Vehicle Inspection

[tomonomics]

I'm in NJ as well, and used to put the front plate on my Miata just for inspection. When I moved up to the Box, I put in bumper plugs and ran without the plate. After being pulled over twice in the first year (luckily no ticket), I made a little custom plate bracket to put it as low and recessed as I could. I obviously prefer the non-plate cleaner look, but it doesn't look too bad, and it is nice to drive around without any obvious infractions. A friend just uses some double-sided tape to temporarily affix the plate once every two years for inspection.

I don't have the tinting issue, though I had to remove the front window tints to get my Touareg through inspection. I didn't bother replacing it.

Side note: Obviously make sure to keep your registration current, since a few municipalities now have the active plate scanners. My niece had her car towed last month, as it was parked on the street with an expired registration. The scanner ran the plate, sent the location data to the towing company, and the car was gone the next morning. The officer said the system is totally automated, and they are not aware when it's active. He also said that when it's in use, they get a lot of stolen car reports, only to check the system and see that it's been impounded by the town.

Point being, this system can just as easily run your plate and check your inspection status, then mail you a ticket. Though I have yet to hear of this ever happening.

-T