I just began a 3 year lease on a new 2014 Prius Advanced in Sea Glass Pearl from a dealer in Maryland yesterday. They found it on a dealer lot in New York and had it shipped on a roll back truck so that the mileage would be only 4 miles. I have been in email negotiations with a few dealerships for the last 3 months due to supply limits. I got a great deal and do not want to return the Prius at this point. I live in Pennsylvania and when I went to remove the front plates tonight, as they are not required in PA, I found that two sheet metal screws had been used to bore the plate holder into the nose of the Prius. I am not certain if this was done at the NY dealer or the MD dealer. I really do not want to put the plate holder back on the front of the Prius. My wife suggested vanity plates, but I am a purist. I received no touch up paint, but was thinking it would not take much to plug these small holes then maybe buff out to make the sea glass pearl look better than the gray looking zits currently. I have not spoken to Toyota Care though I plan to tomorrow to see if they will cover this type of repair since the vehicle is brand spanking new. I assumed that any front plate holder would not require boring into the nose of the Prius like this, anyone else know if this is the normal way or not? I also would like to know what advice you guys have as to the best way to handle. I will post back with what I find out from Toyota Care tomorrow.
you have two options a) Get a new bumper and get it painted ($500-900) b) File it down and even it out then get bumper plugs from this guys BumperPlugs.com. The only difference would be that bumper plugs will stick up from the bumper and the stock bumper without holes will actually have dimples. I went for a new bumper and had it paint matched but its your choice My Plugin was brand-new on the lot and i demanded it without a front bracket but they put one in and said its already there (even before buying it). After many calls to Toyota headquaters and dealing with customer relations they said "state law requires them to be installed, we do it to every vehicle unless its pre sold and noted it not to be drilled". Sorry.
They'll probably write it up as a paint defect and warranty the repair. They never argue with someone that just bought a new car. Just my experience SM-N900P ?
My dealership was pretty adamant about it because they said its "STATE LAW" if its already installed they won't fix it. They said I could wait 4-5 weeks for a new delivery and they'll be sure not to install it. Its normal to drill into the bumper except Honda, they don't drill into the bumper even Lexus had the guts to install it on our brand frekin new EsH , even when it wasn't present during the test drive and I told them not to install one. Although they offered to swap the vehicle out 3 days later because it only had 35 miles and the registration papers weren't forwarded to the dmv yet. Btw here are the pics of the dimples
That is how all Toyota and Lexus front plate brackets are installed. If the car was purchased from a state that requires a front plate, then you have no recourse via warranty.
When I moved my front license plate holder down on the PiP from its standard position to a lower position last year so that the plate is mostly forward of the grille and not above it, I had the same two sheet metal screw holes in the bumper. I bought cheap black nylon plugs of an appropriate size from a mom-&-pop hardware store and painted them with touch-up paint. The fix was nearly invisible unless you crawled along the bumper looking for it. I'd attach pix but unfortunately my PiP got front-corner-ended in a parking lot while I was inside a store. The insurance repair replaced the front bumper & crushed headlight etc. and I made damn sure the auto body shop drilled holes for the license plate holder where I wanted them (the horizontal silver accent bar on the PiP). They even filled the li'l factory divots in the new bumper with Bondo or something like it before painting the whole thing.
State law requires a front license plate and as Ken Blake has stated once its its installed there is absolutely nothing warranty can do because its not a manufacture defect. Any costs would be paid by the dealer it self because they caused said "damage". The service department won't even listen to your concern because sales and service are usually completely separate devisions of each dealership as a whole. Any concerns would be taken care of by your "customer relation" manger or advisor who is part of sales. All calls to Toyota motors regarding a dealership in particular are always directed to the customer relations manager. Unless its elavated without being resolved, and then toyota motors rarely choses to differ form the opinion of the dealership because they stand behind them unless its absolutely clear. This is clearly the dealership's fault for installing and drilling the plate bracket and you sign a paper when buying the car acknowledging it.
Unfortunate for a new car, but it happens often. As stated above, there's a easy fix. I did the same thing, lowered my front plate for a better look. I trimmed the two screws holes flat. Lowes sells plugs and fasteners for vehicles. I purchased two "tapered" plugs (70 cents each), inserted them, and used touch up paint to match the bumper color. A ten dollar fix that would pass even the most critical eye. For me, time is money and I hate a hassle. I'd avoid taking my Prius to the dealer when a simple fix would work. One note, with dimples in a flexible bumper cover, they might recover with time. I used a heat gun that worked, but be careful. You can melt the bumper material and/or blister the paint. Check out the LINK below for more information. What did you do to ur Prius today???? | Page 108 | PriusChat
Thanks for all the great advice. I have decided to try the bumper plugs and see how they work out. I will post pictures afterward.
So lucky that I bought mine from Dianne. She told us that the bumper came undrilled without holes, and ASKED whether I wanted the plate holders mounted or not. I mean, THAT'S detail…
I wanted to post the final solution photos. I went with bumperplugs.com and ordered the plugs. I received them in short order, but made a mistake in not cleaning out the left plugs bore prior to installation. Eric @ bumperplugs.com sent me a free replacement. Today I figured I had nothing to lose so tried to extract it with a pair of wire cutters. There was a gap of about 3mm between the button and being flush with the front of the bumper. The operation was a complete success and I used the original left bumper plug. Once replaced both the right and left were now flush with the bumper. Thanks Eric, Chief Plug Guy! As you can see in the photos the color was a perfect match and I now have a beautiful bumper. Next time I will know to ask in advance to not drill the holes, but if they still do, I will go to bumperplugs.com for the fix.
Three years later I am in a new leased Prius Prime. This one was purchased through a local dealer, but they located it in inventory in Massachusetts. I asked if the front plate holder had not already been attached not to attach it, but it was too late. The dealership had already drilled it. The good news is that the Prime has special flat black areas where these front plates are to be attached that do not have the same treatment as the rest of the front bumper. These are also a flat surface rather than curved one like my last PiP so the plugs fit flush. My previous plugs grew on me and so I got another pair from bumperplugs.com and installed them yesterday. I thought I would show the before and after photos for anyone looking for a similar solution. The cost was ~$30 plus shipping. I did the installation myself in about 10 minutes. e .
congrats, looks great! can't wait to hear about your comparison to pip. can you tell us about your lease deal?
I want to finish out this initial tank of gas and then I will write up a comparison based on the first impressions. I posted my purchase experience elsewhere, I see you already saw it. I assume I will start a new thread unless I see one that is specifically for new Prime experiences.
