You are not alone in being subjected to Subaru licence plate fuckery. Two years ago we bought a new Forester from Garcia Subaru in El Paso. Now buying from Garcia Subaru was great, and they put on a nice chome plated metal licence plate frame (rear only, we don’t have front plates). Fast forward a couple of years and now the dealership at the same location is now El Paso Subaru. We took the car in for an oil change a couple of weeks ago, but just yesterday I noticed that the nice chrome frame was gone and a replaced with a cheap white plastic frame (the car is white so it didn’t really stand out). I called them and asked why they stole my license plate frame, and they insisted that they didn’t steal it but that they were no longer Garcia Subaru so they changed it. At that point I informed them that yes, they did steal it and I wanted it back. Headed there in a few hours to go have a chat with the Fuckheads.
Truthfully, the car looks better without a frame at all, but I want the damn thing back anyway.
the “Lemon laws” in most if not all states don’t let you just return a car to the dealership if you don’t like it or if it has one problem. Generally the requirements are:
there has to be a certain number (usually 3 or 4) of documented unsuccessful repair attempts for the same defect within the first two years of new vehicle ownership, and the first attempt has to have been made in the first year of ownership
and/or
vehicle defects have to have kept the vehicle out of service for ~30 days total in the first year of ownership.
and then you usually have to file a case against the manufacturer for a buy back, not the dealer.
the dealer not putting on a front license plate mount would probably not qualify as a “defect.”
This happened when I got my last Honda. We were just wrapping up and the one of the sales people said that he put the rear plate on but not the front. When I mentioned that Wisconsin (as far as I know) requires two plates he told me that they only require it if there’s a place to put it, they can’t make you drill holes in your car. He then went on to tell me, again, that he refuses to put on on the front because he doesn’t want to ruin the look of it.
He was even thoughtful enough to put my ‘extra’ plate in the window…the back window. I commented that now I have two in the back and none in the front. At some point when talking about it being perfectly legal, he defended it by telling me that you might get pulled over and hassled about it, but it’s legal.
Well, I don’t want to get pulled over and hassled about it. Luckily the bracket came with it and I installed it about 5 minutes after I got home.
Seems odd that they’d leave it off. It is required in Wisconsin.
Ok, the Dealership gave me my chrome license plate frame back. Or at least they gave me back a chrome license plate frame. The first one they handed to me was scuffed and scratched, but there were three to choose from so I took the best looking one, which was in good condition. My wife commented that the cheap white plastic frame is going to be an ugly yellow after a few years in the desert sun.
If you are 100 miles aay from that Subaru dealer, there must be a local auto shop that you go to for regular service. Ask them about this. They can probably get you that license plate holder for wholesale. And might do it for nothing, if you talk to them about doing the routine service on this new vehicle.
Still, that new car dealer screwed you. For $30 bucks!
OP here. Not worth the hassle of talking to my regular local repair shop. I just bought one on line and put it on. Took 10 minutes. It was/is the principle of the thing. It seems rather silly that they have pissed off a customer for a few bucks.
Telling people about how they treated you will help you get over it.
A local excavator screwed me over. I even started a thread about it. To this day when the subject comes up I tell the story, and people have taken their business elsewhere as a result. The excavator has, several times, threatened me with litigation over the matter, so I guess it’s working.
Personally, I’ve never seen any reason to drive around with a dealer advertisement on the back of my car. If the dealership wants it there, they can pay me $5 a month. Accordingly, I run around with a naked plate on the back. It works out better in Arizona. Since we have more than 60 different varieties of license plate, a law was passed mandating that any frame not obscure the ARIZONA at the top. Makes buying a frame online impossible since their top edge inevitably comes down too far.
Given that you prefer a frame, though, it was crappy of them to swap it out.
I bought one from Amazon that doesn’t obscure any of the license plate. It’s more like a picture frame that surrounds the license plate, and has small bits that extend down behind the license plate so it’s secured with the same screws used to secure the plate. It’s like this one
The one I purchased online (specifically for the Subaru) has no frame at all. It’s a flat piece of power coated steel (stainless?) that fits the mounting point on the bumper with two screws. The license plate itself then attaches to that plate with 4 screws.
