I bought my car last week here in Texas. The issue of drilling holes for the front plate hadn't even occured to me until the salesman made a point of saying that the dealership doesn't dare ever put holes into any front bumper. He said that it is up to the customer to do so.

That stuff about a dealer being required by law to drill holes in a car sound like a lot of crap to me!

 

Dont' they do this at the port? I thought they had indention for front plates no matter what...

 

Yes, I believe all cars already have the indented pre-drill spots where the holes should go. I'm sure someone will let us know if I am wrong.

 

They all have small dimples so that the dealer will know where to drill for the plate bracket. The dimples are not that bad, but drilling the bumper leaves a noticealble hole. People just need to make it well known to the dealer (manager and salesman) and the PDI people that you definitely don't want holes drilled. Tell them every time you check on your order...so they're tired of hearing it. Worked for me.

WayneTN

 

Well, thank you all for you replys....appreciate it alot....


However it looks like I'm stuck with the plate screwed (yeah, I'm screwed too) into the front bumper. I did argue with the dealer, however because I live in Pennsylvania and the car was shipped from a dealer in Virginia (where 2 license plates are required... that's how it came in) , I'm pretty much stuck with it. (Until I get into a front end accident, which I hope never happens!) The dealer did offer (how kind of them!) to get me Chrome or whatever "Z" plate for the front free of charge. Doesn't solve my problem but.....

He basically said they can also put in plugs and paint them to match (and wasn't really sure how that would look), but he can't (won't?) replace the bumper. F%$#!

On my end, as much (and I mean as much!) as it "erks" me to have 2 holes in my brand new Z and I can't justify spending the money ( close to $500 ) for a new bumper no less the uneasiness of removing a brand new bumper when it's only 3 days old. It all just skeeves me but life goes on, and so will my Z. I just hate how stressed it's make me......I'll have my day when I get the survey

Wes

 

That just bites! I guess you'll get use to it over time. Just allow the dealer to buy you a nice 350Z from plate for it and call it a day. On another subject, don't feel too bad because I just pulled a serious brain fart.....

While back my Z out of the garage the other day I right from quarter panel on the handle of my lawn mower. It left a nice long 8 inch scratch on the PPW paint. I almost screamed. But since it was my own fault I could only be pissed at myself. I'm usually soo careful but I got in a rush and just didn't pay close enough attention. I think I'll be able to buff the scratch out with some wax or something but right now I'm just too pissed to even touch it. Since its not my daily driver I can just let it sit until I decided what to use to try and take the scratch out. Enough about me... You have a nice time with you new Z. Drive it like you stole it

Gmoneyr1

 

my front bumper was drilled. Its ok.. doesn't look that bad. people don't even notice it anyways. no worries for me... i mean, does it really look that bad??? to me.. it looks like regular (stock)dimples

 

s9am_me it looks fine to me. I think it's so rediculous that states require the front plate when I can't think of any instance where a cop is going to see your front plate well enough to read it. Do you all get pulled over for no front plate? I plan on running with no front plate regardless, just curious if I am going to get a ton of fix-it tickets. Tx folks in particular, get pulled over/ticketed for this?

 

Sorry to hear about your Z PPW paint.......hope it comes out for ya........they should invent some sort of invisible bubble protection for us Z owners....maybe in the future sometime right? Take care.

Wes

 

I think the front plates, here in CA anyway, is used for stop light cameras. I think they take pics of your front and back lisence plates. Also, when a cop is coming from the opposite direction on the road... they don't have to make a U-turn to check your plates. I just leave mines off. although i've seen a couple people get fix-it tickets for it. I do carry it in my glove box just in case. I ll just make up a story that i'm on my way to Home Depot to buy some bolts for it