License plate shenanigans...

[CX52024]

Hello. Brand spanking new Mazda owner after too many years to remember a Toyota owner. So, here we go... At the dealership, ink is hardly dry on the documents and the "sales assistant" is trying to put my transferred license plate on with the incorrect thread size phillips head screws she found who knows where. Anyone know the correct thread size for the license plate holder holes? Thanks in advance. Regards, Leon Geiser.

 

[N7turbo]

Your story sounds a lot better than mine!

When I ordered our CX, I told the salesman NOT to install the front license plate or the bracket. He said but Illinois requires front plates. I asked him if it was the dealerships job to enforce this, no he said. So, it's not a problem, right? Right, he says, and he put a note in the docs not to install the bracket.

Flash forward 6 weeks or so and I get a call that my CX has arrived and it's ready for me to take delivery. My wife and I take the train into Chicago to pick up our new car, an hour and a half trip. The salesman meets us at the train station and drives us to the dealership.

Once at the dealership I see our beautiful new baby.

WTF? What's that on the front bumper?

I ask my salesman why there's a license plate bracket attached to my front bumper? Of course, he blames it on the service department, he swears that he put a note in my records not to install the bracket.

Everything else was perfect so what was I to do? I'm not going to refuse to accept the car as is, so I sign the papers and it's off we head for home.

Once I get home the first thing that I do is to pull the bracket off the front bumper.

Again, WTF!!!!

The stupid person who installed the bracket couldn't even do this simple job right. He/she totally missed the little dimples in the plastic that mark where the screws for the bracket should go. The damn thing is off center!!!

And again, what was I to do about this? Take the car back and demand that they fix it, somehow?

I bought some black plastic plugs to plug the holes. No one but me would know, but I know, and I look at that area every time I walk by the CX. Oh well.

Same issue with my 2020. Requested, acknowledged, and they drilled the holes anyway. I was not happy about it.

I made it VERY clear that would not be happening to my 2023, and confirmed it again before the car arrived at the dealership. They followed through this time so after all these years I finally have an unmolested front end in all its glory.

 

[Conrad 16.5]

Same issue with my 2020. Requested, acknowledged, and they drilled the holes anyway. I was not happy about it.

I made it VERY clear that would not be happening to my 2023, and confirmed it again before the car arrived at the dealership. They followed through this time so after all these years I finally have an unmolested front end in all its glory.

The idiot didn't even drill the holes in my bumper. He/she just zipped em in with a powered screwdriver or something. If the holes had been drilled, they most certainly would have been able to hit the dimples, maybe...

 

[Ranman57]

Since I have to have a front plate (and here in Chicago I have been pulled over for no front plate in the past) I use one of those WeatherTech plate bumpers on the front to at least get some useful function out of it. But that stupid Mazda plate holder just has the two slots on the bottom instead of screw holes so you can't even mount a plate frame properly on it. I ended up having to Dremel off the slots and picked up a universal plate holder from Amazon, mounted that to the frame, then the plate and bumper to that. It's a little more obtrusive but at least it helps protect the front end a bit from the park by Braille idiots.

Here's a pic if anyone cares. And yep the bumper is upside down in the pic but I took it before I noticed that little error and flipped it.

 

[N7turbo]

I have been pulled over in the past in Nebraska for no front plate. Thank goodness they finally changed the law. Now I just run a rear plate, and for that I used a silicone plate holder from Amazon to protect the paint.

 

[cz5gt]

The silicone holder is the best. I got the same too.
Used to have plastic and metal , both do some form of dmg over time.

 

[CX52024]

Sounds like they're an M6, 1MM pitch, M6x1, length of 14 - 20mm.

Lowes/Home Depot/Ace Hardware/... would likely have them, else online at Amazon and other places.

Perfect! After some wire brushing and carefully re-threading I was able to run the threads in clean up to the head. It's a good man that knows his nuts, lol... thanks for the info