Are german style plates legal???

[brummimatt]

Are the metal pressed plates you can buy road legal?? and if not how much greif do you get for it? or do the police turn a blind eye?

[fuzzy]

im sure theyre illegal for use on british registered cars as ours have to be reflective. how much grief you get depends on the mood of the copper.

[agreen]

as long as the spacing is consistant and they are the right colours thn should be fine

[snoops]

i dont think you can have the 'D' on the left

[fuzzy]

im sure i read that if you set them up using german spacing you can be charged with some sort of deception or attempting to pervert the course of justice by giving the impression that your car is foreign. how true that is i dont know but our number plates dont allow any deviation from standard from spacing to size and font of lettering and colour and reflectivness of plate so anything different is illegal

[bss325i]

They are not legal full stop.

[Steve-E30]

How many times does this come up about german style plates , Been stopped with mine and there fine with them , As long as there spaced correctly , The D is the dodgy bit they dont like but i havent had any problems really , Police camera recognition cars cant pick the plates which they dont like , There was something on a vw website recently about them being legal and were getting confirmation through dvla as they are e.u. recognised plates which we are part of

[murran]

nope their illegal, theyd fail an mot.

[bazcoupe]

mine passed an mot no probs

[Steve-E30]

mine passed an mot no probs

They do pass an mot with them on buy i put my uk ones over the top just incase

[m-dtech]

they are illegal in uk and they are illegal if you take your car to germany !

[Steve-E30]

Agree you cant use them in germany especially with a D on , Looked into that as going next year , Not to sure about german style with a GB on them though

[m-dtech]

Agree you cant use them in germany especially with a D on , Looked into that as going next year , Not to sure about german style with a GB on them though

your more likely to get locked up by a mini hitler in germany for fraud or insurance dodging as the little stickers in the middle relate to insurance/tax and mot i believe.

[ad318i]

nope their illegal, theyd fail an mot.

Mine passed its mot for the last 2 years with even a raise of the eyebrow!

[Steve-E30]

I havent got the stickers on my plates but know what you mean
I know there strick over there as my mate said stick to correct uk plates .

[CraigG]

they are legal as long as you dont have the stadt stickers, they are reflective and they have GB at the side.

'anything' that is legal in an EU country is legal here, hence german cars run around with german plates here (or should that be polish) as long as it has the correct country of origin in the band, its all good.

[Cotty]

Police camera recognition cars cant pick the plates which they dont like ,

I went past one of those camera vans a few weeks ago and if they could'nt read the plate im sure they would have pulled me over.

[Loony]

They are illegal im afraid and yes you can get done for them.Now how bad depends on the mood of the officer and how many times you get caught.
If you get caught and keep using them you can have the number plate removed from the car and by this i mean the number plate id not the plate itself.You would then have to apply to the dvla for a new number plate id which is a whole load of hassle,Insurance,tax,mot plus the fact the car can not be used till it has a new plate.
Now in terms of the plates they are illegal due to the size of the letters in most cases.Some also fail for not being reflective and all will fail if they display the letter d or anything else other than the eu badge for the uk.

The comment below im afraid is totally wrong

'anything' that is legal in an EU country is legal here, hence german cars run around with german plates here (or should that be polish) as long as it has the correct country of origin in the band, its all good.

[AndyTouring]

If you want the official view point have a look here:

Licence Plate Information

May be this should be made a sticky.

There seems to be some confusion over what constitutes "legal". Just because the police haven't pulled you over the minute you leave your house does not mean you'll get away with it all the time. As far as Traffic are concerned, dubious fancy plates are an invitation to investigate further as other things are often brought to light. The question gets asked so many times everyone knows their use is suspect. Even the retailers state "for off road use only".

But why this hard-on for German plates? What "improvement" are they going to make on the car? Will they really make it stand out from the other million E30's rolling around? Is it a desperate attempt to elevate low self-esteem by making the owner appear "different" from the herd?

You drive an E30. That stands out like a beacon amongst the droves of Euro-hatches so relax, you are different enough. Just leave the car legal.

[StuBeeDoo]

Technically your insurance could be invalid if you have illegal number plates. You are knowingly using the car on the road in contravention of Construction And Use regs.


Technically!!

[dannyboy759]

I think it depens on the copper and the MOT tester you get!
But even if the spacing is right they are illegal because like was said our have to be reflective and so on.
German plates compared to ours, the letter are the wrong size/shape the plates are not the same reflective material it will probably have a D on the left and so on.
I had the old style British black ones on my M3 and I had no problems with them but i can imagine that one copper one day wouldve taken a disliking to them and do me for something.

[murran]

a tester has descretion and can choose whether to pass a dodgy no. plate. if your car passes its on his shoulders. but it shouldnt. ive passed plates with incorrect spacings etc before cus, whats the point in making the right plate and putting it on when the owner will just take it back off and put the dodgy one on again..............

