Not every state requires a plate on both the front and back in the U.S., but when they do, you might wonder how to properly stick it on the front. After all, not every car has a dedicated space for it up front as it does in the back. In such a case, you’re forced to just bolt it on, sometimes to the side — especially if the front grille eats up most of the bumper.
Specifically, 28 states plus Washington, D.C., require two plates. Out of those, only Colorado asks for a centered plate, and that only applies to the rear one. Florida, a rear-plate state, is another oddity since it asks that the plate be pretty close to the center-line. Precisely, the state requires that the plate be bolted “no more than 24 inches to the left or right of the center-line of the vehicle.”
What’s more important is that you stick the plate up properly — a rule that nearly every state shares. For instance, Iowa’s law states that the plate has to be fastened tightly, should be level, and kept clean enough to be read — something you might want to keep in mind. Height is another important detail. In fact, many states actually put a number on it: Missouri, for one, asks that it lie anywhere between 8 and 48 inches off the ground.
When the carmaker decides where the plate goes
While a slightly off-center license plate won’t raise eyebrows in most states, provided it’s level and readable, the laws do get more nuanced in a few. An example is Colorado, where the law once stated that both plates have to sit in the approximate center of each car. However, the requirement was dropped in 2018, at least for the front plate, thanks to Senate Bill 18-028. Now, the only ask is that the front plate should be mounted horizontally and in the location the carmaker designated. Breaking this rule is a class B traffic infraction.
Florida also isn’t messing around with license plate frames — use one to cover the plate’s numbers or even the registration sticker, and it can now earn you a misdemeanor. That said, most cars in Florida only get a rear plate.
Now, it can be argued here that on most cars, the recess for the plate is usually in the center, so the law hasn’t exactly grown more forgiving. However, in a hypothetical car with an off-center recess, you likely won’t be asked to pull over in Colorado.
Other states like Hawaii, Vermont, and New Hampshire have similar requirements to Colorado’s. Hawaii’s law requires you to put the plates where the manufacturer has provided a spot. But if there isn’t one, then it goes on the bumper. Things are a little different in Vermont and New Hampshire: While both have the same asks, they come through the DMV rules rather than state statute.
Rear plate-only states and cars that skip the spot
If you live in a rear-plate-only state (a minority of 22 states as of writing), then you don’t really have to worry about how the front plate is put up at all. Most of them say nothing about a front plate. Kansas even bans one outright, except for personalized and antique plates.
But what if you don’t even have a mount on the front? The Tesla Model 3 and Model Y are famously known for lacking recesses or even screw holes on the front bumper. While the car does come with a bracket (designed to stick in the dead center of the front bumper with adhesive), you could still legally use an off-center plate in most states.
Then there are models like Alfa Romeo’s Giulia and Stelvio, which come with a front plate spot that’s off-center right from the factory. Alfa does this because of its iconic triangular grille that doesn’t exactly leave space for a centered slot. Considering how most states don’t really care about the plate’s alignment (and the few that do only want it in the manufacturer’s spot), you shouldn’t run into any problems — regardless of where you are in the U.S.
In Nebraska, meanwhile, you can actually pay a yearly fee of $50 to stay completely front-plate-free — at least if your car didn’t come with a front bracket. However, this quirk will not be valid after the end of 2028, since the state is set to go rear plate-only from 2029.