I’m finally going to have the time to go get my Ohio tags the end of this week, and I took a look at the front of my car yesterday, only to realize that there’s no place there to attach a front plate. Well, this creates a problem, since Ohio requires front and back plates.
So, my question is, how am I going to attach this front plate to my car? Am I going to have to get someone to drill holes in my bumper? I really don’t want to do that if I can avoid it.
Oh, and it’s a '94 Suzuki Swift. I don’t know if that makes any difference at all, but I’ll throw it out there in case it does.
I’d say, find the nearest Suzuki dealer and wheel on in. They will, of course, have a standard front license plate mounting technique, since they’ve been doing it for years. They probably have a plate holder designed for your car.
Early Out probably has a good answer, but I think that in states with front plates required, the same sort of doodad is available at places like Autozone, Advance Auto, and such, probably cheaper than at the dealership, and generally if installation is a simple procedure, the salespeople will be glad to do it for you or help you do it.
Good advice - I hadn’t noticed that the beastie in question is over 10 years old - putting dealer-supplied parts on it would probably double the value of the car. Happy motoring!
Just this year I transfered my car from Quebec to Ontario, and had to put on front-end plates. Turns out that the bumper put on cars sent to Quebec was actually physically different from the one on cars in Ontario! I brought it in to the Toyota dealerhip, since a local garage didn’t want to drill holes into my bumper. At the dealership, they drilled holes into the bumper, affixed a dealership holder thingy with the plate, and sent me on my way, free of charge. They almost charged me 2$ for the holder, then decided not to. Kind of funny, since the front end of my car has an ontarian dealership add, and the back end has one from Quebec.
Curious - some manufacturers actually make different bumpers for locales with only a rear plate? I had assumed they just manufactured them with the “usual” plateholder in the front, and let them go empty in such places. In fact, I remember when I grew up in PA many years ago that many decorative / promotional plates were sold by various organizations to go in the empty spot on your front bumper, since PA didn’t have a front plate, at least then. High schools and colleges sold them a lot, and I remember the state itself selling a fancy pewter-looking “Commonwealth of Pennsylvania” plate intended for the front bumper.
I was surprised to find in my “new” '93 Sentra’s onwer’s manual a section that said the front plate should be attached by drilling two holes in the bumper. And indeed, that’s what the previous owner had done. Looks fine, though, with the plate on…
Check your manual. My old 97 Grand Am’s manual said that there was a certain place on the front bumper (NOT on center) where I was supposed to put a front license plate if necessary, using pop rivets. (There were what I guess you might call pre-made dents there for them.) There was also a “plate holder” doo-dad with the spare tire. Have you taken up the trunk floor and checked out your spare tire? You may have a plate holder thingey in there you were unaware of, if you’ve never needed the spare. The manual may tell you where it’s supposed to go and how it’s supposed to be attached.
[QUOTE=yabob]
Curious - some manufacturers actually make different bumpers for locales with only a rear plate? I had assumed they just manufactured them with the “usual” plateholder in the front, and let them go empty in such places. /QUOTE]
Thats what I was told at the dealership - IIRC Ontario is the only province that still requires front end plates (or maybe Quebec is the only one that doesn’t, one or the other!) The bumper of my car had a dented area in it, shaped long like a european plate, but there were no holes or anything else to which to attach a license plate and/or holder. Like the green Tercel on the right
I thought it was weird too, but whatever. A couple of bolts and screws later, and you can’t really tell anyways!
Wasn’t Ohio supposed to switch to only having a back license plate a few years ago? I’ve seen plenty of cars from Ohio with no license plate in the front and an Ohio one up front.
Happy motoring!
