I was wondering if License Plate holders are intended primarily for aesthetics (like for presenting the plate) or whether there is a functional purpose to using one?

If I get a plain License-Plate holder for my car, does it help protect my car from scratches, prevent rattling, prevent bending/distortion of the License Plate? Or is it just a waste of money and I could just screw the Plate onto the back of the car without losing functionality?

 

are you referring to the plate frame? if so yah, on my hobby cars i use it for decoration, but on my '12 GE, i took them off, replaced the screws with stainless and put black caps on them.

got road salt here in the winter and my GE's a winter dd, so...

 

Yeah, the frame/holder that fits around or under the license plate. When I bought the car, the dealer fitted one onto the plate with the Dealer's name on the holder.

So there isn't really any functional reason to use a frame/holder for the plate, right? It's just a way to advertise something, or add aesthetics to the presentation of the license plate, right?

 

yah, i took my dealer plate frame off the day i took delivery. it's there just for aesthetics as you mentioned. i think the car looks better without.

my 09' GE still has dealer frames. not sure why, just too lazy to remove them. i have a stack of plate frames in my garage waiting for a garage sale.

 

In addition to the previous comments, there is one practical application for a license plate frame. That is for the FRONT plate. Some states require a front plate, some states don't. Here in CA, you will get a ticket if the front plate is removed, but a lot of us hate to have the plate bolted through the center of the upper bumper area.

I used a license plate relocator bracket that I bought on ebaymotors.com., and used a plastic "screw head snap cap", painted to match my stock body color, to cover the ugly screw hole in the bumper.

However, the license plate relocator bracket is thin aluminum and is fairly flexible. If you just hang the plain license plate on it, wind from freeway speeds makes the plate flutter and rattle as it hangs from the lower edge of the upper bumper. A nice heavy cast zinc license plate frame (mine has the Fit logo in gold, bought from Amazon) adds stiffness to the plate and stops the fluttering in the wind.

 

If you do street parking the front protector prevents your plate from getting all bent and twisted when people whack it with their car. I would guess that probably in Detroit you have enough space that each space has its own length markings, unlike here in BOS where we just squeeze the cars in wherever there appears to be enough space, bashing each other's cars up in the process :P

I bought my first new car (the Fit) AFTER I moved out of the city. The CRV I had beforehand? One big selling point was the black plastic bumpers!

 

Mine would rattle when I took it off. I just got a plain one for now and took my front one off completely. (it's illegal here to but whatever lol) luckily the front wasn't screwed into the bumper there is a spot underneath where it was screwed in...

 

There was a time I was running around without a front plate, (illegal here too) Just in case I got stopped, I always kept it under the seat with part of a broken plastic frame still attached. I would show it to the officer and my story was that it just fell off, and I was on my way to get a new one.

 

Lol! Yeah I keep mine in my door just in case, luckily it got stepped on in the garage so the "it fell off" excuse will work lol

 

Yeah, unless you get a cop smart enough to notice that the dirt across the whole front is the same so it didn't just fall off...

 

LOL I think you guys will get a fix it ticket either way, with or without an excuse. Cop will probably think you're trying to be a smart-@**. :P I took my front plates off too and will take my chances till I get a fix it for it. How much are fix it nowadays in Vegas? Back in Cali it was $10, but that was in the early 90s. LOL

 

Licensed plate frames have basically two purposes. One to make them "look nice" and the second is advertisement

 

In Ky we keep the plate for several years. I use a clear polycarbonate cover to
Keep the plate from rusting, especially the back of the plate.

Jerry

 

I been stop in NYS for having a cover on my front plate the police officer said that it was illegal. Not sure why. But I would like to ger a front plate relocator just have to find one.

 

You can spend a lot of money buying things online, or $1.50 for a bag of black zipties from the hardware store like I did...

 

And you can have something that looks like shit or something that looks and performs great. Your choice.

 

It looks like a licence plate, but lower and to the side. Not sure how that's shitty. But I guess if you add some rain gutter guard in front of the grill your only choice is to spend money trying out different setups.

 

I have blue tinted covers front and rear.

 

It keeps you from having to drill through the front bumper in order to attach the plate. It looks a lot cleaner. I picked up one for the Fit some online auto parts store. Fit perfectly.

 

I'm surprised at the number of people who run around giving free advertising to a dealer by not removing the cheap plate frames they throw on.

I'm a no-frame kind of guy. I can see if you want to send a personal message, or advertise for your own business, or do something for the vehicle's appearance by picking your own plate frame. But why run around with a cheap dealer advertisement? You have to take it off to put your plate on in the first place, so it's not like it saves work to leave it there ...