front mount license plate bracket bmw x3

But as of this writing, they’re required in 30 states as well as Washington, DC. They’re also required in essentially every overseas country, Autotrader says, though the UK offers a vinyl sticker alternative.

These regulations are in place mostly because having more plates makes it easier to quickly identify a specific vehicle. True, that helps out red-light cameras, but it also benefits security cameras and crime eyewitnesses. And speaking from experience, it’s helpful having multiple ways of confirming vehicle identities via license plate info. However, these requirements aren’t set in stone. For example, Ohio ditched its front license plates in 2020. And in 2019, one Texas state representative tried to exempt “’luxury passenger cars’” from the state’s plate laws, The Drive reports.

But while that attempt failed, it underlined why US enthusiasts typically don’t like putting front plates on their cars. Simply put, they rarely make US-market cars look good. Plus, US plates are shorter and wider than European ones, Autoweek explains.Ī mechanic installs a front license plate on a 2009 Renault | Alain DENANTES/Gamma-Rapho via Getty ImagesĪdmittedly, some US-market cars’ front license plates are positioned so they don’t interfere with parking sensors and other safety features. That might explain why, when I lived in Michigan, which doesn’t require front plates, many European-brand cars wore Euro plates: aesthetics. Regardless, the issue here isn’t necessarily that some states have front license plate mandates and others don’t. It’s that not every car has built-in ways of accommodating a front plate, Autotrader points out. And that’s particularly problematic if you buy a used car in a non-front-plate state but register it in a front-plate state. You might be forced to make your own holes to screw in the plate.

#Front mount license plate bracket bmw x3 installĪnd that means not just damaging your car, but also risking safety sensor interference.