A letter I sent to Missouri government regarding my “soon to arrive” Mazda CX 5 Premium Plus.

Thoughts?

>>Missouri two license plate


Greetings!



I am finding an issue, which I’m sure is affecting more and more Missouri citizens:



The “Two License Plate” per vehicle law.



In past decades, this was an accepted and common law, and easily adhered to. It may have even had some limited purpose.



With today’s advanced vehicle technology (front vehicle sensors, parking alerts, radar lane monitoring, cameras, and many others). The vast majority geared toward decreasing accidents and increasing safety, while also increasing driver alertness.



I am currently having a newer vehicle brought in from “one plate” Florida, am running into compliance and safety issues in planning to adhere to Missouri’s front plate mandate.



It seems a number of vehicles make it almost impossible to voluntarily comply.



Many of said sensors, etc. are well hidden (by cosmetic design) behind almost all areas of the car front end.



I’ve been in contact with my Florida dealer, and he is at quite a loss as well. Being from one plate Florida, it’s not an issue that he deals with.



Drilling into the front end could well damage high end equipment, and/or block sensors input (thus reducing safety).



And vehicle makers seem to have little (if any) incentive to make this law easy to comply with across all makes.



The only possible alternative I have found so far is some aftermarket setup which is of poor quality, and must be placed “off set” from the vehicle center point. Worse yet, it looks like removal is required before using an automatic car wash. Then re-installing afterwards. That sounds like repetitive fun… 🙈



A by-product would be State cost reduction and environmental savings on reducing plate manufacture by millions.



Approximately ten other States have been “single license plate” for many years without issue.



I would even hope for (possibly) a suspension
of Missouri front plate enforcement pending formal legislation.



Please give this the strongest consideration, keeping in mind the sizable reasoning and benefits, given today’s technology.



Kindest regards,

 

Unfortunately they'll give you no option but to put a front plate on if it's required by the state for residents. There are kits that use the tow hook threads to hold the plate.

 

The easiest insurance that you could be pulled over in a state the requires front license plate is not to have one.
I always like the people that toss the plate on the dash thinking that will get them off a citation for not have a front plate.

Me it a cheep ticket should I get one which I have not in over 40 years and NONE of my cars have one.

BTW it is BS about the sensors all being affected. There are always places on the front of any vehcle to mount a plate. And I am not aware any state the requires the cent front for license plate mounting?

 

A front license plate bracket is readily available for all CX-5 model years and does not interfere with any sensors.
My state, like others, require it.
No number of letters that you write will achieve the purpose you are looking for.
Unless it can convince one of your state legislators to introduce a bill and a majority to vote for it.

 

Don't forget hiring the lobbyists to fight the reaction by law enforcement which will want to keep the front license plates. We did this in Ohio several years back, but the state bean counters did the work for us in figuring out how much less they had to pay for the plate material and how much less they had to pay the prisoners who made the plates while not reducing the registration costs. It was rather significant and the legislators decided they would like to have more money to waste than to satisfy the Ohio State Highway Patrol.