Teslas look better without front plates but they must still have them
Q. My wife was recently stopped by a police officer because she did not have a license plate on the front of her car. Of course, she told the police officer that she was not aware there was no plate there because her husband (me) takes care of the cars. The officer gave her a fix-it ticket, and we got that taken care of. Where I live a lot of people have Teslas, and not one of them has a license plate attached to the front. I even asked one of my neighbors about that, and he said that Tesla does not have a place for the plate in the front. Are Teslas exempt from having a license plate displayed in the front? And if not, why are so many allowed to be driven without the front license plate? Next time you are out driving, let me know if you see any Teslas with a license plate in the front.
– Barry Reid, Avila Beach
A. Several of the Tesla models sure are pretty, and their noses do look nice without a plate.
Honk has seen some with plates and some without.
Honk emailed Tesla folks twice to see what the company does about license plates, but didn’t get a response. He couldn’t find a phone number for a spokesman or -woman.
California law requires cars to sport rear and front license plates. In the past, some dealers would toss the front plate holders into the trunk so the new owner could choose what to do.
As of Jan. 1, 2019, a dealer isn’t allowed to hand over a car without two permanent or temporary plates – one attached to the rear, and the other to the front.
Once that new owner pulls onto a public roadway, the citation for not having both plates goes to him or her.
You only have to look out on the streets to see that not having a front plate isn’t cops’ No. 1 concern.
Plenty of truck and car owners ignore the law, and maybe they will never get pulled over.
Or maybe they will.
Q. Dear Honk: I am an auto mechanic, and I quite often get customers who even on a mild, sunny day drive with their heaters set on the defrost mode. If there is no real need to defog the windshield, they are wasting about 10% of their fuel. In any modern car, the defrost setting activates the air-conditioner’s compressor in order to help dry out the air. This is even if the heat is turned up all of the way. I often wonder: How much gas and pollution could be saved if people knew this?
– Mark Hosmer Anaheim
A. No idea, Mark, but experts with the Automobile Club of Southern California agree that the practice you mentioned can hurt gas mileage.
Marie Montgomery Nordhues, an Auto Club spokeswoman, asked Dave Skaien, approved auto repair manager of program development at the Auto Club, and Megan McKernan, manager of its Automotive Research Center, about the topic.
“(They) agreed that using the defrost can be a drag on gas mileage, but neither had any statistics to share,” the spokeswoman said.
“I think that would be an easy think to forget,” she said of leaving on the defroster. “It’s definitely an item to inform drivers about … especially this spring when gas prices will probably rise.”
Honkin’ fact: Honk recently talked about getting cited by a red-light camera and dispensed some misleading info because of a misunderstanding. All “courtesy notices” are not created equal. And if you get one in the mail that says “Courtesy Notice – This is Not a Ticket,” well, that is far from receiving a notice from a court saying here is what you owe for your violation unless you win in court. Honk will provide the details next week.
To ask Honk questions, reach him at honk@ocregister.com. He only answers those that are published. To see Honk online: ocregister.com/tag/honk.