Increased risk of getting pulled over without front plate

[Ceilidh]

I'm surprised so many want to tempt the cops with probable cause to pull you over while you drive around, particularly in such a (currently) high profile car. The last thing I need if I had 1 drink more than I should have and happen to make a bad call is to be pulled over because my front plate is missing and the cop wants an excuse to check out the fancy car.

I certainly do not advocate driving under the influence at all, and I am usually rather serious about not doing so, but I think if folks are honest most have had 1 glass of wine too many at a dinner from time to time and realize it about half way home. People aren't perfect.

Admitting imperfection, I would rather have an ugly bumper than a DUI. Just a thought.

Cheers.

 

[ohmslaw]

I'm surprised so many want to tempt the cops with probable cause to pull you over while you drive around, particularly in such a (currently) high profile car. The last thing I need if I had 1 drink more than I should have and happen to make a bad call is to be pulled over because my front plate is missing and the cop wants an excuse to check out the fancy car.

I certainly do not advocate driving under the influence at all, and I am usually rather serious about not doing so, but I think if folks are honest most have had 1 glass of wine too many at a dinner from time to time and realize it about half way home. People aren't perfect.

Admitting imperfection, I would rather have an ugly bumper than a DUI. Just a thought.

Cheers.

I think you're wrong about what "most folks" have done.

If you have one drink too much I hope you do get pulled over, instead of perhaps running over my kid or crashing into my car.

 

[logan]

I'm surprised so many want to tempt the cops with probable cause to pull you over while you drive around, particularly in such a (currently) high profile car. The last thing I need if I had 1 drink more than I should have and happen to make a bad call is to be pulled over because my front plate is missing and the cop wants an excuse to check out the fancy car.

I certainly do not advocate driving under the influence at all, and I am usually rather serious about not doing so, but I think if folks are honest most have had 1 glass of wine too many at a dinner from time to time and realize it about half way home. People aren't perfect.

Admitting imperfection, I would rather have an ugly bumper than a DUI. Just a thought.

Cheers.

Stupid comment about drinking and driving aside, I have NEVER put a front license plate on ANY of my cars and NEVER have been pulled over. While the Model S certainly is a rarer car, I wouldn't consider it any more exotic looking than a Mercedes CLS.

 

[Ceilidh]

I think you're wrong about what "most folks" have done.

If you have one drink too much I hope you do get pulled over, instead of perhaps running over my kid or crashing into my car.

I had a feeling someone would respond to this comment this way, so here goes:

With all due respect, I think you missed my point.

I agree that people should not be driving under the influence. However, it is REALLY common for people to drive themselves to dinner and have 1 or 2 glasses of wine. For a good number of people, more than you might think, this would put them over the legal limit for a while, and they may not subjectively even realize it.

I am not talking about driving with an obvious buzz on. I am talking about average human behavior. Not mine or yours, just average behavior. I see people who get into accidents all the time and some of them had no idea they were over the limit in some cases, or quite close to it in others.

If you abstain from all drinking entirely then I can understand why you may have interpreted my comment the way you did, but I suspect more people do than do not have wine with dinner when they go out to eat, for instance.

Just because you dont notice the alcohol doesnt necessarily mean you arent over the limit.

Do you take the keys from every person leaving every restaurant after they eat for 2 hours if they had wine with dinner?

Most people will be fine, but some wont.

In an ideal world people should have zero alcohol in them for driving, but we have legal limits because we know that while ideal this isnt going to be the case.

So discussing reality rather than ideals, I wonder why people would tempt fate.

If you think you can always feel when you have had more than the limit, buy a high quality breath check and use it every time you leave a restaurant if you drink with dinner. You may be quite surprised by the results.

I too have children and think along the same lines as you in general. I have seen far too many bad outcomes up close to even consider driving if I at all feel under the influence. My version of one too many is probably quite lower than the average usage of the term, so that may have been my own fault for confusing people.

Cheers

 

[CyberDutchie]

At first I was going to opt for no front license plate but then I changed my mind. I've had people back into my car while parallel parking. It's bound to happen with my Model S and I'd rather have a few scratches on my license plate than on the nose cone.

 

[Ceilidh]

Stupid comment about drinking and driving aside, I have NEVER put a front license plate on ANY of my cars and NEVER have been pulled over. While the Model S certainly is a rarer car, I wouldn't consider it any more exotic looking than a Mercedes CLS.

I don't think that the Model S looks exotic, but if you look at the thread about being pulled over in a Model S, you will notice that a number of people seem to report being pulled over by cops who most likely were looking for an excuse to check out the car.

Cheers.

 

[montgom626]

Stupid comment about drinking and driving aside, I have NEVER put a front license plate on ANY of my cars and NEVER have been pulled over. While the Model S certainly is a rarer car, I wouldn't consider it any more exotic looking than a Mercedes CLS.

I have been pulled over in Illinois and they are not nice about it.

 

[strider]

I was pulled over on 101 on the peninsula during rush hour for no front plate in my Corvette. It cost me hours of time during work hours to go to the courthouse and get a cop to sign off that I had "fixed it", etc. It's just not worth it to my wife or I. We run front plates on the Roadster and Model S.

 

[gg_got_a_tesla]

Yup, agree with strider. The aggravation is not worth it. There are no guarantees that you'd not get pulled over for a missing front plate just because you've never been in the past.

