That thought crossed my mind also...but figured if it were brake ducting why would the holes not be cut circular?

 

The holes for brake ducts are usually cut in the lower quadrant of that area rather than high like the picture. I't's anybody's guess but I'm going with the replacement bumper theory mentioned earlier

 

There are no holes anywhere around where warts would have been installed, so the theory that this is an old bumper with warts removed is not valid. PO dealt exclusively with the dealer in the past, and car has not been in any accidents. Even if the front bumper and grill were replaced due to some damage, he would've replace them at dealer with new parts. He's not the kind of guy who wants to save money by sourcing old parts, believe me.

It is still a mystery. Here a couple more shots:

 

^^^ this is mysterious...you have to get tot he bottom of this...I for one am curious as to what's going on also and I am sure a lot of us are as well...

I have never seen this sort of thing before...

 

i would suspect a body shop or someone sourced the bumper and found one from an early 2000, removed the warts or the warts had already been removed, then they patched the holes before re-spraying the bumper, they re-used the plastic grills

thats really the only explanation

 

this is the most complete and plausable theory I think so far...nice work gumshoe!

 

Sounds plausible until you look closely at all the pics posted in this thread. The cutout in Sam996TTS's grille is smaller the factory wart-version grille. The mystery continues...

 

does anyone have a closeup picture of a grill with the warts removed?
it does look like the louvers were cut out, but we need to compare it with a wart grill.
if the old owner had installed lights or radar or something else in there in there, i would imagine he would have passed them on to you..
maybe he was trying to get more air in there for cooling?

 

The grills are not the same as the grills with bumper warts. My guess is the bumper is a stock 2005 and the grills have been modified for something. Maybe the old owner can tell you.

Later, Steve

 

Did the previous owner have any laser/radar deterrent systems on the car?

 

Very unlikely as radar detectors are not sold here and are illegal. I'll try to reach previous owner and ask. I'm very curious but a part of me is worried I won't like the answer.

 

I hear ya buddy...no worries...this is a great mystery one in which we are all interested now along with ya we all want to get to the bottom of this...

 

It does not seem to be anything major. Its not like he had a snowplow hooked up to the front of it. I hope you are not going to lose sleep over it.

 

OK, I checked with previous owner (who turned out to be 3rd owner) and he had no clue. Asked me to check with the dealership where he maintained the car. Went there today and got two of their most senior advisors to look at it. They looked at the cutouts and perused the entire car's history since new (2005) but no clues. They just scratched their heads, they had never seen anything like it and couldn't even guess why the cutouts where there.

The mystery remains...

 

...and the mystery continies... dun dun dun!

crickets chirping lol