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.
We don’t require front plates here, so a lot of cars are spared from the drill bit. Though I’m sure some shitty dealerships are slapping them on there so they can install a vanity plate promoting their business though. My Sportwagen was a New York car originally, so I just mounted a euro plate using the existing holes. Just swapped it over from my last VW, which also came pre-drilled as it was originally from Ohio.
You’re OK with a plate from Germany, but you wouldn’t be with one from the U.S?
I mean, if my state required front plates I would mount one. They don’t, and my car already had holes drilled when I bought it. Hence the euro plate.
Oh the horror how about if we invented a metal license frame and something to put behind the plastic that could hold it in place, maybe call it a magnetosphere or something. Maybe shorten it to magnet if it catches on.
What do I know?
I’d hate to have to stick a front plate on my car. Thankfully I’m in Florida so rear plate only.
Mazda does it right. There are bolt holes hidden in the grill of my 3 for this, and it’s nearly impossible to see them unless you’re looking for them. I relocated mine to the side with the tow hook mount, which is also hidden behind a plate that matches the design of the grill and you wouldn’t notice unless you were trying to find it. Mazda’s center mount makes it look a bit like everyone’s least favorite Austrian art student’s mustache and once I saw that I had to move it.
Many, many people in Texas just stick their front plate on the dash. Which is illegal, but nobody ever seems to care.
My Isuzu had that but they didn’t include the license delete when I bought it. I was fortunate to get in an accident and force them to provide one.
I have actually been pulled over in CA for not having my front plate on the car. Funny thing about Teslas: in my local area I would say about 90% of Tesla owners never install the front plate. Like tinted front windows, the enforcement of the front plate seems to be something that a cop can just use as a pretext to pull you over.
Can you place a plate on your dashboard?
Nope, a friend of mine got a ticket in CA for having the plate on his dashboard, instead of mounted at the front. Like I said, it’s only enforced if a cop feels like hassling you.
David, just mount the darn plate. You’ve found a way to do it with adhesive tape. License plates are used for identification. You’ve already paid for two plates and until now you’re only receiving half the benefit. What if the car is hijacked and NHRN is in the back seat? Wouldn’t it be better if it could be identified from both ends? Of course, it’s ridiculous that some automakers do so little to integrate a front plate into their design. The majority of people in the U.S. and Canada live in two plate jurisdictions. With the exception of Panama, Micronesia, Palau, and the Marshall Islands, everywhere else in the world requires two plates.
Maybe Donald’s Folly
I have not read 100+ comments. We have been driving without front plates in CA for many years. They do make little plastic plugs that you can paint to match your car. Still it’s better to have a pristine bumper. In CA it depends on the dealer; some just put plates on everything even if you ask them not to.
Also, on the subject of plates. The Transit Connect has to have THE WORST rear plate mounting for US plates. Every one I see has the plate mounted too low and hangs below the plate recess in the door. You can tell its made to perfectly fit a European style plate without this issue.
Its a terrible practice which has been the bane of auto enthusiasts for decades. My old Q3 was originally purchased at Audi Cherry Hill NJ so it had holes drilled in front as NJ requires front plates. Don’t need that in PA so I covered them with a European/German front plate…with the proper city code IN for a car born in Ingolstadt.
My GTI is a Florida transplant so no one defiled the front bumper, thankfully.
You’re OK with a plate from Germany, but wouldn’t be with one from the U.S?
I don’t need a US front plate in PA, but the holes were already there because the car was originally sold in NJ where they do require a front US plate. I had to cover the holes some how is what I mean. I wasn’t issued two PA plates
I ride without a front plate. Last new car I bought did not have the front bracket installed. They gave me the bracket and said I can install myself or bring it in and they would do it for me. I got out my drill, sat in front of the brand new car, and couldn’t bring myself to do it, nor did I want anyone else to do it! I’ll keep my bumper drill hole free unless the fuzz starts hassling me about it or something.
My first ever brand new car was a red 2014 Fiesta, which I thought was very handsome with the (then new) corporate facelift. I bought it in PA while living in PA, which is (was? haven’t been there in a while) a state that does not require front plates. But the dealership was near the PA / Maryland border. I test drove the car right off the transporter, bought it, but was told they had to keep it a day to finish pre-sale prep. When I got back to pick it up the next day, the dealership had used huge lag bolts screwed directly into the plastic front facia of the car to affix a front license plate holder (dealer advertising front plate thoughtfully included). I lost my entire shit.
