Miata Mailing List: April 1994, Message #3
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   From: a.mccombs3@genie.geis.com
Subject: Re: FRONT PLATES (and car colo
   Date: Fri, 1 Apr 1994 06:17:25 -0500

Interesting RE: Black cars and getting stopped.  Our other car ('71 Datsun
240Z) is black, and I can recall being stopped only once in that car.  The
exhaust system had just quit holding hands that day, and I'd been home
(where I ripped the dragging thing off and phone ordered a new free flow
system) and was out running another errand (it wasn't bad in the car with
the windows up.)  I'd gone only about two or three miles since removing the
exhaust (I would have parked it at home, but wife Anne was out with the
other car, and things need to be done on weekends).  Anyway, I got pulled
over.  The first thing the cop asked (after drivers license and
registration) was the classic, "Do you know why I pulled you over?"  I
started in with the "Gee, Officer, I know it's a little loud(!), but it just
happened, honest, and I already ordered a new system, and I'll park the car
as soon as I get home after this errand." (All this was true.)
 
He smiled a little and said something to the effect of "No, that isn't it -
your registration has expired."  I immediately realized that I was tasting
the taste of my own foot in my mouth.  DUMMY, DUMMY, DUMMY!!!!  I was lucky;
he let me go on all counts when I pulled the current registration sticker
out of the glove box and stuck it on the car.  (I've been stopped twice for
this that I can recall, where I had the current registration sticker in the
car and hadn't put it on the plate.  In both cases, it was because it was
raining when the new registration was received in the mail, so I just stuck
it in the glove box until I got around to putting it on the car when the sun
was shining - and promptly forgot about it.)
 
In my case, it seems that the big thing that cops stop me for is some
question about registration, as in the above.  I've also noticed that almost
all of the times I've been stopped have been during the last WEEK of the
month.  Tell me again about how there are no monthly quotas for citations
and pullovers???  Also, it appears that lack of current registration is a
REAL BIGGIE for the police on all levels.  Don't recall how the fines run
for this, but seems to me that they're worse than for most other offenses,
short of DWI or something really nasty like that.  Comes down to "follow the
money," I guess - the state gets a lot of it from you for your annual
registration, and they don't like it when you cheat - not even for a few
days.
                                                --Jack M.--