TX technically requires a front plate but I'd never been cited for not having one, even in the two speeding tickets I've had in the 10 years I've been down here until last week. Last week a cop actually pulled me over just to write me a ticket for no front license plate and multiple people in the office have been ticketed in the past month. It seems like something has changed in Houston at least recently - maybe donut prices are up. I don't like the idea of drilling holes into my front bumpers so I've gone ahead and ordered these brackets from Skene Design that fit to the underside of the area and sort of work like a TV wall mount. I think they look way better than the tow hook solution and both my cars are too low for a retractable one.

https://skenebrackets.com/

 

 

 

Ahhh I hope your experience is isolated!

Also, houston has a great amg club, let me know if you want more info. www.amgsocialclub.com

We just went to athena gun range today.

 

 

Will check it out for sure. Athena's right by my office. I fear this isn't isolated. The cop that pulled me over on the Katy Tollway by BW8 told me he'd been specifically told to start pulling people over for no front plate. I was not speeding at all. Over the past month five other people I know have been ticketed (not warned) on both I10W and I45N. This is different from the past policy where there was only a small chance of this being a problem if pulled over for something else.

 

Except for my wife's mini-van none of my vehicles have front plates. Never been stopped or cited in CA.

I do keep my front plate in the trunk. It is mounted to the stock plate assembly, which snaps into something above the splitter in front. The bracket does have a couple of holes for mounting to the bumper for extra stability. My plan, if I'm ever stopped, is to produce the bracket and say I noticed it was getting loose so removed it before it fell off. Was planning on remounting it more securely when I got home or some such excuse.

 

Were these HPD, county or state troopers? I'm over in Austin and the only ones that pull me over for no plate are state troopers. Thankfully they have always given me a warning, but I'm sure my time will come. I like the Skene product. Seems easy to remove if need be. But do you still have to drill on the underside of the bumper?

 

HPD Precinct 5 and he didn't even bother with a warning. He did say the ticket would be dismissed if I took the car over to the courthouse and showed it to the clerk so I guess its one of those "fix it" tickets. For the skene brackets you do have to drill 2 small holes in the underside of one of the bumper pieces. Its not ideal by any means, there's some (not deal breaking) obstruction of the front facing camera because it's not as flush as the stock bracket but the positives are its removable and there aren't 3 giant holes in the front of the car.