Got pulled over for my tint earlier.

[mazdalifestyle]

I was late already late for class, I passed a cop where he always sits. The lady behind me was riding my ass like no other and he pulls out behind her. Follow both of us for about 3 miles or so, pulls up next to me in the left turn lane and as I turned right, he flipped his lights on. Bastard was a total dick, told me he pulled me over because "I can't have all these illegal modifications on my car" then proceeds to check my percentage with the meter; I shot a 23, Maryland legal limit is 35. Goes back to his car and prints out a $70 fine for operating a vehicle with illegal tinting, and a 10 day maximum repair notice. So that's at least $85 to take it off. I asked him, since I'm tight on money "What if I can't afford this?" and all he said in a rude ass tone was "Well that's between you and the court." Honestly man who pissed you off today? I'm going to submit for a waiver of the fine and see what goes from there because I'm not paying nearly $160 for tint you can see through anyway. Now I'll have that on my record, so no more tint for me. :/

 

[firelizard]

Cool story, bro?

 

[bikingpro5]

why would you pay someone to remove it? do it yourself since I'm going to bet you knew it was not legal tint when you had it done in the first place..

 

[Cleverfrog]

I shot a 23, Maryland legal limit is 35.

And you got a ticket?

 

[Hatchy Zoom]

Sorry to hear, man. It really depends where you live and drive. The tint limit is too low for some places that get very hot. I went to get my tints redone at a place and asked the guy about this. He told me- I have cops who are my customers and they don't care if they're a little darker than the legal limit as long as they can still see through the tint.

So I had it done a little darker, but still see thru and I was never bothered about it in my area. On the other hand, one time I was visiting another state and I got continually harassed about it by cops about that and my tag, even though they knew I had a few months legally to change these things (imagine if we didn't- you'd be at the mercy of every particular city ordinance pertaining to tags and tints as you travelled the US!)

I don't get my tints as dark as possible for show or for "criminal activity". I get them dark because of how hot it gets here. My girlfriend got hers only as dark as the law permitted and she mentioned (and I felt) how much hotter her car was when we got in, even tough she used a sun shade as well. She told me she wished she had gotten hers as dark as mine.

Of course, at the end of the day, if I got stopped and told to remove the tints, I'd have little choice but to do so, while she would be in the clear (almost literally). But the law surely does not feel like an exercise of "we the people" when no one asked for your vote on it and it affect you directly in a negative way.

Anyway, good luck with the waiver. You may get it. And I would also suggest you take it off yourself if you can. If it goes bad, you can always go back to the tinting guys and have them take it off for you. They may do ti for free or give you a discount if you're going to be putting on new "legal" tints.

P.S. As a brand new Mazda2 owner in a new city, I will be visiting the local tinting place soon and see what they tell me about (over-)enforcement of the window tint law around here before I get them.

 

[tweety2300]

Really, you can see out the window at night with 23%? My brothers civic is at 35 and you can barely see out of it at night.

This is almost like getting pulled over for an exhaust and being mad about it

 

[phunky.buddha]

No problem seeing through 5% at night, but that's me. If you got caught, it's your own fault.

 

[tweety2300]

I live in the country so no lights to help me see