mick1

I noticed that nearly all of the new MB cars at Smythe European (San Jose, CA) got the front plates but none of the new MB cars at Fletcher Jones (Fremont, CA) got them plates.

I had never paid attention about the front plate before but then before I ordered my car, I noticed that there were many cars on the road without them, so I decided to tell the dealer not to mount it.

Speaking about the law, CA law says 65 mph is the max. speed limit but if you drive on the freeway, you will see that practically nobody drives 65 mph.

PrsnBenz

yeah my car didnt come with it either without us saying anything and thank god they didnt. they did however on my dads car and i give him crap for it but hes an old man so he doesnt care.

i personally think it should be the customers choice, its their responsibility whether or not to put it there and its our own fault if we get a ticket. id brush it off but i havent gotten cited for it yet.

oh and btw mick, when did the fremont dealership become fletcher jones???? i dont know if thats a good or bad thing but most people associate fletcher jones with the newport beach dealership, where i got my car. ewwwwww that sucks lol.

SwedeMercedes

I just took delivery 3 weeks ago and told them directly NOT to install my front bracket, sure enough they did anyway. So I will go with the plugs, I will not put the front plate on unless I absolutely have to.

Where do you get the bumper plugs?

Thanks.

"All is fair in love and war"

ClayJ

Listed a few times at the bottom of the this thread - bumperplugs.com

mick1

very recently. only about 3 or 4 months ago, i think. I work close to there so I would walk pass that dealer every day in my lunch time walk

FrankW

no matter what you do the dealership is not going to give you another bumper. At most they are gonna give you the same thing Kenzbenz got.

Mine didn't came with the plate bracket and I only told my sales once, but in the end I put on the Euro plate anyway. lol

white_w203

i would personally talk to the general sales manager not to drill holes. if they have a class action suit then just recommend to sign a waiver or whatever it takes not to drill holes!

mctwin2kman

Well in the end yes you should get what you want. But this is a sticky situation for some dealers. I used to live in NYS and my family owned a dealership. We had to put the front plate frames on. Not by law or anything but it was just easier to have the rule. I live in PA and enjoy having no front plate now.....

electromethod

It's two tiny holes in the bumper that you fill with bumper plugs. Big deal. Get over it. I can't believe people get spastic over this.

Saprissa

there's a band of people out there in SoCal, going around removing front license plates from as many cars as possible. They are hitting malls, shopping centers, business parks. Their goal is to take as many front license plates off cars as possible.

and what do they do with all these front license plates ? sell them as souvenirs in Latin America.

MB-BOB

Manufacturers go to great lengths to fine tune the aerodynamics of the front facia of every car to minimize drag... then the states require a slab-sided bumper plate, counter to the goal. Not to be a tree-hugger, but it wastes natural resources to make a second plate, and also costs more for the state to acquire it (it's OK, you pay for it with your taxes). Then of course, the plate causes marginally less fuel economy per car, which (given the effect of large numbers) pressures the demand for petroleum, which contributes to the price of gasoline. A front plate also compromises the bumper's design in doing it's job in low speed crashes, contributing to higher repair costs.

I believe in following the law, of course, but I believe the only reason for it is to benefit law enforcement, presumably in catching us doing something wrong, a presumption of guilt -- rather than innocence -- on all car owners. But at minimum, plate laws do not outweigh a greater need to be fuel efficient, imo.

I requested no plate mount on mine (in Missouri) and got what I asked, only to find out a year later that the bumper was drilled, but refinished without the holes prior to delivery. It looks fine. The Bumper plugs are OK, but not as clean as a pristine bumper.

As for whose responsibility it is to install the plate, keep in mind dealers are licensed by the state, so if they don't comply with state law, they could be held liable to lose their business licenses. Having the purchaser sign a waiver helps protect them (in case you buy the car at a plate state dealer, but register it in a non-plate state), but if tested in court will probably not stand.

So, while all of us would like to control our own cars, we must be content to recognize the dealer has obligations, and that if we chose to not display the front plate, we take responsibility for it when caught.

C43AMG

I feel the manufacturers should make a better mounting bracket that attaches to the underside of the bumper and suspends the plate off the front of the bumper so that if it has to be mounted or removed it preserves the original design of the car.

Jkw

FIXEDupW209,
Good luck,
I hope you had it in writing, When I bought my car I had the write right on the contract, No Dealer Insignia, of course there was one, but they were able to get it off w/out damaging the paint, or I wouldn't have accepted delivery.
My buddy did the same thing years ago when they were still screwing them on, they replaced the trunk lid before he would take delivery.
Jkw

Trekman

its funny cuz I know for a fact that if anyone here got pulled over for not having front plates, we would tell the cop that it came from the dealer with out it....

SteveL1

Unfortunatly, the only way that you will have any legal recorse with the dealer is if you wrote on the sales contract that you demand that no holes were to be drilled in the bumper. That way, they sign it and are obligated to provide you with what you ordered. If not in writing, you just have to hope that they are willing to work with you.

By the way, BumperPlugs.com does a nice job! I know a bunch of Porsche guys that have them and unless you are within 10ft of the car, you can not tell they are there.

mleskovar

What happened?

k_lundquist

Ok I'm sorry... Loss of Aerodynamics? Extra Fuel Consumption? Getting a new bumper?? All over something that is supposed to LEGALLY BE THERE.

