I had my car in for its 30,000-mile servicing earlier this week. When I brought the car in, they noticed my sagging front plate and offered to fix it for free (it just involves drilling a couple holes for the screws; it was on my list of things to do that I never got around to). They also said, “You know we’re not Bryant Honda anymore, right? Do you mind if we change the frame to Norm Reeves Honda?” Sure, I said, that was fine.
When I got the car back, I discovered they switched the front frame–and the rear, which was a personalized alumni frame from my alma mater. (It was on my passenger seat; the other frame from the defunct dealer was apparently trashed). This irked me slightly, and I just switched back to my frame and trashed their imposed advertisement.
I shared this with DeathLlama, and he said that a friend of his in high school had worked at a car dealership (I want to say it was Toyota). This person’s boss had instructed him on a couple of occasions to go out to the parking lot and the street in front of the dealership and switch all the license plate frames to the dealer’s. What happened to the other frames is beyond me. I can’t believe how brash that is–doing that without the people’s permission or knowledge??
Now tell me, that can’t be legal, can it? Is it really that common a practice?
I’ve never actually had this happen to me, but I’ve considered the possibility and agree that it’s pretty shady. I, for my own weird aesthetic reasons, don’t care for license plate frames (I removed the dealer frames my truck came new with). I’d be really annoyed if they stuck them back on while it was being serviced without my OK. For the record, I’ve had my truck serviced at a Mazda dealer numerous times, and they’ve never done this.
I’m curious to hear what state-to-state differences there may be regarding this sort of thing. I live in California now (and recognize the name Norm Reeves Honda), but I grew up in Texas.
In Texas, it seemed standard for any car purchased at a dealer would have a shiny metallic-looking plastic dealer logo glued to the vehicle (usually someplace on the back, kind of complementing the manufacturer logo that tends to be there someplace). I have known some people who pried that thing off as soon as they got home, 'cause they were not fond of giving the dealer free advertising. You’d even see these on used cars, I believe.
I have never seen this in California, so I’m thinking that it must be illegal here for some reason. Otherwise, somebody would do it. Anybody happen to know?
The place I take my car for service at least asked my permission to stick their license plate holders on it. Since it was wearing ones advertising the dealer instead, I let them.
I doubt if the dealer logo glued on the car is actually illegal in California. I think it’s just gone out of style. After all, it’s not illegal for tourist traps to stick bumper stickers on your vehicle - don’t even slow down near the “Santa Cruz Mystery Spot” or you’ll be wearing one.
I have a moral objection to displaying what amounts to an advertisement for the dealer on my vehicle unless I receive some recompense for it. Ergo, when ordering a new vehicle, I always specify that no such frames or stickers are to be afixed to the vehicle, else the deal is void.
In the US at least, it is not required for you to allow dealers to put any type of advertising on your vehicle, either plate frames or decals. They may hassle you about it, but they are required by the mainufacturers to remove it if you ask, as it is not a factory part. - MC
Hmm, I think this practice is fairly common. It happened to me just last year when I had my car repaired. It irked me a bit, I just removed them.
It also happened to my sister about 2 years ago, she, however, was furious. She had just purchased a new Volkswagen and was happy with the dealership that sold it to her. She needed some minor thing replaced or repaired and took it to another dealer, they replaced the license plate frames. She immediately drove back to the dealership and demanded they replace the ones they had taken off. She let them have an earful. I was so proud.
Actually, I have seen those here in Southern California. Exclusively Volvo out in Ontario does that to its cars (I assume the new ones). I know I’ve seen a few little chrome colored plastic “Exclusively Volvo” badges riding around on the rump of some Volvos around here. I can’t imagine the customers put them on themselves. I sure wouldn’t want one on my Volvo. (Even though I still have the license plate frame from the dealership where my car was purchased before I was born. Should I change it? I’m just afraid it might be what’s been holding it together for the past 32 years.)
Okay, now I’ve hijacked my future wife’s thread. I should probably go now.
Darn those dealerships, putting their license plate frames on your car without asking! (There, does that help?)
Er, that would be me. I have done that with the last three vehicles I have purchased. As soon as I got home I pried the logo off and then spent another hour getting all the residue off with polishing compound and then rewaxing the area where the decal was.
I think it is outrageous to have taken off a plate holder that was your own personal choice to replace it with their dealer name. I understand why they’d want to update the one with the name change, but it was pretty rude to remove your alum one.
I’ve noticed that some of the dealer frames actually obscure the license plate, making the state hard to read. I’d love to see them get fined for that. Or something. Can you tell I don’t care for our dealer much?
I have also noticed, lately, a number of cars going around with the frame on upside down. Is this a sign of protest against the dealer, meant to be a stronger statement than just removing it? Or does this have some other meaning? Or did some neighbor kid just pull a prank?
I think here in MD we have some sort of law that prevents NEW car dealers from putting on any kind of decal with out your permission. they do put on the frames but that’s it. now the used car dealers must not have that same law because if you go looking for a used car it has the damn decals on it. those things are such a pain in the ass to get off too.