Augustus

Yes and Yes. Not through the painted part of the bumper, but the black-plastic trim. My dealer didn't install the front plate. Did it myself the next day. Yes, yes, it looks cleaner without, but in Illinois it's required and I'd rather not spend $120 each time a cop is having a bad day. For me, the plate's going on and never coming off, so I'll never remove the front bracket and therefore never see the holes. See no evil, right?

The mounting hardware & bracket should come with the car. Mine was in the trunk (with the front wheel spoilers...) The instructions for mounting it are in the owner's manual, towards the back. It's easy to do, but two caveats...

1. It uses these self-anchoring taps. It is very important to drill the right size holes. The manual, I think, recommends a 10mm bit. Double-check this. Two holes in bumper-->Anchors in holes-->screws through mounting bracket into anchors. Tinker with these anchors BEFORE you stick them in your bumper, as it's hard to impossible to remove then once you put them in. There's a trick to getting the anchor to swing out to lock into the back side of the bumper. One of mine worked as it should, the other one kind of didn't and took a few minutes of swearing at it to get it to lock properly.

2. As someone else mentioned - be VERY CAREFUL as to the length of the screws you use to secure your license plate to the bracket. These screws are *not* included in the mounting hardware, so be especially careful if you go out and buy new ones as I had to. The manual specifically mentions that they must not exceed a certain length. If they are longer than about a half-inch, they will go right into the painted bumper. I had to use a Dremel to cut-down the screws I bought, as they were too long.

Good luck.