There are a few rules I like to break and some I like to break more often than others. Here is my outlook;
Sometimes having the wheels angled helps, sometimes it doesnt, it all depends what you’re trying to accomplish. If I left the wheels straight in #4 the cars angle would look out of place in relation to the road. It would still work, but could go either way. I have 3 favorite automotive photographers, Scott Chu, William Stern, and Wesley Allison. If you look at William Sterns portfolio for example (he shoots for 360forged wheels) 360 Forged | Flickr most of his shots contain some wheel angle. You are right, it is good to mix it up.
The 3 wheel trick is something I dont really pay much attention to. The new STi is not a very photogenic car and only looks good at certain angles, I’d much rather have the body of the car looking good than a quater of the backside of a wheel on the opposite side of the car in the shot. Evenly spacing each wheel in the shot makes my car look even more like a Nissan Murano or Lexus RX, for some reason it totally changes shape and not in a good way.
The rule of thirds is another favorite rule of mine to break; its good to follow, but so much fun to break. Sometimes you are forced to break it.
n!cole you are correct, VT reqiures front plates and the fine to not have one isnt worth it. F this state. My look on license plates and other parts of the car is; that if its there, leave it. Its the way you would see the car going down a road in person. I like to blank out the plate numbers unless the car owner says otherwise so no problems can arise, like the car ending up on ebay when its not for sale, if you catch my drift. If you start removing too many parts of the car then you have nothing to look at.
Thanks man.