This is the worst. Ruin a fresh front bumper to install an advertisement. Any dealer sticker, plate, plate frame is the first thing I remove when I take delivery. So I’d flip out too if they did that to me without asking
I know the plate is required, but I have not been able to bring myself to care for, I think, the past three vehicles I’ve driven. I currently have a FJ Cruiser and just rock the rear plate. Thankfully, I live in Los Angeles, where the LAPD is essentially useless – unless you want your dog shot in front of you – and refuses to do even the bare minimum of their job, so things are fine here!
Same here in Seattle. I’ll go literal weeks without seeing an actual police car, so there’s no enforcement of traffic laws whatsoever.
Not sure if it’s worse to not see them, or see them all over and watch them just ignore people running through stop signs or lights and speeding down the streets. Like, these goons could not be bothered to do anything unless it involved escalating a situation to shoot someone/thing. I guess that’s what happens when you hire D-average jocks ????
accurate statement for sure.
we need some sort of traffic policing though, not sure how we wrestle that away from the goons with the guns, but it’s getting worse and worse.
I can’t believe I’m doing this but in fairness to the cops – cities have asked PDs to handle way too much – law-breaking, traffic violations, mental health, emergencies, homelessness, etc. They do actually kind of do a dozen jobs and they’re not great at any one of those things. Shrinking the PDs and expanding other services would probably be a good start.
Anyway, who knows?? I’m just gonna keep enjoying my non-front plate having FJ for the foreseeable future!
Most places, front plates are an add-on fine not a stoppable infraction. I have been pulled over and hassled about a plate cover on the rear while running no front plate and the officer did not say a damn thing about the front plate.
Death to front plates. You wanna ticket me? Send a human.
Ga! I hate front plates. I’ve lived in a front plate state for 30 years after growing up in a state that abandoned them in the early 80s. I had obscene amounts of trouble with my A5 trying to get a front plate on that didn’t sit lower than the front edge of the lip spoiler.
There are 2 factory option screw holes that insert into the grille on the A5. Dealer installed with the top of plate aligning to screw holes, which just looked terrible and would have meant bent plate about an hour after leaving the lot. Aligning to the bottom holes of the plate made the top unstable. Finally found a custom aftermarket solution that made the front plate adjust height along a slot and therefore kinda sorta not terrible, but tempted still to just leave it off and accept the ticket if pulled over. Some debate whether it’s a primary or secondary offense around these parts and I just don’t want to deal with being pulled over only for not having a front plate.
What will it take to eliminate the front plate in the remaining states? Not sure I’ve seen any studies saying it helps the police, which I assume it the reason we have it? Toll and speed cameras are aimed at back plates anyway, so … what’s the point of the front plate? I suppose nobody cares but car owners and we don’t have a great lobbying apparatus compared to vehicle manufacturers (who stopped caring decades ago) or law enforcement.
I don’t think you want to sell the yellow i3s.
I think you are missing the thrill of the hunt. The thrill of hunting down a new holy grail, a combo of options and specifications that finally, this time, will make you happy. And it won’t make you happy because the hunt is over, and now you have to hunt once more. This time it won’t be an i3, it will be a different car that has a different combo of options that will finally make you happy.
And then that car won’t make you happy. Because you don’t love the car, you love the chase.
I ran “dirty” in California for many years. Initially, in an old MG, then later in a Tesla. Plenty of police saw them and I never got a ticket. A colleague got a ticket for no front plate on her MINI.
Even if you are ticketed for no front plate, it’s mostly an inconvenience — you have to get the vehicle signed-off as having the plate.
I did buy a quick-release plate holder for my Tesla. In the event that I did get a ticket, I would put it on, get the documentation, then immediately take it off again.
We ordered our 2011 Volvo C30 from the factory in Sweden. As soon as it got there the dealer drilled holes in the front bumper to mount their dealer ad mounting bracket.
I live in a state that does not require front plates. I was so damn mad at that point I should have cancelled the whole thing.
I always liked the C4? C5? Corvettes that came with a Corvette-branded filler plug for the front plate area which could be removed if you needed a front plate.
The last Pontiac Bonneville had the same!
So did my ’01 Grand Am GT!
My 2014 TSX had the best design. Bracket for the factory plate reached UNDER the lip to bolt in. Genus.
For my wife’s Grand Cherokee I made a similar bracket from aluminum that bolted to the frame underneath the front bumper and holds the plate out front.
Most of the civilized world requires front plates.
That’s about all that needs saying on this topic.
Most of the world also doesn’t have constitutionally protected free speech rights to protect them from their government.
The fact that people aren’t suffering from any ill effects in no front plate states is pretty good evidence that they are unnecessary.
Let’s save the environment, car designers and money by only issuing rear plates.
How’s that right to free speech from local to federal working out for us lately?
Actually pretty good compared to being thrown in a jail cell and killed intentionally by neglect, or beheaded or shot in the street. And that’s just examples from the top of my head last year around the world.
