I am just starting to have a serious loathing for GM engineers... I live in Virginia, and prior to that I lived in Maryland. Both states, like most, require a front license plate. My company car is a Chevy Impala. Part of the deal is that I am supposed to maintain the car in a "reasonably clean" state - I've pushed that a few times, but still. Obviously in poor weather that means going through an automatic car wash, as hand washing in the driveway isn't going to happen. Which brings us to today's peeve. At least 50% of the time, if I take the car through a car wash, the front license plate gets mangled. This appears to be partially due to the fact that the dealer provided me with only two mounting bolts, and partially due to the fact that the license plate hangs slightly below the point where the front bumper curves back underneath into the air dam. So I bought some fairly expensive "billet aluminum" (actually do appear to be billet) license plate frames in an attempt to keep this from happening. I also bought some stainless screws - four for each plate this time! - to hold the plate in place. Well when I went to put the front one on what do I find, but the formed "pocket" in the front bumper for the plate isn't a flat surface! What the hell? Even with two washers under each screw, the whole plate/frame assembly is still under stress and is tweaking the bumper slightly and the whole assembly looks like arse.
Come on, GM. Other manufacturers can at least design a simple, functional license plate bracket. What the hell is your problem? It's not like front license plates are all that uncommon.
nate
(hopefully I've at least flattened my front license plate for the last time)