Does Michigan Have the Worst Window Tint Law in the U.S.?
Tinted windows can look cool on your car or truck, but will it get you pulled over?
When I was in my twenties, my first order of business if I got a "new" car was to get my windows tinted. I'm not sure what I thought the benefits of window tint would be, other than the cool factor. Just last night a video popped up on my TikTok FYP about window tinting. A professional window tint installer out of the Port Huron area named Nathan Smith had this to say in his TikTok video,
The state of Michigan has the worst tint law in the whole country.
He goes on to demonstrate how you can have as little as 5% transparency on your back door windows and rear window but your front windows including the windshield are a different story entirely. You can only tint the top 4 inches of your front door windows and windshield. The rest of those windows can not have any tint whatsoever.
I can confirm that Smith's assessment of the law is correct, however, it does seem odd that you can have virtually zero visibility in the rear of your vehicle and virtually zero tinting on the front. So, would that make Michigan the worst in the nation? Maybe Michigan has the worst window tint law regarding how confusing it is. Let's take a look at some other states.
States that do not allow any window tint on rear windows
- Vermont
- New Hampshire
- New Jersey
States that allow the least amount of tint (70% transparency) on rear windows
- Alaska
- California
- Delaware
- Iowa
- New York
- Pennsylvania
- Rhode Island
- Washington D.C.
The amount of transparency required for front windows and windshields is all over the place for each state. You can see the full list by compiled by Rayno Window Film by clicking here.
Looking at window tint laws by state, Michigan lands close to the middle of the pack as far as how strict the rules are. Michigan is among the states with the most relaxed regulations for rear windows but is among the most strict states when it comes to front windows.