I have a 2001 Cruiser that I bought from a friend last week. I noticed that it did not come with a front license plate, and I just got a ticket for it today. Does the cruiser come with a front license plate, or do I have to install one myself? To my knowledge I thought Cruisers did not come with a front license plate.
Front License Plate
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Every car in the US has to have a way to mount a front license plate. In the case of the PT Cruiser, there is a bracket that mounts to the car to hold the plate. If the car was sold in a state without a front plate, it was not installed. The bracket you need to install is something like this:
2001- 2005 CHRYSLER PT CRUISER FRONT LICENSE PLATE BRACKET HOLDER MOPAR OEM
2001- 2005 CHRYSLER PT CRUISER FRONT LICENSE PLATE BRACKET HOLDER MOPAR OEM
1966 Crown Coupe, 2016 200 S AWD, 1962 Lark Daytona V8.
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Welcome to Allpar. If you look closely at the front bumper, you should see locating 'dimples' where the front bracket installation screws go to center the bracket.
A salvage yard may have a used one you can get quick and cheap.
A salvage yard may have a used one you can get quick and cheap.
I'm assuming you got a ticket for not having a front license plate and not a ticket for not having the license plate mounting bracket. Mark's correct. Every car has to have a bracket to mount a front license plate regardless if the state it was originally sold in requires front plates or not. Many times if the state doesn't issue front plates the dealers don't add the bracket or remove it since it's not required in that state and fail to provide it in case it is needed.
So you got a ticket before a warning to get it fixed first.... shouldn't have you gotten a warning with 30 days to correct before a ticket... anyways ask why and fight the ticket, hope you find a bracket.
I built my own bracket to hold the front plate and mounted it to the holes in the bumper but my bracket also holds my extension cord for plugging in for winter months.
I built my own bracket to hold the front plate and mounted it to the holes in the bumper but my bracket also holds my extension cord for plugging in for winter months.
In most cases it's up to the officer whether to issue a warning or a citation. There's nothing requiring a warning first. In Virginia the plate has to be mounted via bolts and cannot be mounted by connecting any sort of cable or wiring. On a related note, you can have frames, but the frame cannot block any printing on the plate. So yes, the state (or province) name must be readable (no portion of it can be blocked) and technically the plate must be kept clean enough to be read from 50 feet. I've seen some where the car is immaculately clean, but the license plate is so dirty it can't be read - what's with that?
I saw lots of people in Ohio who thought they could get away with throwing the front plate on the dash instead of mounting it on the car. Didn't work. It was a common reason to pull a car over, no front plate or improper display. And it seemed they often found all kinds of secondary violations (no seat belts, drunk divers, expired license, outstanding warrants) so the people who had trouble with the front license plate often had other problems too.
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