What do cops watch for?
 

Okay here is the deal, for my car i want to get a loud muffler, but my parents really dont want me to get one and with me being 16 they really have the last say in things. They say that the cops are going to be all over me if i have a loud muffler. This is where i want your imput seeing that you guys have been on the road one heck of a lot longer than i have. What is going to attrack the cops more

A. a tan 92' protege with a loud muffler, that has no other visual modifacations to it.

or

B. a fancy sports car like a corevette or a really modifyed civic or something alone those lines?

Thanks for your imput on this.

I would say B b/c I have a loud muffler and a system containing 3 12's and an amp and cops havnt done anything to me I think they would be more interested in vettes or stangs or somethin..........I got a white pro but I am bout to get a Nissan 300zx, but yeah your car is safe............

The loud muffler will aggrivate them and when they catch you speeding they will write you up for "the whole 9 yards". My brother had an eclipse all decked out and whenever he got pulled over for something minor they would rip him up. You got to remember that the guys that buy vetts are usually older and more mature so cops won't target the exotics unless they are speeding. The cops like to rip the young kids that mod their cars. Usually because something illegal was done to grab their attention. To answer the question a little better if the cop had to pick from you and a "really modifyed civic" he would go for the civic. But that still doesn't mean you won't get pulled over for a loud exhaust. Just don't drive like an immature teenager and they can't pull you over.:D

agreed....don't do anything worng and you have nothing to worry about.

okay well maybe this will help my argument

The loud exhaust just gives cops a reason to single you out of the crowd. I have a very loud exhaust on one of my cars and get followed all the time but never get pulled over because I am never speeding.

well that is good to know

It's my opinion that cops nowadays shoot radar, and that's about it. You can drive by thier little "cherry patch" (AKA a place where picking off speeders is easy) with both arms out the window while tailgating 2' from the car ahead, with the horn blaring, but if you ain't speeding they dont even look up form the LED display. Traffic enforcement has sadly morphed into "back-filling city coffers by any means possible", and the quickest easiest way is "crackdowns on speeding." It looks good on the nightly local news when they interview the Police Chief, 90% of the ignorant public buys into it, and meanwhile people still road rage, tailgate, cut each other off, and generally drive like asses and crash alot. Speeding is often cited as a "factor" in accidents but is seldom the "cause." Most are caused by inattention combined with a right-of-way violation. I don't condone going 60 in a 35 zone, but if they really wanted to "reduce accidents", they would simply have lots of MARKED cars in the traffic flow as much as possible. Then everyone would behave all the time, but hey, that sure wouldn't raise much revenue, so don't even think about it. <sigh>

How about this, don't speed, don't drive like an idiot and they won't have an excuse to pull you over.

As posted in Sport Compact Car's October 2003 Issue:

Interview with Officer Steven Foster of the California Highway Patrol

Tips to keep the cops away:

1. Don't do anything illegal

2. Swearving in and out of traffic is going to get you noticed. Find a Lane and stick to it.

3. You might want to think twice about the bright green paint. If a car is easy to see and it's doing something stupid, it's that much easier to find.

4. Bumper stickers don't do you any good. Why would you want a sticker saying "Don't flip me off, I'm reloading" on your car anyway? Why do it? They just attract attention or put the cop in a bad mood when he stops you.

5. If you're causing other people on the roadway to do something because of your actions, like brake or swerve, you're going to get looked at for sure.

6. Keep a low profile on the car. If you're going to put a big engine in it, don't announce it to the world. My friend's 94 Civic looks completely stock but has a custom-built engine and can probably run 11's. He never gets hassled. Meanwhile, there's a kid at the school where I now teach who has a mango orange Civic that just begs to be inspected. He gets stopped all the time.

Ha!!

i get stopped all the time, but i dunt do anything illegal....

hmmm one time lets see.... the passenger ducked down (that was the cops reason, he thought he was hiding weed or something) so i got pulled over for that (my friend ducked down to fix his shirt or something)

hmmm another reason..... they thought the car was stolen.... and asked me how do i get a new car liek this....

hmmm.... another is....we pulled out of a beer store parking lot... (didn't goto the beer store, just another store liek a couple of stores down) they pulled me over then.....

hmmm another... smoking a cigarette..... they said they thought it was weed......

the cops always look at me... and i USED to drive stupidly... OVER 2 YEARS ago....my last ticket was over 2 years ago.....
now i dunt go over the speed limit.... maybe 5 km/h over here n there..... staying in one lane.... and thas it.... nothign illegal or anything....oh well

i geuss thats the thing for being a young brown guy these days :p , well especially in my area

oh yeah my car is stock!!!!!!!!!

I got pulled over twice in an hour driving my 83 Cutlass a few years back.
The first time was because one of my tail lights was out. Amazingly they were back on when I went to check them and they NEVER went out again until the bulb actually blew a few months later. That time I knew it went out because the car tells you its out.
About an hour later I get pulled over in the same town, and they actually pulled me out of the car and searched because they had reports of a car like MINE with somebody with a gun. Now, heres the deal, This Cutlass had a 383ci engine, big ass deep dish kragers with x-wide tires in the back, a pristine paintjob and a double snorkle ram air hood. They had a report of someone with a gun, in a car like MINE. Yeah....right. I only race at the track and with a high profile car I always drove smart. Sometimes cops just like to bust balls thats it, plain an simple.

Why would you want a loud muffler anyway?

But cops will eventually hassle you because of noise pollution. The only motorized vehicles that have extremely loud mufflers that are legal are motorcycles.

The bottom line is that, if you can't pass inspection with it, it's illegal

I don't think he means loud as in abnoxiously loud. I think he just means a performance muffler, in which is naturally louder than stock. In that case, I think it would pass inspection. I mean for Gods sake we have COPS in my area that are really into cars and car shows. Alot of them show up ( at weekly car shows) in their muscle cars with straight pipes and glasspacks. Now those are loud.

<~~~pulled over in my MSP because the cop said he clocked one on the interstate at 125mph...wanted to see what they had in them!!