My New Prius Came Today! I'm Pissed! Help!

I lived there, and they never gave out tickts for plates until the cameras arrived.

 

I figure the front license plate holder keeps the small part of the bumper, between the screw holes, looking like new. Now that problem is resolved, Im ready to tackle some more serious issues. Now, about those Federal and State tax bills, the medical insurance policy, those critical reactors in Japan, ... ... and ... .

 

I know this is an old thread, but I can't stand front plates. They aren't required in KY, but they are in OH. We have an 05 CPO LS430 that came out of OH. It has the front license bracket on it. If I take it off, I have to wholes in the bumper cover. I put my friend's old CA plate on the front.

 

Since almost the rest of the world has front plates I really wonder why Toyota produces bumper without any holes in them. And for all you guys who are really picky about small holes check out what we have in Europe

All Toyotas in Europe are getting this huge black bar so the wide front license plates from the UK, Germany, France and others can be holded. But here in Switzerland we have very small ones and need another plate holder on the large one. Now if yo uremove the large black bar one is getting 2 large square openings that cannot be covered. The same on our RAV4. Now this looks really ugly and I'd be very, very happy if I could use simple bumperplugs.

 

I'd say it is Switzerland being the odd one out. The larger European plates are standard throughout virtually all of the European continent, Israel and a fair chunk of Africa . [ame="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vehicle_registration_plates_of_Europe"]Vehicle registration plates of Europe - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia[/ame]

Australia have smaller licence plates too, but apparantly it is popular for Euro style plates to be used on European vehicles so they don't have the same problem as you. http://www.vplates.com.au/euro-plates/

Sure they're ugly, but easier to see from a distance which is great should you be involved in a hit and run!

 

Never say "never." Maybe you never got ticketed for that particular vehicle code violation. Back in the seventies, a friend of mine was a CHP officer, and he told me the missing front plate violation was one of his favorite cites to issue. It used to be a simple "fix it" ticket, where you simply put the plate on and had any officer sign off on it, and then you mailed it in. Now I believe there is a fine involved, or at least a fee after you get it signed off as corrected.

 

Yes, put a Yankee plate on it. Or NY Giants, Or Buffalo Bills,................

 

They're still allowing you to drive in Switzerland? I hear there's a €10,000 fine for actually starting your car in Switzerland!

I got my beautiful 2010 Prius "small-v" with ATP in Barcelona Red from a dealership in Utah last week (new never titled), just to drive it back to Arizona. First thing I discovered was the amazing ground clearance when a blown tire tread was tossed in front of me and I had to go over top of it, taking out (mostly) my spoiler (part #19 in most OEM parts website illustrations of the Front Bumper and Grille/Bumper and Components). When I did get all the way home one of the things I saw was that damned license plate bracket on the front. Besides being ugly and not doing anything nice for the aerodynamics, the holes they drilled for the thing are completely hack. Thus far I've left it on while I try and think of options (bumper plugs being one possibility). But geez, it's so not a huge deal!

As for whether the front plates are for the redlight and speed cameras, we've had them here in the Greater Phoenix Metropolitan Area for quite some time, and in fact you can still sometimes find a mobile van parked on the way to Las Vegas to catch the guys working on the land speed record, but we haven't required a front plate in Arizona ever and they stopped issuing them as optional in, I believe, the late 80's or early 90's. Anyway, I might go with bumper plugs and I might go with a fill-n-paint. Either way, those holes will have to be cleaned up. It actually looks like they just placed the holder on the bumper, fired up the drill and drilled the screws through the nice red paint.

 

Sabres! Or that baseball farm team, the Bisons ...

 

The front bumpers do have dimples in if the brackets were not installed. Go to the local hardware store and buy two tiny (1/8th inch) plastic push plugs. They are in the section that has all the small trays with trick stuff in. You will have to drill out the hole to put them in. I have done that on several used cars that had front plates. You can even paint them with touch up paint if you want. Trust me, they may evenl look better than the dimples that come in the bumper.

 

I had the same problem with the C30 I used to have. So, I had a custom decal made that replicated the look of a euro plate, with my number on it. Never had any issues and got LOTS of positive comments.

 

I can't wait to see what it looks like repaired.