Want to know something you can’t to in most of the world? Criticize the leader of whatever country you are in, that’s free game in the US.
PistonBones made the Tesla sticker as a one-off. They then put in a minimum order quantity because a bunch of small orders were unprofitable.
I can coordinate an Autopian group buy if you want.
Let me get this straight… you’ve got a car, your gold i3. It’s meant to be driven. It’s meant to do the car-related things a person does in life with work and family. You’re thinking about selling it because its condition is too good? Instead of scratching it yourself, or doing the whole baby vomit cleanup, and building a story of your lives together, you want to sell it and get someone’s else’s discarded stories? Louisiana Maine LAME
What’s that stain? The lamest answer is “I have no idea”. Wouldn’t you rather say “When Delmar was 8 months he suddenly puked, and we were on our way to blah blah blah, and all this stuff happened.” And let out a healthy gut laugh?
Sounds like “closet queen” guitars. While I like both to look nice, I hold with people who say cars were made to be driven and guitars were meant to be played.
Hah! Before posting, I deleted the paragraph about the expensive PRS I bought in 2006 to play in dive bars, and how beat up it is now being my main guitar all these years. I love it, it’s beautiful. Every scratch and dent and worn spot, the tarnished hardware, the little stickers my daughter put on it when she was a toddler (high school grad now), it’s all part of the story.
Yep, every scratch and dent and worn spot is earned.
Yes! Enjoy your BMW, David!!!
Scars are just reminders of good stories.
To make things worse he had that non-perfect, not top of the line, i3, with a new battery, that he bought a bunch of tires for and then sold it to buy this holy grail version.
The tires were not for that car, which I sold due to its limited range. The thought here is to buy a car similar to mine but not as rare and not as minty, pocket the $15-20 grand delta since let’s be real, I need a daily/baby hauler anyway.
But I’m undecided.
But REX….
If the tires are for this one then drive the darn thing. No sense in saving it for “the next guy”, enjoy the ultimate i3 rather than being disappointed in the one that you can supposedly purchase for $20k less than this one.
David,
Seems the pocketed 15-20Gs provides plenty of room for a reliable i3 plus routine detailing as needed for regular passenger spits, spills and splats.
Take lots of photos, note the VIN, and let go of the minty one for times when bumper holes for license plates aren’t the most egregious issues of the car’s condition. You’ll have a great story in a few years about having sold your unicorn car for practical reasons, and fret exponentially less today about an unissured driver rear ending you at a stoplight.
Allow yourself to let go. NHerRN, NHisRN and a less stressful life-joy take precedence now, IMHO.
I think I’m willing to give up the honor of putting the first stain/scratch on the car for $20 big ones.
Buy 6-8 niobium magnets. 3d print a license plate holder that matches the contour of your bumper (use a contour gauge, doesn’t need to be exact). Glue or epoxy 6 – 8 small metal plates to the back of the holder. Take off the bumper cover glue the magnets inside the bumper cover. Put bumper cover back on. Attach plate holder.
To pass inspection, I hot glue mine on. It’s used temporarily, but would probably work permanently with occasional checks. After a cop told me I couldn’t have fake machine guns protruding from my grille because of something about “pedestrian safety”, I hollowed out the center and glued styrene teeth behind the frame of the grille on my old Subaru. They were several inches long only secured at the base, and contended with snow, rain, etc. without a problem.
Pic of your creative Subaru ‘grille’?! Sounds cool.
Can’t post pics and I don’t use photo hosts. It was an ’84 wagon with the center hex “weave” cut out, then I made about 12 styrene teeth inspired by GW shark shape with the two top center larger to be more like fangs, painted them silver so they looked like metal, and glued them to the back of the grille frame so the frame kind of acted as gums. I also put some black plastic gutter screen behind it to kind of obscure the radiator from sight a little.
A nice custom enhancement (!) for your personalized transportation.
Thanks for the added details.
That was just one of the things I did to that car. After ditching the fake machine guns, I retained the crosshairs sticking out of the hood. It also had numbers and banners for the 1984 East African Safari Rally (A couple dummies actually asked if it was a real rally car. Most of my friends had relatively fast cars, so I started with that as a joke. I think Subaru actually participated in that race on some level. I might be wrong or have different instances mixed up or blended together, but I think it was a BRAT, not a wagon, and might have been a privateer team, though I also think they used a rare dual port head. Whatever, it was done as a joke, so any connection to a true event isn’t important.) and Orwell’s War is Peace, Ignorance is Strength, Freedom is Slavery on the rear bumper among other things. I even put half-assed curtains in the rear windows to dress it up as a hearse for halloween. The best feature was the PA system that had animal noises and sirens. To my surprise, the girls loved it (it was my main high school and college car).
