it (sucky time to meet CA regs), and somehow get a front plate holder that doesn't ruin my car. Good times. Adding to the giant list of "if the government was smart they would" list would be "make us pay some $ to not put on a front plate". That would get them some much-needed additional contributions to the public worker pension and healthcare benefits fund (err, I mean taxes).

[PV Dirk]

I knew a young guy when I was in college who got a ticket for an out of state plate. I believe he also had out of state DL. He went to court with his most recent tuition bill showing he was paying out of state tuition. He argued that the state of CA recognized him as out of state and argued for consistency. I believe the traffic judge threw out the ticket.

He had been in state for about a year IIRC and the officer had seen his car and out of state plate over a period of time and ticketed him because CA does require changing registration pretty quickly.