bahablaze

Its bad, but not so bad if yah aint showin' ur a$$. Those are the only times I've been "warned" lol...

Hittman

iTrader: (7)

Haha!!! Just got my first violation today in Faquier County, VA, the cops in Prince William and FFX have spared me for about 6 months, guess this guy wanted to be an A-hole

WickedIXMR

iTrader: (8)

Kurt about the thing when you have to drive through VA i believe cops cant give you a ticket for your exhaust even though it is illegel because your out of state and your state it can be legal. Also i heard by an ex VA cop they cant give you a tint ticket because your also out of state. I dont really think VA cops are all that different i just think its some cops just have their mean personality. But i can agree that most fairfax county cops are a-holes, but i have been pulled over twice by VA cops. One was an undercover on highway 66 east bound because of unsafe lane changing and he let me go and another by a fairfax county cop because he thought I was running away from him going through this neighborhood but i simply talked to him in a mature manor and offered him to search my car and give me drug tests or a breathalizer test and he was very nice and let me go, and this was all in my s2000 with volks lowered and a really loud exhaust. I just think it depends on how you act with the cop and what you did wrong.

Kurt

iTrader: (1)

I didn't have any problems going through VA. Then again, I did the speed limit. I was surpised by the amount of police that I saw and the amount of people that they had pulled over.

Skott2k

iTrader: (9)

i dont know if this thread is new or not but i was recently ticketed for my exhaust in virginia beach VA. my exhaust is 2.5 inch piping with a 3 inch tip magnaflow and i have a court date next month. there is no decibal required its basically the cops decision to screw you or not if its aftermarket. ive heard lots of stories about if your out of state or not so i called the va state police and it does not matter, im a resident of oregon my car is california registered and im on military orders and it doesnt matter, my tint is also too dark for va, even if your just passing through they according to va law can ticket you. the exhaust must be the stock or "like stock" im trying to fight it and losing incredibly so if anyone has any ideas other than the out of state registered thing lemme know!

WhiteEvo9

iTrader: (3)

I am a law enforcement officer, and while I don't pull over import cars for exhaust reasons personally, I know officers that do. I am going to tell you that you WILL lose this debate. If you read the law, it says "any unusual or excessive noise". This means that it is up to the officer's discretion what is unusual or excessive, and there is nothing you can do about it. The officer doesn't NEED a decibal meter because the law doesn't require him to use one in order for him to write you a ticket. He can give you a ticket for any unusual muffler or sound, and you basically have to go to court and prove him wrong. You put the muffler on, deal with it, its part of tuning cars.
Profiling is illegal, but only when race is an issue, and even then, it's really not. When an armed robbery is called in, they always ask the victim whether they are looking for a white or black person. If that isn't racial, I dunno what is, but it is what it is, and that's the way police work is done, and the way the world works. They also ask for a clothing description, and when it's a white t-shirt and jeans, anyone wearing that in the area is stopped and questioned, profiling? yeah, oh well. The whole "racial profiling" thing is played out anyway, I catch criminals who commit crimes, if they happen to be black, latino, or some other race, that is their fault for commiting the crime, not mine.
You can call the ACLU all you would like, but I guarantee they won't be able to do a thing. "Exhaust" profiling is something that normal people don't care about, so they will not change the law. They don't care about letting you drive your race car around. You are considered an annoyance to regular motorists and those that drive import cars have developed a "stigma" of racing around and driving like idiots.
If you want a racecar on the street, the exhaust laws and tickets are something you just deal with. You can thank "Fast and the Furious" for that. I had RX7 TT's a few years back with no cats and a Apex GT muffler, and noone bothered me before that stupid movie. Then again, none of the kids with imports drove around like idiots either, and there were few import enthusiasts. I do own an EVO, so i sympathize with you, but life sucks sometimes.

Jewish Santa

iTrader: (1)

+1

bboypuertoroc

iTrader: (17)

So you can give a STOCK SRT-4 a ticket then? That makes no sense. There is pleny that can be done about it... the burden of proof is on the officer, not the defendant. Innocent until PROVEN guilty... what ever happened to that? It's sad the way the "law" works in NoVA, and I'm damn glad I don't live there anymore. Nothing against you, but It's been my experience for the 8+ years I lived there.

Also, you can't ticket someone for something that is perfectly legal in the state that their car is registered just because they happen to be in VA with that vehicle. That also make no damn sense. I understand stuff like radar detectors, which can be easily removed and put back when out of state, but tint? Exhaust? Come on now. It's gonna get to the point that VA is gonna be right there with CA in regards to what you can and can't do with your car.

WhiteEvo9

iTrader: (3)

So you can give a STOCK SRT-4 a ticket then? That makes no sense. There is pleny that can be done about it... the burden of proof is on the officer, not the defendant. Innocent until PROVEN guilty... what ever happened to that? It's sad the way the "law" works in NoVA, and I'm damn glad I don't live there anymore. Nothing against you, but It's been my experience for the 8+ years I lived there.

