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Quote: Originally posted by superbbird on 12/12/2011

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Our car failed it's MOT today on the registration plates! It wasn't showing the name & postcode of the supplier correctly.

Thank goodness the tow-bar & electrics passed and the rest of the car is fine.

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Hi, would not have  thought of checking to see if the suppliers name and post code  were showing correctly, glad your car passed all other criteria for MOT, just need to get yourself some new plates and a re test, thanks for the information, will look more closely when I change any plates from now on.

Quote: Originally posted by Grampian91 on 13/12/2011

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Depends on the age of the car.

Cannot remember the exact dates, But they did start to fail cars that did not show the makers name and postcode.



Or was it pre 2001 cars, Which is now not required?

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Current Regulations indicate as follows:-

All vehicles registered after 1st September 2001. and all replacement plates fitted must conform to the following specification...

1. Typeface must be sans serif. All other fonts are prohibited. The one decorative variation still permitted is a 3D effect version of the mandatory typeface.

2. Each character must be 79mm high and 50mm wide (except the number 1 or the letter I). The width of each character stroke must be 14mm. There must be a space of 11mm between characters within the same group, and character groups must be 33mm apart. For the purposes of measurement, each character (again, excepting the number 1 or the letter I), regardless of its shape, is treated as a rectangular block of dimensions 79mm x 50mm

3. The colours and reflectivity of number plates must also comply with the regulations and accord with British Standard BS AU 145d. Your rear plate has to have black characters on a yellow background. …and it has to be the correct yellow

4. The plate must be marked with the British Standard Number; the name; trade mark, or other means of identification of the manufacturer or component supplier; the name and postcode of the supplying outlet.

Fine of up to £1000 for breach of the regs

Regular readers of this web site will remember that this issue was discussed some months back. See the benefits of reading just about everything on this site

Phil

Quote: Originally posted by Tentz on 13/12/2011

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It appears to be a grey area. The idea was that the law was tightened & you had to show reg doc & identification before you could buy replacement plates for a car. This to prevent anybody getting plates made for stolen car or whatever. Plate makers had to be licensed & yet ebay suppliers still supply plates with no identification required. Some state they are just 'showplates' with legal font & not road legal but others claim their plates are road legal with correct markings & yet are supplied in apparent contravention of the law.

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Its a bit like Burglary is a grey area, until they get caught.

Many on line suppliers make it clear that the plates they provide are for off road use only if they do not conform to the regs. That is how they avoid prosecution. Buyers, happy to have saved money, use them on the road. It is the user who tends to get fined/prosecuted rather than the supplier.

Phil

Quote: Originally posted by vernon87 on 13/12/2011

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If it's the rear one that is "illegal", keep it and use it on your garden trailer or next caravan, they don't have to go through an MOT and risk failure.

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The Regs apply to the use of number plates on vehicles. When the van or trailer is attached to your car the whole unit is the vehicle and the number plate has to conform to the regs. So, yes, you don't risk an MOT failure but you do risk a fine of up to £1000. Sometimes, in seeking to do things on the cheap it's best to think things through.

Back to the drawing board methinks.

Phil

Quote: Originally posted by TonyC52 on 13/12/2011

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Understand the regulation but why an MOT fail, I thought the MOT was about car safety.

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