That’s great! I could find some images by searching for “1984 East African Safari Rally Subaru” but all the images were on Facebook…so stopped. Not sure if sanctioned by Subaru, or which car raced, though initial results appear to fit what your memory described.
“The best feature was the PA system that had animal noises and sirens. To my surprise, the girls loved it (it was my main high school and college car).”
Hilarious! Guessing that you the driver made an impression, too.
Oh, for wishes of a more simple time.
…which leads me to say that those Orwellian bumperstickers are sadly appropriate 40 years later…
Appreciate you sharing a bit more. Thanks.
Give a quick search for “art car parade” if you’re unaware of the zany stuff that takes your baby enhancement steps to the Nth degree. Fun stuff!
In regards to the Orwell slogans, I’ve been more or less expecting the current day for as long as I can remember. I didn’t predict AI, but what it seems these data centers might really be about fits with a conspiracy I wrote about in a book series, though the series is about a guy with PTSD, so the Evolution Movement conspiracy organization he is on/off involved with was originally intended to be as much an external reflection of his inner world as anything real. I’m thinking about starting a new series where the left wing of the organization is arguably heroic, even if heroism as it would normally be accepted isn’t necessarily their intent. The right wing of the organization is basically what we have now that’s out in the open. The original Evolution Movement plan to enslave most of the populace was to convince people to choose it, but now they have AI surveillance and digital life integration that could do the job through coercion.
Online search of “Evolution Movement book” didn’t lead to a book with that title. Seems other titles with added “of” or “of a” (Evolution of/of a Movement). Guess I wasn’t searching with the right terms?
It’s easy to recognize that some in the cult of the Orange Kaptain KooKoo seems to follow without AI coercion. Just blame the Woke, Biden, Antifa…. and folks nod in agreement without thinking.
It’s not in the name. Only the first book in that series is published and that’s Midnight in a Perfect World. Two others of the series were ready to go to editing with the 4th largely done in draft form, but there was a dispute with my publisher and the series was largely me working through PTSD. As such, the books are pretty dark and I don’t really want to inhabit that place anymore, so the other three are likely never going to come out. As the story is largely from the limited POV of the protagonists, the Evo’s plans are revealed over the series and leaves a lot of things up to the reader to decide as the characters don’t know the whole truth themselves. In the first book, the Evo is breaking into two factions and the characters don’t know what is going on, they’re just trying to get out.
I recently finished publishing an animal adventure series that has a lot broader appeal (more so if I could actually get someone to post a damn review. I don’t even care if they hate it—it should sink or swim on its own merit, but I can’t really work on marketing until there’s something from someone else to help people evaluate whether to make a purchase), though it does take place in the same universe (it starts when a low end weapon smuggler for the Evolution Movement is killed, causing the animals that lived with him to flee and initiating their adventures, not that the non-human characters understand what’s going on). All the characters will come together for the next series where the character from Midnight… will talk of pertinent events from the unpublished books and the left wing of the Evo makes a formal reappearance. The main question in regards to the Evo will be: are the two factions truly separate or are they merely wings giving flight to the same beast?
Interesting stories. I haven’t found the published one online. Searching “Midnight in a Perfect World” produces links related to a song, a dj or music in general.
Maybe give a link or at least the key words used in a search to find them? Something that links to the publisher, too?
Cheers
Midnight… is apparently off the first few pages of matches and I didn’t look beyond that. It was named for the song by DJ Shadow. The song was the initial inspiration when listening to it gave me these visions of the character, Dante Moretti, driving by the beach in southern CA where everyone is enjoying themselves while he’s in his car, alone, where he’d rather be. The beachgoers are care-free, but he isn’t—he can’t be, he’s seen too much.
https://www.amazon.com/s?k=steve+kappotis&crid=VRLP1NYVTF2T&sprefix=steve+kappotis%2Caps%2C122&ref=nb_sb_noss_1
Or the Voyages of Sloth and Good Boy that are far less dark and violent because they weren’t written by an angry guy with PTSD in his early 20s.
https://www.amazon.com/s?k=the+voyages+of+sloth+and+good+boy&crid=33QXS354Y3KCD&sprefix=the+voyages+of+sloth+and+good+boy%2Caps%2C142&ref=nb_sb_noss_1
Whether you choose to pick any of them up or not, I appreciate the interest!
I appreciate the links. Thanks! I’ll check the books out. I did read the 5 reviews of “Midnight in a Perfect World”. Positive, and encouraging. Good for you.
Take Care, and hope the world turns your way today.
I’m sure you can rig some sort of hidden mount that screws into the black grille area from underneath. That would also allow the plate stand away from the painted surface a bit – reducing the abrasion risk. Or just 2 sided foam tape.