I have an 06 Coupe, nothing fancy. Just bought it a month ago and made the first payment last week. I decided I wanted to add fog lights myself, so I go out and remove the front license plate from the fairing. (The dealer swapped plates from my trade in and the "detail guy" put the bracket on)

Well it turns out he just took a drill and 2 huge sheet metal screws and just put them right through the fairing to hold the cheap plastic bracket on the car. So now I have 2 nasty looking holes in my brand new car, courtesy of the dealer. I know that there is a BMW factory mount that goes in the tow hook that requires no holes or anything and I don't know why they didn't use this.

And to top it off, the dealer is 150 miles from my home, so it's about a 5 hour, 300 mile trip each time I go.

What would you do?

Thanks

 

Hate to say it but the factory mount is two holes through the front bumper. I just went out and checked and I can see the two indents in the bumper where the dealer is supposed to drill the holes.

That's why when I ordered mine I requested that they didn't put the front plate on.

If I remember correctly the tow hook mount is only an aftermarket item available from one of the vendors on here, whose name escapes me at the moment.

You can always call them and see what they can do for you, but it may not be much.

 

the tow hook mount is after market. the OEM is on the front and and if you look at the bumper of a car without a plate you will see 2 dimples to locate the sheet metal screws like you stated.

 

Hmmm...didn't realize that the mount was aftermarket. Crap. So now I have 2 half assed holes that look like crap in the front of my car.

 

I thought MO had a front plate. What happened to it? There are some plugs available that better than screw holes.

 

I have used these; I think they are called dash panel retainers, in the past to fill in holes.

You can buy them at any automotive store. They are made of black plastic and just pop in the hole. You may have to redrill the holes to kind of clean them up a little. Paint the heads to match the color of your MINI and pop them in. Yes, they may be more noticable than stock bumper with no holes, but will look a lot better than the two holes you have now.

 

Thanks wscruiser, I never even thought of that. I'll just hit the top of them with some touch paint. Great idea!

 

Yes, MO has a front plate, but I am acutally from Oregon (which also has a front plate). Being in the military makes plates, registration and insurance a bit screwy.

But back to the subject at hand, I just think the tow hook mount looks better and it wouldn't have damaged the car. I feel the dealer should have asked me before doing this. I'll try the plug idea, I think that will do the trick.

 

The mount you speak of is our 'No Holes' License Plate Bracket. You may find our product at selected MINI and BMW dealers across the US.

If you have any questions please feel to send us an email @ inquiries@gominigo.com

 

Yeah here, they have you sign something either way - if you want them to mount the plate or not.

The little plastic screws are genius, and definitely your best bet short of replacing the bumper.

 

Depending on your budget, keep trolling the Marketplace section on here, bumper caps come up fairly often as Motorers upgrade or change to aero kits or aftermarket parts or part out their cars. Finding one without holes may be a challenge.

That plastic plug and touch-up idea is, agreed, genius.

FWIW, it's not that hard or time consuming to remove either F or R bumper cap, so back-filling the holes (tape over the front, add a little body filler) and touch-up paint will work also - and give you a chance to replace the factory horns with air horns mounted in the bumper, or something - just a thought...