My 2021 BMW i3S is riding dirty. As it’s registered in California, it is required to wear a front license plate, but I haven’t installed one yet. Why? Because unlike on my old Jeeps, which had provisions for a front plate that required just a few bolts going into already-existing holes, my BMW i3 does not come from the factory with holes for the front plate. You have to drill them. And even if I used a tow-hook mount instead, the car just wouldn’t look right.
I find myself continually contemplating whether I want to sell my mint condition, Galvanic Gold BMW i3S and replace it with a much cheaper ($20K cheaper) one that I can use without worry about scratches or dings or my child’s vomit. Anyway, this has me on the prowl for a less expensive, but still good-condition i3, and unfortunately my search is really going nowhere because I have a tough requirement: I don’t want the car to have a front license plate.
I realize that this is all a bit silly and I shouldn’t care as much as I do, but come on: How could I not care about whether my car has a bunch of holes drilled haphazardly right into it face?
The Holes Look Rough
Seriously, here’s how my current i3S looks, front bumper still factory-fresh:
Meanwhile, here’s a cheaper-but-still-nice 2018 BMW i3 with the interior I like and an overall condition I’d categorize as “excellent” aside from that one flaw:
I know I’m being a bit picky here, but also, maybe I’m not? These are poorly drilled holes through the plastic that makes up a car’s face! To me, this is as bad as if someone backed their trailer hitch into a car and left a big gash.
More egregious than that i3 is this Lexus RZ I recently saw posted to a Facebook group I’m in:
YIKES! Looks like that thing took on machine gun fire!
And I know, I know, one could just chuck the front plate on and cover up these holes, but I’d know they’re there. And also, if I lived in a front plate-free state, those holes would be especially annoying.
The truth is, cars rarely look as good with plates on their faces, though I get that the rules are the rules. I just wish modern cars weren’t designed to be drilled into, as the operation is permanent.
Back In The Day, This Wasn’t A Problem
And the thing is, it wasn’t always that way! Take my Jeep Comanche, for example. The factory front license plate frame mounted via bolts to the bottom of the front bumper:
Modern bumpers are plastic, though, so self-tapping screws have become the norm.
Tesla May Be The Only Major Automaker That Doesn’t Require Bumper Drilling
To be sure, Tesla is the one manufacturer I can think of whose front plate installation process actually avoids use of screws. Here are the automaker’s instructions for front plate bracket installation:
Check out the Toyota Prius below, whose front end has a strange plate provision that looks bizarre if you’re in a no-plate state. Jason Torchinsky pointed this out a while ago, writing:
Why, Toyota? For the roughly half of U.S. states that don’t require a front plate, do they really have to have a bumper that looks like someone jammed a brick in there and then painted over it? Perhaps this is the Euro/Asia bumper skin and the U.S.-market one will have something that works with or without a front plate? That’s possible, I suppose, and at least they considered the front plate at all, which some cars just don’t at all. But still.
Instead of designing the car’s shape around a flat license plate, Tesla has created license plate brackets that conform to the vehicle’s shape, and instead of installing the bracket with screws, one installs it using adhesive.
Image: ToyotaThis might make you think that removing the plates will destroy the car’s paint; looks like taking a Tesla’s bracket off involves simply using a plastic trim tool, though some owners say a hairdryer and some fishing line helps, too:
Reading around the web, while some report stains from dirt entrapment, it seems most who have tried removing their front plate bracket have managed to do so without damaging the paint (especially if they used heat and fishing line), so this seems like a good solution from Tesla. Props to the company for not requiring drilling into that front bumper to mount the factory bracket.
The Aftermarket Is Still The Answer
There are often adhesive-plate-bracket options in the aftermarket as well, and as shown above, I can buy an i3 front plate mount that hooks to the threaded tow-hook hole under the little square plug in the front bumper. What’s more, California actually allows a front license plat vinyl wrap, which I find rather clever:
I may go this route on my car. If I keep it.
Anyway, thank you for reading my random rant about an industry norm that bothers me to no end.
I agree. First off, front plates are ugly and stupid.
But it actually is insane that auto manufacturers obsess over how a car looks, then provide no front plate provisions. They leave it to some Ryobi armed teenager at the dealership to permanently damage their product before their consumer even makes a purchase.
Local constabulary needs the front plate for automated camera writing infractions….$$$
The camera takes the picture of the front plate only? So anybody from a non-front plate state gets away scott free?
Depends on where you are. Driving without a front plate in Europe is an infraction in itself.
Forget the front plate. Every state needs a back plate but there still are cars being sold here that require the dealership employees to drill the back bumper on a brand new car.
This is my biggest pet peeve in automotive design. The fact that BMW designed the most hateful front grill of modern times and then failed to allow for a front plate is probably the most egregious lack of form follows function I’ve seen. Alfa is also pretty guilty here too. As far as I know, the EU all require front plates so they know there are going to be front plates on these grilles, even if they are shaped differently than the american ones.