>>>Wrong. Innocent until proven guilty is for criminal acts. Exhaust, tint, mods are all equipment violations, which are MVA/DMV laws. Driving an automobile is a privelage, and if you don't adhere by it, they can fine you. Remember, you choose to operate that car with an aftermarket exhaust on it, you don't HAVE to, it's optional, heck....it's optional to even drive a car in the first place. You could avoid a ticket by simply not putting the muffler on, or taking a bus. The burden of proof is on you, and even so, the law makes the "innocence" up to the officer's discretion. If there is plenty that can be done about it, I encourage you to do so. I am not an advocate of these laws, just telling you how it is.

Also, you can't ticket someone for something that is perfectly legal in the state that their car is registered just because they happen to be in VA with that vehicle. That also make no damn sense. I understand stuff like radar detectors, which can be easily removed and put back when out of state, but tint? Exhaust? Come on now. It's gonna get to the point that VA is gonna be right there with CA in regards to what you can and can't do with your car


>>>I am not a VA cop, and as far as cops go, most of us don't like VA cops. Not that I wouldn't back one up, but they are notorious for issuing other officers tickets and generally being dicks. It's basically because most areas of VA aren't in the "hood" and the cops have nothing real to do (don't tell them I said that). I don't know the vehicle laws in VA as far as ticketing vehicles from other states. My suggestion to someone who gets a ticket out of state is to bring documentation of the law in their home state to court in VA and present their case. I don't see how that would hold up in court, but it doesn't prevent the officer from issuing a ticket in the first place. In MD, I am not allowed to ticket out of state vehicles on equipment violations.

bboypuertoroc

iTrader: (17)

Good points...

The thing that would suck is say you live in Florida and you're driving to NY and you get a ticket in VA for modified exhaust. I doubt they're gonna drive all the way back up to appear in court. So they're just gonna **** their money away to VA. That's sad.

I would imagine the same is true in VA as in MD regarding ticketing out-of-state vehicles for these types of "violations"... I would imagine it's the same for all states.

TruBluIX

I would like to be the most recent "victim" to write in regards to the VA exhaust violation. I live in Alexandria and was recently pulled over and cited for Improper exhaust. I was in Fairfax county of course and the officer pulled me over because he came up behind me and saw my exhaust was angled upward. I had my court date today and I went step by step as I was guided by both of my Uncles (one is and attorney and one is a PA state police officer) I stated I was not guilty and waited for another 3 hours and 30 minutes for my turn to come again. Even though the officer was not able to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that my exhaust was not of factory origin and also had no sound or photo evidence to support his case I was found guilty. I moved to dismiss the case due to lack of evidence which was made very apparent in my questioning. Both the Judge and Officer refered to the exhaust very jokingly as "A coffee can" and then the judge found me guilty.

Which tells me one thing. If my neighbor who is so kind to wake me on the weekends from his straight pipes on his Harley or my friend with a Mustang "GT" Cobra with punched out cats and magnaflow cat back were to get an improper exhaust ticket. They would have to pay the $187.00 fine also.

The fact is that they are 99.9% sure not to ever be pulled over for this violation because of what they drive. If you have ever been randomly selected to be searched at an airport due to your nationality you know what I'm talking about.
Let's be honest. The Judicial system sucks. Guilty until you prove yourself innocent....But then you're guilty anyway.

Hittman

iTrader: (7)

Finally a cool law enforcement official! Seriously man you hit the nail on the head with that statement, since my last post I've been pulled over and ticketed at least (and this is no exaggeration) 6 times for my exhaust, 3 times for no front plate, both of which I got fixed ...anyways its refreshing to know that we VA residents aren't alone in our feelings towards our law enforcers....**** I'll move to MD just to avoid having to deal with these people

bboypuertoroc

iTrader: (17)

I might've already said it... but you can't complain if you get a ticket for an aftermarket exhaust. It's illegal, there's no way around it. I lucked out when I lived there because I had out of state plate on my DSM, and when I bought my Evo I never got harrassed for my exhaust.

It IS BS however that they found you guilty with no evidence.

InsaneEVO

iTrader: (1)

Aftermarket exhaust isn't illegal. It's only illegal if it exceeds factory exhaust in volume. Unless it's been changed within the last 5 years, that's how I read it when the officer highlighted it and handed it to me to read after I disputed how "loud" the car actually was. The messed up part is they have no clue how loud the factory exhaust is and yes, in my traffic court experiences in Virginia it's up to you to prove you are innocent which is even more messed up in my mind.

Hell, I was ticketed for my exhaust when I wrecked my car. Tell me how the officer has any idea how loud it is when the car won't run...

ThunderOZ

iTrader: (26)

Wow, I was basically told one night by a state trooper that anything you modify on the car so that it is not exactly as it was from the factory can be viewed as a violation...