What’s the square cutout I saw on car bumpers?

In traffic yesterday I noticed the car in front of us had what looked like a square cutout spot on the rear bumper. I think it was cut-outable, but it hadn’t been cut out if that makes any sense. I guess you could say it was a square scored or grooved onto the bumper. I’m still looking for a picture.

Anyone know what it is for? It was in the middle of the bumper vertically and about half way between the tailpipe (on the left) and license plate horizontally. I looked at more cars the rest of the way home only saw one more with a similar scored area.

I don’t recall what kind of car it was except that it was foreign made because the person I was riding with told me (and I can’t believe) it’s there to hang the car up because they are shipped overseas vertically. He said they take up less room when hung standing on their noses and when they arrive in the US the dealers seal up the spot where the hook went. :dubious:

Can anyone do better than that?

Tow hitch?

N/M, I’m seeing what your describing now…

Yeah, it’s a load of bollocks.

I believe the scored area is a ‘knockout’ for use when the car has to be hauled out. Many cars come with a screw eye. If the car needs to be hauled out with a cable, the knockout is knocked out and the screw eye is screwed into the threaded receptacle. The cable/strap hook is fastened to it and Robert’s your auntie’s live-in lover.

tow hook hole?

linky 2

linky 3

Google search results for “car bumper square hole”

I wondered myself, so I looked in my car’s manual. Apparently, the square hole is a cover for a tie-down eyelet or hook for attaching straps to secure any roof-mounted cargo you happen to be hauling. Handy if you’re toting canoes, I suppose.

A cover for a tow/cargo hook makes a lot more sense.

Another mystery solved.

Yes, BMW for example comes with a giant screw-in hook. It’s also for tow ropes, if they are going to attach a hook and haul you out of that ditch or snowbank, then hooking the rope on the axle (a) might bend the axle and (b) will wreck the thin plastic bumper. In the toolkit is the big metal eyelet that screws in.

The cover pops off then snaps back on when done.

What I’m curious about are the several small, round knockouts on bumpers. I usually see four or five of them, though the number varies. If they are covers for the bumper’s mounting bolts, it’s an inelegant design.

The small round ones, if they’re the ones I’m thinking of, are reverse parking sensors, the car’s “sonar” system that alerts the driver if they’re reversing and get too close to something (or something gets too close to them). Google image search for “reverse sensors” and you’ll see several examples; there are usually four on a bumper.

Thanks!

I recall a story (maybe in Wired) about a ship carrying cars that had listed to side at a 45 degree angle. The cars were all strapped down and all right, and the story was about how a salvage team righted the ship and got it on its way, but the recovered cars were destroyed by their manufacturer just because after spending a month at that angle no one was sure whether everything would work.

For that reason I doubt that shipping a car on its nose would be viable.

You’ll have to come up with a cite for that; absent a news article from a trustworthy source, I’m inclined to believe that the revenue lost by destroying these vehicles (instead of selling them) far exceeds the cost of some basic systems checks (and maybe some warranty work if more cars break down than usual).

Well, vertical shipping of vehicles has been done. It was the Chevy Vega, so you can’t really say it was done successfully, but it was done.

That sounds like the MV Cougar Ace.

There’s also the MV Tricolor incident which was a full sinking.

Hmmm interesting. So you have one end of your tie-down hooked to this eyelet. Where does the other end get attached?

There’s another tie-down / tow eyelet point on the front. For the times you go into the ditch backwards.

I saw what you did there.

Found an online version of the article (thanks to Terry Kennedy’s remembering of the name of the ship).

In the old days - a square notch in the bumper could also be used for the proper location of the bumper jacks.

I’ve heard before that these are for towing hooks, but I still have a question about their function. I see these on lots of cars these days, but they are never centered. Wouldn’t a tow hook be optimally placed as close to the centerline of the vehicle as possible?

For tie-down applications, I can see it not making much difference. But if the vehicle is moving I would think it would tend to cause the car to veer to one side. Is that not much of a concern after all?