I got my plates in the mail yesterday, and I was thinking of mounting the front plate just to avoid any BS even though I think it kinda messes up the flow of the front of the car.

I was looking at the plastic mounting bracket and the associated screws that comes with it last night. I noticed the two top holes on the bracket match with indents on the front bumper. I imagine the two phillips head screws go through the top holes and the indents on the bumper. Then there are two longer screws with torx heads. Do those go through the holes on the lower left/right?

How is everyone else's front bracket mounted? two screws?

 

You can get a towhook bracket from http://gominigo.com/18545.html and avoid messing up your bumper. There's another company offering a slightly different bracket but they don't know if it will work on the 07's and I forgot the name of that company.

 

yep. I think I'll order one of those. I hadn't realized they've released the front plate mount already. Looks really good.

 

Update... got the gominigo 'no holes' front plate. Nice part. I recommend it. Super easy to install and looks pretty good. I kinda like the offset look. Most important is that you don't have to tap into the plastic with those big nasty screws ruining the front bumper. Once I wash the car I'll try to take a pic and post it here.

 

I think it will be less painful to mount a front plate on R56 than it was on previous MINI models. I'm going to drill and be done with it. The front bumper (on Coopers anyway) has some verticle lines that seem to approximate the the location of a plate...why not hide those as seeminly intended. My point is that the car's bumper may actually look cleaner/more logial if one goes ahead and drills, mounting the plate in the traditional location.

I do think I'll let the dealer do this so I don't have to watch, though!!!