[Loony]

I had the old style British black ones on my M3 and I had no problems with them but i can imagine that one copper one day wouldve taken a disliking to them and do me for something.

The officer would possibly take offence as it was not registered before 1973.That is an offence in itself so you could get done for having them on the car.

[murran]

I had the old style British black ones on my M3 and I had no problems with them but i can imagine that one copper one day wouldve taken a disliking to them and do me for something.

The officer would possibly take offence as it was not registered before 1973.That is an offence in itself so you could get done for having them on the car.

and they should fail for the same reason............

[brummimatt]

blood and sand!!! ... quite a debatable topic, nice one for the advice guys. Im gonna get myself a pair but keep the spacing the same as standard. If the old bill pull me il play innocent and change em after. Thanks for the advice everyone!!!

[dannyboy759]

Right, There is only one legal plate, why try and mess with the system

[hennabm]

a tester has descretion and can choose whether to pass a dodgy no. plate. if your car passes its on his shoulders. but it shouldnt. ive passed plates with incorrect spacings etc before cus, whats the point in making the right plate and putting it on when the owner will just take it back off and put the dodgy one on again..............

There is no discretion for a tester if it is clearly a fail. If he chooses ito pass them then if found out and proven he could lose his testing licence and so could his garage.

The MOT rules changed for No plates on 1st Oct making it a fail to have anything but a flag on the side and no shadowing behind the numbers. So no BMW signs at the side of the numbers or shadowed out behind the numbers.The font MUST be correct and there is also rules on how far from the edge they must be.
The plates must also have the BS tye number on them as well as the post code of who made the plates. Therefore German plates will not have the BS type number on them and will fail.

Any tester that passes plates other than this is in breach of the rules.

[StuBeeDoo]

Any tester that passes plates other than this is in breach of the rules.

But there will always be the odd one or two who turn a blind eye/don't even notice/can be bought off.
And as has been mentioned above, if you put the correct plates over the top for the test, that isn't a fail.

[Cotty]

as well as the post code of who made the plates.

Does that make my original plates illegal as they have no post code.

Next plates I get will not have the post code on them

[StuBeeDoo]

Legal requirement is for the assembler of the plate(s) to identify themselves on all plates made after 01/09/01.
The assembler is supposed to keep a register of all plates they make, recording the name and address of the person buying the plate(s).
From a later date (a couple of years ago??) the assembler is required not to assemble plates for anyone other than a bona-fide motor trader without first having sight of the registration document and a recognised means of identifying the purchaser as the registered keeper of the vehicle as per the reg. doc..

[StuBeeDoo]

Legal requirement is for the assembler of the plate(s) to identify themselves on all plates made after 01/09/01.

Missed out....
Said identification must include the assemblers postcode.

[Cotty]

Legal requirement is for the assembler of the plate(s) to identify themselves on all plates made after 01/09/01.
The assembler is supposed to keep a register of all plates they make, recording the name and address of the person buying the plate(s).

The point is our cars were made before this ruling came in therefore our original plates are legal. if we replace the plates without the post code then no one knows when they were made and could be original.

Bottom line is I dont like yet another rule imposed on me. So if I get a chance to push against the system I will.

[Morat]

I can see the thread in six months time: Cotty fought the law and the law won!

Save you efforts for something that matters!

[StuBeeDoo]

Legal requirement is for the assembler of the plate(s) to identify themselves on all plates made after 01/09/01.
The assembler is supposed to keep a register of all plates they make, recording the name and address of the person buying the plate(s).

The point is our cars were made before this ruling came in therefore our original plates are legal. if we replace the plates without the post code then no one knows when they were made and could be original.

Bottom line is I dont like yet another rule imposed on me. So if I get a chance to push against the system I will.

If you can find somewhere that has the pre-'01 letters (57mm) you could get away with it. I'd be surprised if any assemblers have any left now. The regs. specify that plates made from 01/09/01 have to comply irrespective of the date of first use of the vehicle. The new (50mm) font is visibly quite different to the old one, so you can tell if the plate should be "identified" if you know what your're looking at.
I understand what you're saying, but you are laying yourself open if you use any non-compliant plate(s).
Don't think I'm being "holier-than-thou" here - my plates are illegally spaced and I've got away with it for 6 years. I have a spare pair of legal plates, just in case.

[doughboy]

The MOT rules changed for No plates on 1st Oct making it a fail to have anything but a flag on the side and no shadowing behind the numbers. So no BMW signs at the side of the numbers or shadowed out behind the numbers.The font MUST be correct and there is also rules on how far from the edge they must be.
The plates must also have the BS tye number on them as well as the post code of who made the plates. Therefore German plates will not have the BS type number on them and will fail.

That's exactly what my mot man said when he passed my german plates(with the D) a few weeks ago.