Welcome and congrats! Mind sharing a picture of the filter you do have in your car? Supposedly, later years came with a better filter, or maybe the earlier ones didn't come with a filter at all, I forget. But if you show your filter, I can confirm if it's the same as mine or not.

 

I left it as it was. The grille was perfectly clean. My car only had about 51000 mi. when I bought it. It is a magnificent car!

 

My 2016 F Sport, bought a year and 9 months ago, did not have a mesh either.

 

thanks for your reply! did you just let it be or did you buy the mesh?