I could understand if we were talking about dealer advertisements on the car. I asked for that not to be on mine and they put it on anyway. They of course removed them with no damage, if there was some damage I'd be as "Fcking Pissed Off" as you are now.

But come-on dude, a license plate mount? Now you're just being an over-demanding customer. I would totally agree if the dealer decides to hold your deposit because you made a stink over a $15 part on a $30,000+ car and refused delivery.

pookie

luckily for me, my dealer forgets to do lots of things from delivery to service. it seems they really do not have it together (they have a new SA nearly every 2-4months)

MB-BOB

Most states require a front plate, but 40% of states do not, or have actually repealed the requirement.

Texas passed its front plate law only 10-years ago, and law enforcement has been fighting a defiant citizenry since. I estimate the compliance rate in TX at about 75%.

You can join 13,000 people who have signed the petition to repeal the law in Texas -- if you wish -- by going HERE Do a google search on front license plate to see the petitions currently being collected in Minnesota, New Jersey, Ohio, Maryland, and California, in addition to Texas. So, it's not a "Red State/Blue State" issue.

I have not seen a front plate on a Corvette in decades, even in the states that require them. Doesn't make it legal, of course. Point is, there seems to be a developing groundswell to do away with them.

mleskovar

"Over-demanding" customers do not exist, only customer demands. If...as a retailer...you do not meet customer demands then you deserve to lose customers. If..as a consumer...you do not get what you expect and pay for then you are either intimidated, don't care, or just plain not smart. Every time (which is too often ) I cleaned my front bumper and had to touch up around the plugs I would be reminded I didn't get what I wanted. Petty? To each his own.

MB-BOB

A member here designed an under-bumper bracket several years ago. So far it's collecting dust in my hard drive...

ClayJ

Hmmmmm...why do I find myself quoting you so often MB-BOB...?

Example: Nevada -

Las Vegas Review Journal Nov. 02, 2005
ROAD WARRIOR Q&A :
One more thing: Last week, we told you that Nevada drivers must display license plates on the front of their cars. Since then, the Road Warrior's Department of New Laws Nobody Knows About called up our international headquarters to alert them that's not so any longer in the Silver State.
"They passed a law that said if you have a motor vehicle that isn't set up for a front license plate, you don't have to have one," said Tom Jacobs, a spokesman with the Nevada Department of Motor Vehicles.

This is what the law now reads, in part:
"If the motor vehicle was not manufactured to include a bracket, device or other contrivance to display and secure a front license plate, and if the manufacturer of the motor vehicle provided no other means or method by which a front license plate may be displayed upon and secured to the motor vehicle: (a) One license plate must be attached to the motor vehicle in the rear; and (b) The other license plate may, at the option of the owner of the vehicle, be attached to the motor vehicle in the front."

In layman's terms, if there's no license plate holder or bracket in front of your car, you don't need to rig a plate to the front. The law took effect July 1.

My bad for missing out on the update in the first place. But at least it's good to see our state Legislature hard at work on issues affecting the health, safety and welfare of all Nevadans -- like sparing a Ferrari owner the pain and suffering of having to bruise his baby's front bumper with an ugly ol' license plate.

[italics mine, sarcasm hers (she probably drives a Ford Explorer )]

k_lundquist

I'll agree with you for the most part. However its a two way street. Retailers are in the business of making money. Thus to keep customers they have to keep them happy; but there most certainly are over demanding customers. Throughout most of college I worked in retail and I can't tell you enough stories about "Customers who are always right." Often these customers present outlandish requests, which from a business stand point do not make any sense to a retailer to satisfy. Asking for a new bumper, when it can be filled with 2 plugs, is one of them.

That being said, I'm starting to look at my car's nose and thinking about what it would look like w/o the front plate. Although I'm sure those plugs wouldn't bother me much, the ticket from the CT cop would bother me more! Of course that's just me.

sytfu_c230

consider yourself lucky, only 2 holes. When the dealer did mines (smythe european) they somehow managed to drill 6 holes into my bumper, I'm assuming they used too long of screws, I complained to the saleperson & the service managers, all they kept saying that I have to have it anyways, and yet others get to sign a waiver...well my front bumper ended up getting hit by someone not too long after anywyas and needs to be repainted so I had the bodyshop do it, but still next time dealer sticks me with a front plate I'm walking away.

MB-BOB

Maybe we just think alike? I'm sure it's not because we both are wiser with age...

As you can tell, this little license plate issue means something to me. IMO, when you think of why these plates REALLY are "required" it takes on Big Brother significance.

People park in lots "head-in" 98% of the time, so a front plate can't be seen by a Police Car patrolling the lot. And some perp speeding away from a crime scene shows the police his tail, not his front. So, no help for the Cops in these cases.

But it does aid those intersection cameras that snap photos of front bumpers and driver's faces as they run lights. And it's no secret the vertical face of the plate in front provides an ideal reflective "Target" giving accurate readings for radar and laser speed guns. So, in short, we have these laws to promote revenue generation by local governments?

As a non-speeder and one who hates red light runners, I don't find these benefits sufficient to outweigh the detriments noted previously. I know it's just me... or not.