Originally Posted by wanker

The lack of a front plate, window tint and an excessively loud exhaust will all get you ticketed; although it is dependent on the officer. Most CHP officers could care less, it's the small town law enforcement looking for revenue that will pull you over for the tint etc.

Plus your out of state car will have to pass CA smog, so no headers or HFC. Welcome to California.

Originally Posted by axmea?

The big cities are just too short on officers to begin with. Most won't waste their time on missing front plates, loud exhaust, tints, cats, extremely low, overly stickered, crazy cambered cars. It is usually an add-on / fix-it ticket. If they stop you for a moving violation or see a safety issue like a missing brake light that is when you are most likely to be ticketed. As-is they won't mess with you. I was stopped (driving my beater) for a missing brake light (how he spotted me during the day is beyond me - just bad luck) but I explained that I just picked up a bulb, showed it to him, and was going to install it when I got home. He then looked at my tints (which by the way is so faded, I thought I did not have any - bought the car used) and gave me a fix-it ticket.

Also, there are so many laws that enforcement is tough. I would not worry about it as much about this and focus more on other real CA issues like expensive housing, bad schools, CYA politicians (since you're at the Capital), and water to wash your car.