Why do some dealers drill out front license plates holes?

I agree and I hate the drilled holes in the front.
Unless you pre-order your car with specific instructions saying NOT to put on the front frame.....they put on the dealer logo as Free Advertisement anyway....assuming not everyone will bother to take it off since the frame is already mounted and something has to be inserted there (Logo or lic plate).

 

I specifically requested that my dealer not drill the front bumper, but they did it anyway. I wish I had put it in writing like you did.

 

Drilling the holes is something that is hard to control. A tech gets the order to do the PDI. VERY rarely does he ever actually look at the order as he has done thousands of PDI's. He just does it as fast as he can and move on to the other job. If the salesperson isn't standing there to tell the tech not to drill, it will most likely happen. Personally, if I have the request, I put a HUGE note on the seat of the car telling him not to drill them. In IL we are a 2 plate state. The tech is on autopilot when he does it.

 

Good idea. I would also tape a huge note over the front bumper.

 

That annoys me, near as much as the dealer automatically sticking their 'commercial' on the back end of the car. I just make sure it's part of the deal...NO commercials, etc unless they wanna pay me <grin>...

 

Luckily when I bought mine it did not have a mount, you can see there two indents on the front bumpber were they could have drilled. It's much cleaner looking. Not to mention its a tiny bit harder for police laser to nab your speed, they usually target the headlights though, but still a license plate is quite reflective, and not having one is a plus.

I did not order mine, it was just a walk in buy.

NV the law states you only need a front plate if their is a bracket already installed when you buy the car. You can always just take it off and fill the small holes with bondo

 

I live in California, a two plate state, and the dealer put the licence plate on the front without the bracket. They just screwed it into the front bumper with long screws I was so angry that I insisted that they send the car out and a new bumper installed and painted. Then, while I stood there, a very appolegetic PDI guy screwed in the bracket and put on the plate like it's supposed to be put on. I'll bet they never do that again!
I just could not believe my eyes. I spent over 30,000$ on a new loaded Prius in 05 and the guys at the dealer don't care that the front plate is mounted improperly. I will never go back there. Later the next year, I purchased yet another Prius. Yes, I have 2 of them. I learned my lesson. I contacted every dealer in the state by fax offering to buy and what I was willing to spend. One dealer in Susanville offered to sell me my car at what I was willing to pay and said that I could order it and get it in 4 weeks. I sent them 5000$. 3 1/2 weeks later I was the proud owner of another Prius. Deal and Daive is their name and they were fabulous. They called when it came in and I spent all of 10 minutes on the paperwork. They sent the DMV plates to me in less then a week after the sale so I could squeek in getting the HOV stickers also. I'll forever buy another Toyota with them even though it was a 400 mile drive and they delivered the car with the front plate brackett in place. Never again with a volume bay area dealer!
-Paul R. Haller-