What would you do?

[Bob24]

Okay, I have a bit of a issue. The 2007 M45 I bought has dark tint, really dark tint. There was a little chunk out of the passenger side window tint so I brought it in this week to have the bad piece take off and new tint put on that window.

The tint is 15% meaning that it blocks out 85% of the light. The installer told me that since the window comes slightly tinted from the factory, the reading would probably go down to 10% or so. In Minnesota, you can only legally block out 50% of the light transmission and I am blocking out 90%.

The problem is that I am driving around a vehicle that a cop can stop at any time regardless of my speed or driving conduct. I know a quite a few cops and they stop cars with illegal tint all the time since it is great probable cause for pulling someone over. They don't generally issue tags, but it gives them the chance to run driver and look for any other issues.

When I showed a picture of my vehicle to a cop that I know that stopped by my work, his first comment was about the dark tint. Another guy I know a bit had skin cancer at one time so he has a doctor's note for his dark tint. He has been pulled over a few times and of course he is legal due to the note but the cops have told him that he can expect to be pulled over a lot due to his tint.

I love the dark tint though. I always have liked dark tint and think it adds a lot to a car's "look". However, I don't know if I want to be driving around with a car that screams "stop me!" to the cops.

What would you guys do? Bite the bullet and have the tint taken off and replaced with a much more modest shade or take my chances? [IMG][/IMG]

[AD1787]

If you ever plan to even have just one drink and then drive you are crazy to have illegal tint. Of course you are below the legal limit but do you really want to have the cop smelling alcohol on your breath and make you do a field test just because you wanted dark tint.

These cars look great even with a subtle tint. Play it safe.

[tytamto]

If you ever plan to even have A DRINK and then drive you are crazy. Play it safe.

Corrected

If you are scared about being pulled over for the dark tint, have it taken off and get something that is legal.

I have had all of my cars tinted, but mostly either legal, or 1 step darker (50% by law, I had 35% on). I think the M looks best no darker than 35%.

[Bob24]

That is a concern as I drink and drive every day except the few times a year I give blood. I belong to a social club that meets for happy hour every day and I have 5-6 beers with dinner. The place we generally go is only two blocks from my house.

I am very aware of DWI laws and from my education in law enforcement I am even state certified in administering the standardized field sobriety tests.

I have a pretty high tolerance and I know what it takes for someone of my size to get to the dreaded .08. I make sure that I stay on the right side of that number.

[antzrus]

...I have a pretty high tolerance and I know what it takes for someone of my size to get to the dreaded .08. I make sure that I stay on the right side of that number.

Hmmmm. 5-6 beers every night. 08 is illegally impaired. So you w/all the brains and certifications goes around driving legally impaired his 2 ton S machine w/my children and wife on the same road.

If I were you I'd go to my local drug and alcohol treatment center and take a few classes before you kill yourself or more importantly someone else's loved ones.

And you're worried about tint..?($%^!!

[Bob24]

Hmmmm. 5-6 beers every night. 08 is illegally impaired. So you w/all the brains and certifications goes around driving legally impaired his 2 ton S machine w/my children and wife on the same road.

If I were you I'd go to my local drug and alcohol treatment center and take a few classes before you kill yourself or more importantly someone else's loved ones.

And you're worried about tint..?($%^!!

Those 5-6 light beers over a couple hours with food keep me safely under the legal limit. Without food, I would be batting in the neighborhood of an .05 to .06. With food, it drops from there.

I am okay with that. For a lot of years the law was .10. I am a big Irish guy and I like my beer. But, unlike 1 in 8 Minnesotans, I have never received a DWI since I know my limits and the legal limits.

Trust me, you and your family have more to worry about with teenagers driving on cell phones and women putting on make-up behind the wheel than from me having some beers.

Now that you have made your feelings known about my social habits, let's get back to the question at hand.
Modified by Bob24 at 1:26 AM 1/11/2009

[M4T5]

Bob,

IMO: 90% visual sight looking through your windows seems a bit rediculous. It's beyond illegal, an is a public safety issue. You are already imparing yourself from seeing clearly through you side windows. I cannot imagine what your visibility is at night! Probably 1%-5% visibility.... These cars do no look as classy with such dark tinting on the windows. Hell, I think they look best without any at all. Bob? Are you an OG? Hmm? We have an Irish "Original Gangster" in the house! Bob, just remove the tint and put something on that looks better and has function.By the way, what kind of social club is this that you belong to?.... AA???

J

[Bob24]

I work overnights and have for my entire career. I am nocturnal I swear. When I was in the police academy we did night shoots and while all the others in class saw their accuracy suffer when the lights went out, mine improved significantly. My instructor told me that as long as I got into a shootout at night I would be fine.

Here is my beauty:http://www.justrollsroyce.com/...m.jpg

http://www.justrollsroyce.com/...m.jpg

So, the vision issue isn't really an issue with me at all. I am really leaning towards taking it off not only due to it being a pain if I get stopped all the time but if I got into an accident I am sure an attorney worth their salt would try to pin the dark tint as a contributing factor.

