Numberplate printing rules

I was never actually aware of these rules (they're not exactly publicised well). When I bought my car the plates were in a bit of a state so I ordered some from www.cheapestplates.co.uk because they were...well..cheapest :)

Wouldnt recommend them, took ages, but the front page of the site said "road legal plates" so I stupidly assumed they were road legal. Looking now at the disclaimer it has the usual gumpf about off road use only. they dont have any dealers addresses/numbers or BSAU numbers on them and the car's been through 2 MOTs with them on and nobody's picked up on it (The car's a 2004 model so it definitely applies). That was 2 different test centers too - I'm guessing the testers dont really care....
 
For every "I know a car that failed on plates" I'm sure quite literally 25+ people can say their's got through OK.
But the very fact cars are being failed on plates would make my choice quite obvious (should I need new plates) - maake sure they have all the right markings.
 
Its been so long since I had a car fail an MOT - do they still charge you a second test fee if it fails and they need to do work to fix it?

If not, presumably you can just take it to a place that can supply new plates and you're not going to be any worse off?
 
My 2002 focus has plates without any markings and sailed through it's MOT. This was at a Ford main dealer testing centre too.
 
You probably want to keep a lot of this quiet lest VOSA read this thread.
 
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I was just told today the reason why they want you to have the makers name/address on the plate. It's to help catch people who see your plate on a car they are driving, and decide to clone the plate to avoid paying fines, tax, etc. It gives police a way to follow up, as plate makers have to legally ask for proof of ID and logbook before issuing a road legal plate.

I guess its less of an issue if you have a rare/unpopular car, but has to be the same rules for everybody. And I think he said if you get stopped you can get a £60 fine on the spot. I probably wont change mine though unless I get stopped + play dumb pretend I had no idea of the rules.
 
racerboy59 said:
I was just told today the reason why they want you to have the makers name/address on the plate. It's to help catch people who see your plate on a car they are driving, and decide to clone the plate to avoid paying fines, tax, etc. It gives police a way to follow up, as plate makers have to legally ask for proof of ID and logbook before issuing a road legal plate.
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I thought that was fairly obvious to be honest. I'm guessing part of the criteria to be able to issue plates is that everything is logged so they can quickly check is the plates are genuine
 
Meanwhile the criminals just buy them online from suppliers in RoI or get them made up at their local dodgy print shop who doesn't keep records. etc. etc.

It's another pointless waste of time that doesn't help fight crime and just annoys genuine honest people.
 
Have to tell people in halfords the same thing but they tend to come in with nothing. The system we use gives you tick boxes for what ID they have and if its a V5,V750 etc. Then you have to put in the serial numbers for each if i remember correctly.
 
Every Halfords I've been in does numberplates, even my local tiny crappy one.

Think they're about £15 - £20 though (used to be more like £40). I can get them done for a tenner at a place in Newport.

Would you really want a big Halfords logo on the back of your plate though? o_O
 
Lum said:
Every Halfords I've been in does numberplates, even my local tiny crappy one.

Think they're about £15 - £20 though (used to be more like £40). I can get them done for a tenner at a place in Newport.

Would you really want a big Halfords logo on the back of your plate though? o_O
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£15 - £20 each or both?

Hmm, is the logo that bad?

Any pics anyone?
 
I asked halfords a few weeks ago. They said its £13 each plate = £26 for both.

I really hate advertising for others though. They should be paying me if they want to advertise on my property. Rules suck.
 
Usually doesn't take too long to make a numberplate.
Didn't get mine done at Halfords, but the place I went to took about 10-15 minutes to do the pair.
 
Interesting. :)

Promised myself a new pair before it goes before MOT as the current ones are in a terrible state.

May just pop in tomorrow as I'll be around there anyway.
 
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