MOT - New inspection criteria for number plates.

What happens about cars like the MX5 and some classics with no number plate mounting location on the front, where stick-on plates have been used in the past - do the owners now have to drill their bodywork and get a mounting kit to mount a solid plate on the vertical??

I hear what your saying, and I can't come up with any evidence now, only my memory, being old enough to remember when they came in and the reasons given then for them being reflective, simply as a reflective suface to make the vehicle easier to see in the dark. I see others, clearly as old have me, have replied similarly! With regards to bikes, the reasoning does only hold true when approached from behind, but that's the important direction. And having a reflective rear plate does make a bike far more visible at night IMO. Initially they weren't compulsory and many people continued with the old non-reflective style, you chose what you wanted when you bought a new car. The reflective ones were considered to be "very tacky" and Jag owners and the like wouldn't spoil the look of their cars with them. Eventually experience showed them to be very beneficial and they were made compulsory.

BobC

messagenews: snipped-for-privacy@davenoise.co.uk...

But in Ireland, they chose to make the rear ones RED for this reason!!! Now they were really great number plates, black letters on dark red! They didn't stick with that for long and they changed to white front and rear when they changed the numbering system from the British one to their own current one.

BobC

that has always been the case, I expect that ignoring sensibly presented numbers which are not 100 percent by the book will continue for vehicles with odd configurations of bumper/nose, just the way it has always been,

Interesting point, the regulations do not specifically state that the plate cannot be a) stick-on, b) non-vertical.... They just say as close to vertical as possible. Thats a bit grey in my book, open for abuse one way or another.

Ok, Ok, part MOT bay, Part police station

Who mentioned fail??

"display the name and postcode blah..." sounds like law enforcement to me. As a tester in the 70', and 80's I found the test was totally about roadworthyness ( at that moment in time). If it was built at Longbridge it may not have been roadworthy brand new :0) Rog