The social club isn't AA but I did get a laugh from that! We all have vices, my vice is beer.

[M4T5]

Bob?? What do you have in the trunk in your second photo?????: http://www.justrollsroyce.com/...m.jpg

A trunk full of drugs from a bust or is it loaded down with cases of BEER??

I looks like the rear is sagging in that photo. The car looks good. Will still look good without the limo tint! Bob, you know we all think you with an icon like this in mind----> We understand Bob....taking beer away from an Irish guy is like taking candy away from a kid!

J

[Bob24]

here is a view from the other side, does it look like it is sagging from here?

http://www.justrollsroyce.com/...m.jpg

[M4T5]

here is a view from the other side, does it look like it is sagging from here?

http://www.justrollsroyce.com/...m.jpg

Maybe it's your camera angle.... but yeah it still looks like it's sagging a little. Just take the illegal stuff out of the trunk Bob! You need to hide it somewhere else!

J

[Bob24]

I went out and looked at it and all seems good in regards to the sagging issue. My BMW actually sagged in the passenger front after a few years and the dealer and the private shop I went to could never figure it out.

[antzrus]

Those 5-6 light beers over a couple hours with food keep me safely under the legal limit. Without food, I would be batting in the neighborhood of an .05 to .06. With food, it drops from there.

I am okay with that. For a lot of years the law was .10. I am a big Irish guy and I like my beer. But, unlike 1 in 8 Minnesotans, I have never received a DWI since I know my limits and the legal limits.

I am aware that you already know it all-but remember Socrates thoughts about your knowledge: "The truly wise man is the man who knows he does not know..."

Lots of words following-but "knowing" the below could save a life.

Studies of Alcohol-Related Impairment

The epidemiologic evidence linking alcohol and transportation accidents is supported by experimental studies of alcohol's effect on specific driving-related skills. Although the following discussion concentrates on highway traffic safety, most of the skills involved pertain to other forms of transportation as well.

These skills may be divided into cognitive skills, such as information processing, and psychomotor skills (those involving eye-brain-hand coordination). Impairment is related to alcohol in terms of its concentration in the bloodstream. For reference, a blood alcohol concentration (BAC) of 0.04 percent might be achieved by a 150-pound man consuming two drinks in 1 hour (7).

The brain's control of eye movements is highly vulnerable to alcohol. In driving, the eyes must focus briefly on important objects in the visual field and track them as they (and the vehicle) move. Low to moderate BAC's (0.03 to 0.05 percent) interfere with voluntary eye movements, impairing the eye's ability to rapidly track a moving target (8-10).

Steering is a complex psychomotor task in which alcohol effects on eye-to-hand reaction time are superimposed upon the visual effects described above. Significant impairment in steering ability may begin as low as approximately 0.035 percent BAC and rises as BAC increases (11).

Alcohol impairs nearly every aspect of information processing by the brain (3). Alcohol-impaired drivers require more time to read a street sign or to respond to a traffic signal than unimpaired drivers; consequently, they tend to look at fewer sources of information (12). Research on the effects of alcohol on performance by both auto-mobile and aircraft operators shows a narrowing of the attentional field beginning at approximately 0.04 percent BAC (13).

The most sensitive aspect of driving performance is the division of attention among component skills. Drivers must maintain their vehicles in the proper lane and direction (a tracking task) while monitoring the environment for vital safety information, such as other vehicles, traffic signals, and pedestrians.

Alcohol-impaired subjects who are required to divide their attention between two tasks tend to favor one of them. Therefore, alcohol-impaired drivers tend to concentrate on steering, becoming less vigilant with respect to safety information. Results of numerous studies indicate that divided attention deficits occur as low as 0.02 percent BAC (12).

The ability to divide attention is especially critical in aviation. Morrow and colleagues (14) noted that radio communication during simulated flight was impaired significantly by divided attention deficit at BAC's as low as 0.04 percent.

The combined effects of these individual deficits on overall performance have been studied under simulated vehicle-operating conditions. A review of six ground-traffic simulator studies demonstrated consistently poorer performance at BAC's of 0.048 percent and above (15).

In a typical study of the effects of pilot impairment, aircraft pilots completed eight sessions of simulated flight between San Francisco and Los Angeles in a Boeing 727-232 simulator (16). Planning and performance errors, procedural errors, and failures of vigilance each increased significantly with increasing BAC. Serious errors increased significantly at the lowest BAC, 0.025 percent, compared with performance at 0 percent BAC.

Results of epidemiologic and experimental studies permit certain conclusions to be drawn. First, the degree of impairment depends on the complexity of the task involved as well as the BAC (1).

Second, the magnitude of alcohol-induced impairment rises as BAC increases and dissipates as alcohol is eliminated from the body.

Third, at a given BAC, some skills are more impaired than others (12).

Finally, investigators have not found an absolute BAC threshold below which there is no impairment of any kind. Certain skills important for driving are impaired at 0.01 to 0.02 percent BAC, the lowest levels that can be measured reliably by commonly used devices (17).

