I think bolt-ons are a legacy thing from a couple of decades back before reliable double-sided 3M tape was affordable. I haven’t seen any bolted on dealer emblems in a long time.
I’ve asked how much they’re going to pay me to advertise for them. Not knock the price down, but cash in hand walking out the door. No takers yet.
Only if they obstruct any writing on the license plate. Otherwise you’re good.
I actually got pulled over driving my wife’s car (non-Texas tag) in Texas because part of her frame covered the top half of the state name. No ticket, just a warning that it was prohibited.
But for me an mine, new cars are ordered to be clean. Used cars are cleaned if needed.
The dealer’s markings on the car are advertising for them and wired into the price of the car. I can see not wanting it, but that should be part of the overall negotiation.
I have seen a few cars where the owners take off all identifiers, including what make and model the car is. Why should you advertise for the manufacturer for “free”?
Several people have now mentioned that even though they had it put in writing the car still came out with the stickers. Has anyone ever, after informing the salesman that they did not want dealer logos on their car, had the car actually delivered without a sticker?
My experience: Bought four new cars, always having something like “No dealer logo” put on the sales order and every one came out with the sticker and I had the prep guy remove them. I had it put in writing, I circled the writing, I circled the writing with a thick, heavy marker, and I circled the writing with thick, heavy red marker. No difference, always the same result at four different dealers in three different states with three different brands of car.
I have only ever had the plastic license plate frames and those go in the garbage as soon as I get home. They must not allow that other shit in California. If they did, you bet your ass I would insist that it not be included on my car. I’d tell them upfront that I would walk if it was there.
I always tell the salesperson I don’t want any dealer logos applied to my vehicle. I remind them of this repeatedly. For the last vehicle I bought (which was special-ordered and not selected from the dealer’s inventory), the sales rep wrote it down on the paperwork, and no logo was applied when the vehicle was prepped, as I’d requested.
On the previous vehicle I bought (also special-ordered), even though I reminded the sales rep, they still applied a dealer logo when the vehicle was prepped. I expressed my displeasure, and it was promptly removed.
Both vehicles did come with dealer license-plate frames, which I’m fine with. I can always toss those if desired.
Years ago, I bought an American-specs BMW from a military sales dealership in Germany. No logo was applied. This is apparently not a thing in Germany.
Also years ago, I bought a vehicle from a family friend. I realized after the fact that not only had I given up any ability to haggle (or refuse the B.S. paperwork fees), but I also could not easily refuse the dealer logo. All good reasons to never buy a vehicle from a friend or acquaintance! (Nor did I get a particular good deal from this family “friend.” Only later did I realize that the dealer friend did not become successful by giving good deals to family and friends.)
I think also that most people find auto dealerships intimidating places filled with slimy salespeople where you are likely to get financially screwed. Why should I drive around advertising that I got chumped at so-and-so dealer?
Of course, maybe if you bought a car from a luxury brand and it came with chrome license plate frames you may WANT to flaunt that you can afford it.
They just assume they are going to put the stickers on, and get advertising value from it. Have you had dealers agree to add “no stickers” to the contract after you’ve already negotiated a price?
The few new cars I’ve bought didn’t come with any dealer identification installed, just the license plate bracket, so I never brought it up. Many years ago I had a Mitsubishi with dealer vinyl stickers on the back, and I took them off with a heat gun. In those days I would also see cars with a metal dealer logo bolted onto the sheet metal (I distinctly remember one Cadillac dealer who did this with a logo in the same script as the Cadillac logo), but I don’t see that anymore.
Try going through an automatic car wash that uses cloth without a frame on the front license plate and see what happens. Usually it gets bent all to hell because the cloth strips snag on the sharp corners of the plate and fold it over as the machine is making a pass in front of the car.
