carderoni

Been doing some research and am having trouble finding out for sure whether driving without a front license plate is a primary or secondary offense in Virginia - the difference being that cops are not supposed to pull you over for a secondary offense but can cite you for it if you were pulled over for a primary offense. As an example, not wearing a seat belt is a secondary offense.

Based on my googling, some people have reported being pulled over for this, while others say they've never been hassled for it outside of meter maids. I personally ran without a front plate for a few years on my SC and Subaru with no issues, and am currently running without one on my 3IS.

Anybody from Virginia know more about the law or care to chime in with their experiences?

rai

In Maryland, I got pulled over twice for not having one, and it was the only offense no other violation just to waste my time apparently. Got 2 warnings and finally bought a tow hook attachment for my car.

mmarshall

I've lived in and driven in VA for most of my adult life. Although most cops in the state are friendly and don't bother you for trivial reasons, occasionally, if a cop wants to pull you over for something, he or she will find some excuse for doing so whether it is a primary offense or not. So, my strong advice is to put the your VA front plates back on and simply forget about it. Doing so will relieve you of the constant worry if you will get cited for it or not.

I8ABMR

Its usually a secondary offense . They will see it ,follow you, wait until you do something t, then pull you over and cite for both. I feel your pain. My LS came to me from Nebraska and had a front plate. It looked horrible to me so I removed it. In AZ you dont have to have one though

FrankReynoldsCPA

I drove my Firebird for 3 years without a front plate here in Utah, got stopped for it once. Now with my LS I do run a front plate(at least this car had somewhere to mount it). That said, I'm the only one in my family who has a front plate. I haven't heard of my folks or sister being stopped for not having them. Virginia is probably a little less libertarian than Utah, so who knows how they are there.

mmarshall

Depends on where you are in the state. Up north, near D.C., the number of cars and traffic is simply mind-boggling (second in the country only to L.A./SoCal). So one individual car, even with only one plate, is not going to stand out much...or as likely to be noticed by police. But, except for Richmond and Norfolk, in the rest of the state and in rural areas, one individual car is probably more likely to stand out and/or be noticed by cops. But my advice to the OP still stands....put the front plates back on and there won't be any worries, at least about plate-issues.

Virginia is quite unusual, though, on some auto-related expenses. Depending on the county, there is also a personal-property-tax based on the car's annual assessed KBB value (which some other states also have), and also a separate county-registration fee that has to be paid before the car can be registered. Those county fees exist because of the states's constitutional ban on county income-taxes. In addition, an annual safety-inspection sticker has to be displayed properly in the windshield, and, in the north, the EPA requires an emissions test every two years......which also has to be done before the registration can be renewed.

Oh...and one last thing. The use of radar/laser detectors is illegal...and the cops have devices that can tell them when you are using one.

Welcome to Virginia.

2002GGPIS3

As a former Virginia resident, I had no front plate on my Mitsubishi Eclipse and never had a problem. I had the front plate displayed on the front dash inside the car. I always ran a front plate on the Lexus, because holes are in the front bumper for it.. My advice is don't worry about it, unless you also have dark tint. Virginia does not fool around when it comes to that.

FrankReynoldsCPA

Damn.....we have it easy here. No emissions testing at all(except in Salt Lake and a couple other counties up north), no inspection sticker(there is still a required inspection though), no annual property tax, etc.

mmarshall

Yes, sometimes you can get away with that......but you can't count on it, especially in rural areas where traffic is thinner and each individual car is more potentially noticeable by the police.

VTsuckah

iTrader: (1)

^ Like he said. If you're on the highways in VA, state troopers will not hesitate to pull you over for anything that can result in generated revenue.

I got pulled over by a state trooper on I66 during my morning commute for not properly displaying my front plate after about a month of owning the car. He let me go since I had a clean record and the car was new. I refused to put holes in my bumper and ended up zip tying the plate to the lower grill. It looks a heck of a lot cleaner IMO.

SubieChik

iTrader: (1)

Virginia Beach cops pull you over for looking at them wrong. The 2IS I am about to get is coming to me with no holes in the bumper but you better beileve I am finding a way to put that front plate on. I don't care if it is bubble gum.....with my luck I would get pulled over within 3 feet of leaving my driveway.

mmarshall

It's not necessarily a revenue issue. In Virginia, license-plates are made in the State Prison by inmates. Prisons, of course, operate at state expense, and the registration fee for buying your plates (both front and rear) isn't necessarily any cheaper or more expensive than other states which require either one of two plates.

And, by your own admission, the cop gave you a warning...which certainly doesn't generate any money. But if I were you, I'd mount the front plates properly now....next time you probably won't get off with just a warning.