IntelliPlate Review

[KingPen]

Hey all. I know many of you like a good Car mod just as much as we like our systems so I though I would share my latest toy.

Brand: IntelliPlate license plate frame. intelliPlate™ - Home

Rating. 3.5 out of 5

Pros: Heavy duty steal construction, reasonable price (you can get cheaper if your ask ), Cool factor

Cons: Has quite a few bugs to work out. See below...

Overall Opinion: So here's the deal. First I don't condone any illegal use but we all know that. Use it for keeping your registration stickers from being stolen and for when your at a car show. Overall its a really solid product that I think will hold up but it does have a few bugs that could be worked out.

First here is a pic of the unit itself. If you notice the corners are rounded. This cuts off most of the registration stickers in the corners. I had to move mine way up for them to be visible. I think its because of how big the motor is here.




Second, it opens in a calm shell fashion. The plate mounts to the back and the top part folds down over it and is secured by two screws at the bottom. The problem here is the Wire coming from the motor is very short and folds up with the unit. This means you have to leave lots of slack in wire that feeds in from the back to allow you to open it. And quite frankly there isn't anywhere in the frame to stick the extra wire. I'm still trying to work that all out. Further the clip has to sit below the license plate for it to work (not under or on top of), which is very hard to do. Both a result of poor design IMO.



This little piece at the bottom holds the frame up and is right in the d*amn way, as its right beside the hole the wire comes into.



A big complaint for me is the ruber track system is located right against the plate. I had problems with it getting stuck on the plate and not working. I had to make sure my plate was perfectly flat on the back or it would get stuck. A simple cover could have fixed that...



The little key fob is pretty cool and the main unit works well. I don't like how the wires connect, they feel very cheap and the connections for the wires on the outside of the car are also cheap and not water proof.





This little fella sits on your dash and lights up when the plate is covered. Its about half the height of a quarter. Very important piece IMO. Don't want the plate to be down while your driving around by mistake. That would be fun to explain to the officer. "Sir, do you know why I stopped you.... Umm, actually no not this time.... We have reports of a robbery and your driving around with your plate covered... Oops lol. Mistake or not there still going to take your license for using evasion equipment.



Next, the screws that come with it to secure the top portion of the plate to the bottom are just regular Philips head screws. So not much good for preventing theft. I think they need to be replaced with a special screw head to prevent people from just unscrewing them and opening it. Still could be drilled out I guess but not as easily. They could use something like those silly tri wing screws that they use on the wii lol.



Next the Power adapter is just a cigarette lighter adapter. But the cord is only like 3-4 ft long so your pretty limited. I think they should have included one for direct wire as well that was like 10-15ft. That way I don't have to cut and splice.

Next the wire that runs from front to back is way to d*amn short. I have a pretty short car and it wasn't nearly long enough for me to run it though my hatch and under my carpet.

Finally, a good and bad thing. The cover that slides down is a very thin piece of cloth. This makes it easy to hide the plate visually and helps to keep the frame thin, but at the same time its really useless for preventing sticker theft as someone could just rip it in like 2 seconds.


But with all the little bugs its still pretty cool.

+ YouTube Video

[Darkmage1991]

that sounds like the perfect thing for theifs

just need to replace the slide down door with a fake liceanse plate. that way they see a plate then you flip it bam its something else. =P

[KingPen]

Originally Posted by Darkmage1991

that sounds like the perfect thing for theifs

just need to replace the slide down door with a fake liceanse plate. that way they see a plate then you flip it bam its something else. =P

Haha, its a very sound investment. For the small upfront fee and install time you have your very own get away car

[cxa0897]

I almost built something similar for my rx8 when I had it. That was 100% for illegal behavior though

[KingPen]

Originally Posted by cxa0897

I almost built something similar for my rx8 when I had it. That was 100% for illegal behavior though

Lol, well there's always that. Its not such a bad idea to just keep the option on the table lol.

[SaintSammy]

Sounds like the perfect thing for theifs.

[KingPen]

Originally Posted by SaintSammy

Sounds like the perfect thing for theifs.

On the contrary, lets say your like me and you go to car shows with $5,000 of audio equipment in your car. Some thief likes what he sees so he writes down your plate, traces it back to the address you have on file using a fraudulent insurance claim and 2 weeks later your s*hit goes missing and your cited for a hit and run and fixing the guys bumper that he f*ucked up 3 years ago in some hit and run that he committed... So ya I guess this would be perfect for a thief and keeping them at bay.