Supplier of engraved acrylic plates

The date being 21 May 2007, Ian decided to write:

Try Tippers Vintage Plates

If they were legal at the time of registration you'll be able to use them now, but you may need to provide a copy of the V5C or some ID.

That's the sixty quid a pair lot, alas. As I understand it, it's legal to use old ones, but not newly made ones in the old style. I therefore plan, of course, to buy a pair of modern ones and swap them on every time I use the car on the road. Ho yes, of course I do.

Ian

The date being 21 May 2007, Ian decided to write:

If they are the same how is anyone going to know? A lot of plates are still made on the original equipment - particularly the embossed aluminium plates and those made with plastic letters and numbers.

Good heavens. I had, erm, never, um, thought of that, or imagined that anyone could be so dastardly.

Ian

Where did this information come from? As I understand it, it's down to the age of the vehicle which plates are allowable. And surely a new old style replacement one would be clearer to read than a perhaps 50 year old one?

It's what you'd think, isn't it, but it's not the case. There are two completely different sets of regulations.

One relates to the age of the car, so that, for example, a post-73 car must have black-on-yellow and black-on-white reflective plates, whereas an older car can have white-on-black.

The other regulations relate to the date on which the number plate was fitted: after 2001 they must be in the new style.

So my 1969 Herald is allowed to display black-on-white plates, but only if they are already fitted: new ones must be in the new style.

Crazy, yes, but that's how I read

Ian

Not how I read it. It says there are special requirements for vehicles constructed before 1-0-73 but fails to state specifically that replacement original plates aren't allowed, so any reasonable person would suppose they were.

The message from Ian contains these words:

snip

Not the way I see it.

Under 'In Brief' it states there are separate requirements for traditional number plates on vehicles constructed before 1st Jan 1973 and further down it gives those requirements under the heading "Traditional Number Plates". If you have a pre 1973 car and want to fit tradional plates that is all you need to comply with.

OTOH should you want to fit modern plates the newest rules will apply.

I have just checked the SI concerned, and you are quite right:

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(3) A mark may not be laid out in conformity with diagram 2c, 3c, 4b or 7b if it is displayed on -

(a) a registration plate fixed to a vehicle first registered on or after 1st September 2001, or

(b) a new registration plate fixed to a vehicle on or after 1st September 2001 to replace a plate previously fixed thereto (except where the vehicle was first registered before 1st January 1973).

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I still think it is daft, though, that it is illegal to replace perfectly legal plates on a 1976 car with identical ones!

Ian

This last bit is ambiguous. Is it a new number plate, or one for a new registration? The two are different. Plenty old cars are re-registered when their original number is sold.

I'd just ignore it and fit new ones of the period. The chances of a prosecution are tiny and it would be fun to go to court and fight it.

The date being 23 May 2007, Ian decided to write:

I think that's a misreading of the leaflet. When it says "number plates fitted after 1st September 2001" that refers to new registrations with new style plates which can have EU country codes.

If you look above it says "They must conform to one of the groups shown ...". So vehicles in the third group (registered before 1.1.73) can have white/silver characters on black backgrounds. You can replace like with like.