Destro

No, but us hispanics always do.

KlokDeezal

iTrader: (1)

Ok, so since the website cannot be used and this document is the only thing that will hold up in court. What do you suggest...should I fight the ticket or just pay it? Or can it still be my word against his? Can I still win that way?

pdjafari

iTrader: (2)

i dont think you can win....legally your below the limit (<50%)...BUT the judge may toss it out (very petty), reduce the charge/fine, or the officer might not even show up b/c he'll assume you'll just pay it and you might walk off...

LEK

you're hispanic? i always thought you were white...

vlm7

iTrader: (1)

Disclaimer - I am not dispensing legal advice.

That said, does the ticket indicate where the cop measured your tint? If it says the front window, I think you should just mail in a check as 33% is well below 50, and it would be hard to argue that 7% margin of error plus lack of calibration, etc. accounts for that delta. If it does not say it was measured in your front windo, you can argue it was the rear, and the applicable standard is 35%, in which case you have a much better shot at persuading the judge that 33% was erroneous and your rears are within the 35% permissible tint range.

Destro

Half and half.

You are usually always better to show up for court than mail it in. You will at least have a chance that the officer will not show up, or the judge may throw it out or reduce it. On the other hand he might not if you do not have proof that you removed.

You can always take a picture of another G35 in the same color as yours with no tint and show that to the judge and tell nim that it was removed. A friend of mine with a silver SE-R Sentra got an exhaust ticket in VA Beach for something rediculous like $300. He took a picture of another silver SE-R with the stock exhaust, and put his license plate on it. He showed that to the judge and he dropped it.

arjunz

iTrader: (1)

+1..

Skyline 35 G

Yeah dude I don't know much about tinting, but Fairfax cops are so gay dude. I hate them. See them everyday.....

stillen_i30

Sorry to hear about the ticket, i know tickets suck. I got pulled over for tints on my old car three times, two tickets and once, they let me go.

Anyhow, tint film prevents some light from coming into the car. Its a colored film, which affects the transmittance of light. When you talk about transmittance, you mean how much light is allowed through an object. The inverse of this is absorbance.

Those meters and tint films all go by transmittance. The amount of light present outside does not affect a cops tint meter. This is because the cop's meter has its own source of light. With regard to the meter: on one side of the window is a light bulb, and the other side is a light receiver. Ideally, when nothing exists between the bulb and receiver, the transmittance is 100% (all light is allowed thru). If you put an opaque substance between, ideally the transmittance is 0% (no light allowed thru). In the real world, it can never be so pure to be 100% (its 99.9999999999999999etc%)

So do NOT use the statement about the amount of light outside when the cop measured your window in your defense...the meter has its OWN light source as if the sun never existed.

I am baffled as to why the law says there is a "margin" of error, when the "margin" is only +7%. Usually, things go by +/-7% (hence, the creation of a margin). Anyhow, its all just to catch more people I think.

I think your best defense would be to explain to the COP/JUDGE that the meter accurately detected that the window film is rated at 35% transmittance, with some allowance for general error (there may even have been dirt at the point where his meter was measuring, thus bringing the transmittance down a bit more). Ideally, your window would have been 35% or more. Prove to him (via the tint manufacturer's website) that your tint is only available in 35%, 20%, 5% etc. There is NOTHING like 35, 33, etc...the difference is negligable. In other words, explain to the court that there is such a thing is MINOR NEGLIGABLE ERROR in the world! You should also say that you dont think it was in the cop's best interest to give you a summons to court for something that is so borderline, especially when you have proof to back that the manufacturer doesn't make tint in the percentage he measured.

Sorry for the long post, but hopefully you read it and can benefit from it. Sorry for repeating anything that was already mentioned earlier. BTW, to the other poster who mentioned the actual window being tinted from the factory also, you are in fact right as far as I know...a cop once told me that all cars come from the factory with 70% light transmittance tinting, of which is the legal limit on any passenger window in the entire US. Thereafter, each state (usually the ones in the south) has further allowances. To the best that you know, you were staying within those legal state limits when having the tint installed, and were not accounting for minor negligable worldly errors. Good luck

KlokDeezal

iTrader: (1)

Hey, Thanx for the advice.

clokwork

you could have put some pictures up for the poor guy. His brain was damaged in an unfortunate accident that Id like to call birth.

KlokDeezal

iTrader: (1)

This from a man who is living proof that a man can live w/o a brain

clokwork

^^ this from a man whos brain is "this is what your brain looks like on drugs" but without the drugs.

KlokDeezal

iTrader: (1)

This coming from a man who you would use as a blueprint to build an idiot

clokwork

thsis from a man that thought his car came with drugs since it has LSD