Opted for the front bracket install in the delivery questionnaire. Hoping that the nice bright yellow-and-blue Lake Tahoe CA vanity plates complement the Green car so that the plates won't take away too much from the car's look.

 

[dsm363]

Agree with strider as well. They are much more aggressive here about the front plate in Texas anyway. Not worth the wasted time. Would rather get law changed.

 

[Ceilidh]

Yeah, my point in posting this thought was an attempt to save people from themselves. I spend a lot of time doing this at work so it is in my nature. If people stop to consider the fact that alcohol impairs their judgement, then it is tough to say with 100% certainty that you are "fine to drive" after a couple of drinks with dinner unless you are going to wait a long time before getting back into your car because your judgement may be impaired already when you make that call. Most do not wait a long time as far as I have seen, so I meant this as a word of caution with a common example of a scenario that could get people into big trouble. There is the obvious trouble of driving under the influence which is a separate debate. But if someone likes to drink with dinner and does this a couple times a month, and owns the car for 8 years, over 8 years there are a lot of potential evenings to make a big mistake and I suspect if folks are truly honest about it with themselves then there have probably been times in the past where such a mistake could have been made on their part, not necessarily that they did, but they could have. Eventually luck runs out if you keep rolling the dice.

This problem could be a major life changing event if they get into an accident, or worse a life ending event. But that is an obvious given that I figured people would agree upon.

There is the secondary issue of not getting into an accident but being pulled over for some other reason even if you are driving fine and "feel ok." Inviting the cops to pull you over whenever they feel like it due to bumper esthetics seems foolish to me because people aren't perfect. If the person is a danger on the road it is one thing, and they should be pulled over and arrested before they hurt someone if that is the case. But there are grey zones, and that is what I am attempting to address here. IMHO, 1 drink can be "1 too many" given the right scenario, but many do not stop to consider this all that often despite the fact that they should consider it every time they drink and then consider driving.

In the grey zone, there are scenarios that could be really bad but not necessarily dangerous. Take the example of someone who happens to like single malt scotch. If that person decides to have one with dinner and then wait some time until they are safe to drive the smell of booze on one's breath can linger for far longer. So if we assume that Murphy's law prevails it will of course be the night one has a single malt with dinner that a cop would take interest in the bumper absent the front license. If the cop smells whisky breath they will most likely do a sobriety test right then and there. It is their job to do so to protect the public's safety. This would of course be embarrassing and a major inconvenience, but could be really bad if a coworker notices you next to your fancy car getting the sobriety check and rumors fly at work, even if your alcohol level was next to zero at the time and you were sent home after you checked out ok and your were essentially safe to drive.

One can think of many different examples where inviting police attention is a bad call. I am not so sure people are thinking this decision through to completion. Perhaps I am just far more cautious than most based on my profession and a bias that comes with seeing the worst of the worst all the time. With this particular example the safest thing to do is of course to never drink if you are driving, but as I said above go to any nice restaurant and watch people down a bottle of wine then get in their cars and drive home thinking they are fine. Not something I'm gonna do, but people do it. Tesla purchasers are people with enough $ to go out and eat with frequency, and I am sure some of those also drink with dinner. Those are the ones I am trying to reach here.

At any rate, food for thought before people leave that front plate off if they live in a state that requires it. Not trying to be a downer, but I want people to stay safe and happy. I'll stop my preaching here as a lot of this is obvious to most, but I didn't see people bring it up under the discussion of leaving off the front plate and thought it might be worth considering, even if it is a "stupid comment." People may assume that leaving off the front bumper is at worst a nuisance ticket issue because they have "nothing to hide" from the police, but some have more on the line than they think.

Cheers.

 

[Kaivball]

Depends on where you live.

If you park anywhere in public in San Francisco, you will get a ticket for no front license plate.

My BMW and Ferrari do not have a front license plate and I have not received a ticket for that in over ten years. I have received tickets (speeding) but not for the plates.

I was not planning on adding the plate to the front bumper. Let the next owner drill holes into a $3,000 bumper.

 

[wycolo]

Parallel Parking: ?? Surely you jest!! I'd walk a mile to avoid PPing my ModelS. Or devise a bumper out of EMT to protect the front if I really really had to PP.

Predatory Police Activity: In WY pretty much confined to real cash cows like a: stopping drug mules on I-80 (probable cause, what's that??), b: filtering 100% of commercial trucks on I-25 near Buffalo (the locals *always* use the parallel State Highway), and c: speed traps (you scan the horizon and think they aren't there, then zoom your shiny new Mustang past me at 90mph, then BAM! 3 miles later he's on the shoulder with a Trooper). I give 3 short honklets in condolence as I pass by @69mph on Cruise. 66-70 is now 'warning only', no ticket in WY.

Out Of State Operation: Living near the CO border means much of my driving/parking is done in that State which AFAIK must respect HOME RULE wrt such things as vehicle equippage NOT specifically related to safety. Thus having no front plate is not actionable.:biggrin:
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[ohmslaw]

Depends on where you live.

If you park anywhere in public in San Francisco, you will get a ticket for no front license plate.

In 10 years never got a ticket for that in San Francisco. True, I only parked in public a few dozen times in that time period.