I recently purchased a new Nissan Murano. Great SUV but like any vehicle, there’s some quirks. One of them is the absence of four holes to mount a license plate. That forced me to investigate license plate holders and mounts for cars with 2 screw holes.
I live in New Jersey and they require plates at the front and rear of the vehicle. The absence of mounting holes at the bottom of the license plate lead to two problems. I should mention the issue is also present on my Kia Sorento.
First, the license plate at the front of my car is now bent at the bottom. I guess it’s because of the wind shear from driving on highways at 65 miles per hour. The second problem is the rear plate hits against the exposed car body whenever I close the rear hatch. The State of New Jersey requires you to have a plate in the front of the vehicle. A police officer friend of mine told me it’s a $40 fine and no points and that police generally won’t pull you over for it. Too much stress. I need the front plate.
I really don’t understand why car manufacturers eliminated the rear mounting holes. Was it adding that much to the cost of the vehicle? Now I have two plates causing an issue. One is bent at the bottom and the other is damaging the bottom of my new SUV.
The license plate at the back of the car was the easiest to fix. I used common weather-stripping such as the Frost King Sponge Rubber Foam Tape. Most up north are familiar with these products, but if you’re down south, you may not be. This is a foam strip that has adhesive backing. The product is typically used to seal up cracks around doors and windows. It keeps the chill out and the heat in.
To use it on your rear license plate, remove the plate from the vehicle. Wash the plate and dry it thoroughly. Now apply a strip to the back of the license plate at the rear. Now attach it back where it was. When you slam the hatch or trunk shut, the plate will no longer hit your exposed car.
It’s important to only use the stripping on the license plate. Applying it to the vehicle will likely cause damage. It’s perplexing to me as to why they stopped adding the bottom screw holes to the vehicle, but this solved the issue of the plate hitting the bare metal on my vehicles. Since I had some weather-stripping lying around, this cost me nothing.
So now on to the front plates. This is a little more difficult to fix since the issue is a complete absence of the holes and the plate is actually bending. I need a way to keep it flat. I needed to look at license plate holders and mounts that would remain rigid even when driving 65 MPH or more.
The Carshow Automotive Products Plateguard was the one that I used on my car. It can be seen in the photo that accompanies this article. This is one of those license plate holders that actually hold the plate versus fitting over it. I wanted something that would add some support and keep the plate from bending and this did the trick. I liked it because there aren’t any obnoxious marketing raised letters nor does it hide any of the plate. The license plate mount is made of plastic but it’s thick enough so it will not bend, even without the two holes at the bottom to hold it. This product is available in black or silver. I chose black to match my vehicle.
I’m sure there are a lot of people out there with a similar issue to mine. Since I encountered the same issue on my last two vehicles purchased, I thought it would help someone with a similar problem.