Good morning. This feature was placed on Buicks starting in 1985 or 1986. This is when GM downsized their cars, Buick added this feature. It was on LeSasbre, Riviera and Park Avenue. It may have been other Buicks as well. You discovered it on a 1996 Buick Park Avenue. Thank you.
My 1991 Regal sedan had this feature as well. As to why newer cars don't have this feature, they sell the same car in Europe, Japan, Africa, India, etc. Plates in those places are long/skinny rectangles, so they style the cars to accept both the North America spec plate and the long/skinny plates they use in the rest of the world.
The taillight assembly with both lights and plate section is one piece. It would be easy to bolt in a foreign taillight design to accept the wider plate and keep the feature.
Biggest problem I see is that it'd have to be implemented upside down to this on a trunk/hatch lid that opens to the bumper. That means it'd have to be offset to one side to clear the latch and have some sort of movable "latch" of its' own to keep it from flying out when the hatch is opened with gusto. That would upset Design and Accounting respectively - designers like symmetry and corporate would need to engineer, source and pay for a retaining piece while screws are something left to the dealers to supply.
cars today do not have this feature because if thieves are not able to steal your plates then insurance companies wont be able to charge higher premiums.
Good morning. This feature was placed on Buicks starting in 1985 or 1986. This is when GM downsized their cars, Buick added this feature. It was on LeSasbre, Riviera and Park Avenue. It may have been other Buicks as well. You discovered it on a 1996 Buick Park Avenue. Thank you.
I’ve never seen this before….what a great idea.
My '98 Riviera had the same thing and I immediately appreciated it is the correct way to do this. Great car too.
That is ingenious. I have never seen this, but I have never owned a Buick of this timeframe. Great video!
My 1991 Regal sedan had this feature as well. As to why newer cars don't have this feature, they sell the same car in Europe, Japan, Africa, India, etc. Plates in those places are long/skinny rectangles, so they style the cars to accept both the North America spec plate and the long/skinny plates they use in the rest of the world.
The taillight assembly with both lights and plate section is one piece. It would be easy to bolt in a foreign taillight design to accept the wider plate and keep the feature.
It's plastic holding it in. Would be faster to get that plate than taking a few screws out and cause way more damage.
Biggest problem I see is that it'd have to be implemented upside down to this on a trunk/hatch lid that opens to the bumper. That means it'd have to be offset to one side to clear the latch and have some sort of movable "latch" of its' own to keep it from flying out when the hatch is opened with gusto. That would upset Design and Accounting respectively - designers like symmetry and corporate would need to engineer, source and pay for a retaining piece while screws are something left to the dealers to supply.
*Use a little MR pop rivet*
I guessed it was going to be about the trunk opening. It has a big lid, not a mail slot like today's sedans.
You could seriously summarize this in 30 seconds
Obviously never understood the workings of a crow/pry bar. Never say, no way to get into... fill in the blank.
Yes I a few Buicks like that.
cars today do not have this feature because if thieves are not able to steal your plates then insurance companies wont be able to charge higher premiums.
think about what your saying , plates are made out of thin aluminum all you got to do is get a screwdriver behind it and yank it out .
I simply get a pry tool to get the plate
Don’t be so sure and confident
I just steal your car
never knew
For the information provided this video is way too long. I was getting bored.
Like 90% of youtube videos
Tell ittttt!
Amen. Good God. Sadly, this rambling is becoming the norm.
@eddiestanley135 I thought it was just me. It was interesting information but it took much too long to put out the information. Much too wordy.