(7) Fisher, H.R.; Simpson, R.I.; & Kapur, B.M. Calculation of blood alcohol concentration (BAC) by sex, weight, number of drinks and time. Canadian Journal of Public Health 78(5) :300-304, 1987. (8) Busloff, S.E. Can your eyes be used against you? The use of the horizontal gaze nystagmus test in the courtroom. Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology 84(1) :203-238, 1993. (9) Katoh, Z. Slowing effects of alcohol on voluntary eye movements. Aviation, Space, and Environmental Medicine 59:606-610, 1988. (10) Baloh, R.W.; Sharma, S.; Moskowitz, H.; & Griffith, R. Effect of alcohol and marijuana on eye movements. Aviation, Space, and Environmental Medicine 50 (1) 8-23, 1979. (11) Linnoila, M.; Erwin, C.W.; Ramm, D.; & Cleveland, W.P. Effects of age and alcohol on psychomotor performance of men. Journal of Studies on Alcohol 41(5):488-495, 1980. (12) Moskowitz, H., & Burns, M. Effects of alcohol on driving performance. Alcohol Health & Research World 14 (1)2-14, 1990. (13) Mundt, J.C., & Ross, L.E. Methodological issues for evaluation of alcohol and other drug effects: Examples from flight-simulator perform-ance. Behavior Research Methods, Instruments, & Computers 25 (3) :360-365, 1993. (14) Morrow, D.; Leirer, V.; & Yesavage, J. The influence of alcohol and aging on radio communication during flight. Aviation, Space, and Environmental Medicine 61(1)2-20, 1990. (15) Howat, P.; Sleet, D.; & Smith, I. Alcohol and driving: Is the 0.05% blood alcohol concentration limit justified? Drug and Alcohol Review 10 (2) 51-166, 1991. (16) Billings, C.E.; Demosthenes, T.; White, T.R.; & O'Hara, D.B. Effects of alcohol on pilot performance in simulated flight. Aviation, Space, and Environmental Medicine 62 (3):233-235, 1991. (17) Moskowitz, H.; Burns, M.M.; & Williams, A.F. Skills performance at low blood alcohol levels. Journal of Studies on Alcohol 46 (6):482-485, 1985.
Modified by antzrus at 8:21 PM 1/11/2009

[SHREVE66]

Wow, when I first read your reply about a social club, I thought you were joking when you said 5 to 6 beers every night. Think about how you sound and what you are asking. You drink 5 to 6 beers every night and drive around with illegal tint. You can not have been sober when you posted this? And the food does not get rid of the alcohol in your blood. 3 beers puts most people above a .08, no matter the weight. TAKE THE TINT OFF!!!!! and dont drink and drive.

[striz923]

I got pulled over in my Honda Prelude because of illegal tint. The cop said "do you know why I pulled you over?" I thought because I was speeding like crazy... but said no sir. He said because your windows are too dark. Talk about being happy. I ended up taking it off after getting a warning.

On the skin cancer bit, that is freaking ridiculous. Cancer is caused by UV which car windows block.

[Bob24]

Wow, when I first read your reply about a social club, I thought you were joking when you said 5 to 6 beers every night. Think about how you sound and what you are asking. You drink 5 to 6 beers every night and drive around with illegal tint. You can not have been sober when you posted this? And the food does not get rid of the alcohol in your blood. 3 beers puts most people above a .08, no matter the weight. TAKE THE TINT OFF!!!!! and dont drink and drive.

Below you will find a link to a Blood Alcohol Content calculator. Food does not get rid of any alcohol but it dramatically slows down the process of absorbing the alcohol into your blood. 3 beers does not put most people above a .08 no matter what their weight. That is simply not a true statement. Weight is a big factor as is gender. Things like tolerance impact impairment as well. Tolerance does not impact the chemistry of BAC however.

http://www.ou.edu/oupd/bac.htm

[SHREVE66]

Ok, the calculator I used was a little different than this 1. I would much rather lean towards the 1 that I used, because if this calculator is wrong, then you get a DUI. I am not sure which 1 is correct, but from what I saw, 2 drinks, most people are ok, 3 beers and that puts you over .08. Good luck on avoiding the law. You can take that chance if you like, but to me, drinking 5 to 6 beers and driving is just foolish.

[Bob24]

I have access to a PBT and have tested myself after a normal round of drinking. I don't come close to .08. I am very careful not to get over the limit. It just isn't prudent.

Of course, having zero drinks and driving is the best way to go. You get no argument from me on that.

[jbillion]

It really depends how long it took you to drink the 5 - 6 beers. There s a big difference between drinking 5 - 6 beers in 1 hour vs. 3 - 4 hours. I can drink a 6 pack while watching football on Sunday (both games) and drive afterwords without being impaired.

[antzrus]

It really depends how long it took you to drink the 5 - 6 beers. There s a big difference between drinking 5 - 6 beers in 1 hour vs. 3 - 4 hours. I can drink a 6 pack while watching football on Sunday (both games) and drive afterwords without being impaired.

George Orwell said it best: "Ignorance is bliss."

I guess I ought not to complain. I make a pretty decent living offa' guys w/similar behaviors/beliefs.