When I bought my Toyota Tundra in Arkansas, the hitch cover had the dealer imprint. Didn’t care because I removed it to attach my bike carrier. I did insist they remove the “Proudly Made In Texas” sticker off the back glass because of the old SEC Arkansas/Texas rivalry. The salesman was too young to understand why he was supposed to hate Texas.
I’m not sure if it’s a state law (too lazy to look it up), or just local practice, but in Michigan we don’t have those bolt-ons or or those impossible to remove stickers. Any they are impossible to remove. The first time I bought a car in Georgia (while stationed there), upon removing the crap, I was left with the shadow of crap.
When I later bought a car in Texas, they honored the “no crap” part of the deal.
In Michigan, I never bother. It’s just a license frame, and I don’t care about that, because it’s not a permanent alteration to my vehicle.
Yes. I don’t bring up stuff like that prior to the agreed upon price because it may give them some incentive to haggle more.
And as I posted earlier the one time a dealer disobeyed that agreement I went ballistic and it turned out in my favor to a tune of almost a grand!
Yes. My corvette doesn’t have one nor does my Silverado (the last 2 vehicles I bought new). Prior to that I bought a Mustang GT and specified no dealer sticker and got none. Prior to that I had bought some cheaper fords and got no stickers. Prior to that going years back I didn’t bring it up. Thinking back 20 years the only time a dealer disobeyed the written agreement was the 2004 Olds I bought new that I posted about earlier.
IMHO there is nothing weird about insisting no dealer stickers on a new car. It’s my property, I’m paying tens of thousands of dollars for it. I don’t want any goddamn stickers on it. You want stickers on your car let them put them on your car.
You are my hero for that story. Every time I’m stuck in traffic behind some car with obnoxious dealer stickers I have fantasies about doing what you did. I’d like them to pay me a monthly advertising fee.
The only time I bought a car new I told them “no stickers” and the salesman said, “we don’t do that crap.” That’s about the only thing that dealer got right, but I did appreciate not having to fight about it.
Yeah. But keep in mind it was a 2004 Oldsmobile (the last year GM made them) and the dealer was switching to be a Mitsubishi dealer and GM wanted to get rid of them. Plus I’m quite agressive and was buying when I wanted a new car but didn’t NEED a new car.
No lie. The car stickered @ over 31K, After all the massive rebates (I even got some that iIdidn’t "qualify’ for) and the $3500 credits on my GM Mastercard I drove off the lot at just under $11,000. (that includes the extra money they gave me after their fuck up).
It seems like every dealer in my neck of the woods puts their logo on the car in the form of a permanent decal kind of thing on the trunk. I wouldn’t try scraping that off because I don’t want to damage the paint.
But I don’t get people who leave the license plate frames on. First, they’re easily removed. Second, here in Wisconsin, they might be illegal, depending on their size. The plate cannot be obscured because it must be “readily and distinctly seen and read.” If it obscures the word “Wisconsin,” you can get cited. So why would people not only be tacky, but possibly criminal, to advertise a car dealership for free? I just don’t get it.
I looked at my car and my wife’s car (mine bought here; hers bought in Connecticut) and neither obscure the state name, the letters on the plate, the license sticker, etc. And why? Because I can’t be arsed to change it, I don’t feel like spending more money on a license frame, I don’t think it particularly looks bad since most cars here have it and I’m used to it, and I like the dealer it’s adversing, in that order.
My car IS an appliance. To be used to transport me from my house to other places, and then back again.
I don’t have any dealership stickers, but I don’t know if I ever removed the license plate holder, or if there is one. I don’t think there is a dealer logo on the back, but I don’t care anyway.
OK, I just walked the dog and kept track of how many dealer frames I saw. In my neighborhood, it’s about 60% with the dealer frames (31 of 52 vehicles.) Newer cars were a bit more likely than that to have dealer frames; older (15+ years) pickup trucks seemed least likely to have dealer frames (not sure I saw a single dealer plate on an older pickup, and I came across maybe ten to a dozen of them on the walk. There’s a lot of folks here who do contracting type work around here.)