I’d rather they offer no provisions, tbh.
For those of us in non front plate states (or just willing to risk it in my case), I’d rather have a beautiful car design unencumbered by any potential “provisions”.
The Prius in the image is the perfect example of what happens when designers provide a solution from the factory. And it looks shit. I’d rather they leave it alone for us to figure out.
What dealers do is a separate issue, and I’d personally refuse delivery of any vehicle that had been drilled.
Why should a global car manufacturer pander to a few states in the US?
I’d say 99% of the world has front license plates. In fact, I’ve been around a bit and I haven’t been to a country that doesn’t have front plates
As far as I know the US is the _only_ place which doesn’t require cars to be easily identifiable. It’s part of the far-right tendency in US politics: the fuck-you selfishness of demonstrative (absolutely pointless) individualism where being required to identify your car is such outrageous government over-reach(!) that putting a plate on the front as well as the rear is a step too far.
I’m in very social-democrat Québec and we thankfully don’t have front license plates either. So I’m not sure about your theory..
Its one thing to do that to satisfy a legal requirement but to drill into the even harder to replace trunk lid or hatch just to bolt on an advertisement for their own dealership, well THAT should be criminal.
In the 80s, I was that Ryobi armed teenager, although we used to use compressed air drills. I worked for a dealer that sold Pontiac and Acura in Philly, so we had cars that needed front plate in Jersey and ones that did not in PA.
For the firebirds, sales told me to not drill the plate when I prepped the car for the lot. They really didn’t care about the grand ams. The Acuras came from the factory with holes and body color plugs, so if the customer needed a plate, you could just pull out the plugs, put them in the glove box and mount the plate holder.
I understand not wanting to drill holes in that lovely Galvanic Gold nose David, but avoid Burbank if you can, because the cops there are much more proactive than in LA itself (or parts of the valley) and they will ticket for no front plate.
I’m not going to try to buy it, but just out of curiousity, how much is the white 2018 with the nice interior? I dunno what your car is worth, so my guess is off by thousands I expect.
PS: what’s this about CA allowing wrapped license plates? I’m 90% sure I’ve seen folks in CA get cited for doing anything that colors or coats their plates (in police bodycam videos on Youtube). I know people do it to make the old plate look new, or to make its colors match the car better, but I was under the impression that it was illegal to do so.
I think that your gold i3 is too nice to not use. I get the point of thinking about a daily beater and a cheap/early i3 isn’t a huge expense. Still, a nice i3 (even a rare one like yours) ought to be used and enjoyed. JMHO. 🙂
I keep thinking of getting a custom wrap that is all random letters and numbers the same size as the ones in the plates.
Modern adhesives are remarkable; I’ve learned that from this very website. I’m not sure I would trust that particular kind of adhesive in this application though.
And I’ll add to the commenters wondering why manufacturers don’t take front plate placement into account. On so many cars – even the Tesla shown in this article – it gives a bucktoothed appearance. I’m also a little surprised more manufacturers don’t have some kind of slight indentations or marks on the bumper fascia to provide a guide for plate or bracket installation.
I couldn’t even give a fuck about license plates. I used to have a car w/ the front plate held on w/ a fucking coat hanger. I am required to have front plates, but don’t give a shit how they look or are attached
‘a much cheaper ($20K cheaper) one that I can use without worry about scratches or dings or my child’s vomit.”
….you mean, like the one you just sold?
Except finding that would be too easy, so you add “must not have license plate mount holes” to the essential criteria list. Classic David! 🙂
You can easily avoid looking at those holes by putting a plate in front of them, but you already know that. 3M VHB tape works very well if you’re that hole-averse. I like the wrap idea the best.
What’s funny about this is that it seams like about 80% of Tesla’s in California don’t have the front plate installed anyway
Although I’m not opposed to front plates on most “regular” cars (for lack of a better term), I drove a Mustang in NJ for years without a front plate. I, along with many others, never got a glance from law enforcement.
Now I live in NC, so at least I know my Bronco will be completely spared from the indignity of a front plate that looks like a goddamn ingrown buck tooth.
Fuck Tesla and all of it’s newfound admirers.
The Tesla is one of the few cars that looks worse without a front plate.
Buy an European spec model. Problem solved.
In France numberplate have to be riveted on, not screwed, so you have to be able to get to the other side also.
And this in a country which banned child labour (with their dextrous small hands) years ago….
Luckily we live in an age of 3D printing and Tesla’s sticky solution could be available for all makes with a bit of effort.
Given that most of the world does require front plates, I’m surprised that there are still car designs that make no provision for that.
Couldn’t get over an adhesive lightbar, I’m not going to be comfortable with an adhesive license plate mount.
Literally the whole world has front plates aside from the USA
My 2023 F-150 came with a snap-on plate bracket, no drilling required.