Licence plates in PA

[heyloo]

Hello again~
Sorry for posting multiple questions...I just seem to be having a lot lately [fake]
I'm in Pennsylvania...my dealer told me that it's not required to put the license plate on the front here. Well, I was thinking about putting one of those European plates on the front of my new X3 3.0i. Is this legal to place a European plate on the front? I'll be putting the Pennsylvania plate on the back, of course.

Would it look bad? Should I just enjoy the 'slick' look without the plate? [???1]

Thanks in advance

 

[slats]

You are allowed to put the euro plate if you don't have to put the PA plate on, yes. I personally think it looks really slick on sedans, I haven't seen it done on an X3 or X5.

 

[e30fr3@k]

hmmmm...personally, in WA where i live, front and rear are required. if i had the opportunity to leave the front empty, i would jump on that in a second. or maybe put a bmw logo plate on the front, or an mtech or something cool like that.

 

[Bryan330i]

I would think that you could.

A guy here has one on an M5 and it looks good. He has had it for a couple of years and we require front plates. I have notices a few others around but the others are Audis which look good also.

Did yours come with all the brackets? Mine came with the trim for no plate and also the plate.

 

[slats]

In fact, most of the ones I've seen are on Audis as well. Looks just incredible on my friend's red 2000 A4. It really just depends on whether or not the plate complements the look of the car.

 

[epj3]

You're from lewisburg? I'm going to penn college of technology this fall in williamsport, maybe we can meet up sometime

 

[heyloo]

lol cool~ I still am waiting for my X3...I ordered it on the 11th...[headbang]

 

[slats]

Did they tell you 12-18 weeks? Just curious

 

[epj3]

Are they manufacturing the X3 in spartainburg?

 

[slats]

I don't know but it would make sense since the X5 is made there. In that case it will probably be less than the 12-18 weeks, you're right.

 

[heyloo]

I just called the BMW North America.
My car's estimated production date is...March 22 (I placed my order on Feb. 11). It's a little disappointing, but the customer service representative said that they usually 'over-estimate' their production date, so it's pretty much unknown until the car actually goes on production. He told me that it takes about 7 days to build and usually about 16-20 days for shipping... I'm in Pennsylvania, so hopefully the shipping doesn't take too long......I have my fingers crossed to have my car by April...*sigh...

X3s are made in Graz, Austria.

 

[jrt67ss350]

Are they manufacturing the X3 in spartainburg?

They were going to build the X3 at the Greenville/Spartanburg plant in SC, but for some reason they apparently decided not to. They even added on to the plant in order to create extra assembly space for the X3. Last I heard, they were going to be building them there, and I think they actually did build some before the mass production started. But, everything I'm reading now says they are built in Austria (contracted to another non-BMW company), so I have no idea what happened.

 

[slats]

That's weird. Certianly goes against common sense, with having the X5 production plant here and all.

 

[jrt67ss350]

I agree. I'm from Greenville, SC, and I think pretty much everybody in Greenville/Spartanburg is under the impression that the X3s are being built there. BMW got a bunch of tax breaks and incentives to add on to the plant to build the X3s in return for supplying more jobs to the area. BMW plays SC financially like you can't believe - SC seems to bend over backwards for the company - it pisses a lot of people off.

 

[Rudy]

heyloo,

I too live in PA. (I actually travel to Sunbury once in a while for business.) I can't speak for the X3 but on my last two E39 540i's, I had the dealer order a special insert that allows them to remove the front license plate frame/bracket and replace it with nothing but a smooth bumper. The part had to be painted to match the car on my 2001 but on my 1998, it they were all black.

My advice is to see if a similar part is available for the X3. I bet it'll look way better with a finished look and no plate on the front at all.

 

[heyloo]

Cool, Rudy~
Wow, the car that you're waiting for is...the '04 545i~!!! whoa~~~
I got on one of the test drive X3 3.0is...it didn't have anything up on the front, like you said, "with a finished look and no plate on the front at all". From what I've heard from my dealer during the test drive, he said that we're lucky that PA doesn't require front plates, or we'd have to be drilling into the front bumper to put the plate on. (I'm not sure if he literally meant 'drilling' but, at least the test drive car had a clean look on the front)

=)

 

[Kirby]

From what I've heard from my dealer during the test drive, he said that we're lucky that PA doesn't require front plates, or we'd have to be drilling into the front bumper to put the plate on. (I'm not sure if he literally meant 'drilling' but, at least the test drive car had a clean look on the front)

=)

Yeah, he really did mean drilling. I just changed the front holder out for a Euro holder, and it is attached to the front bumper with self tapping screws. That was kinda disappointing to see. I was thinking that may it was recessed holes that could be plugged with a body color plug. If it is on and you want to eliminate it, you have four 1/8" holes, or a small body shop job. Here's a link to my swap:
http://www.bmwboard.com/forum/showthread.php?s=&postid=64389#post64389

 

[heyloo]

wow~~~~ Thanks for the reply~
Your car looks absolutely stunning~!

 

[Kether]

My iX has a German EU plate on it (The left has a 10cm blue area with the EU flag design and DE for the German country code. The older plates are just white with letters. The letters on the left side are the city code where the plate was issued, and M is for Munich (München) where most of our cars were made. Personally, I think it'd be neat if you could find an Austrian plate from Graz for the X3.

As a point of interest, you see so many plates (Usually on eBay) with WOB on them for Wolfsburg, where VW's are made.