Registration Plates On An Import

[boddamloon]

Ive just been reading up on Registration plates and found out its a bit of a grey area if your car is imported.Apperently if your car does not allow for the normal EU sized plate ( due to the shape of bumper etc.) it will be acceptable to have a smaller plate with smaller font. But it does not stipulate if you had an intercooler etc. and if the plate was to block the air flow etc. It does say that our boys in blue does not usually know about this and you will probally get pulled over anyway but you might have a case to argue if your plate is on the small side. Where does it state if your car is an import? Is it on the DVLA Documents? I wonder if it would be possible to blag and say it is an import? Does anyone know what the penalty would be for an undersized plate? I know a guy that got 3 points and £60 fine for having show plate font. I thinl all new plate must carry the BS number in the bottom right hand corner too. Has anyone else heard of this regulation?

[sparkystav]

An import can have a smaller numberplate yes as the letter sizes and spaces are smaller.

I've put a smaller plate on the front of my Lex but its still Legal size it all depends on how you read the regs i suppose.

My plate has all the letters the Legal size and an 11mm gap between each letter, and a 33mm big gap. Then after that all you require is an 11mm border around thats all my plate is, no excess plastic.

I've kept the Font and everything Legal to stay on the safe side. So far (touch wood) i've been ok.

See my Registry for a pic

NUMBER PLATES FITTED AFTER 1 SEPTEMBER 2001

Number plates fitted after 1 September 2001 must display characters that meet the dimensions shown below.

Characters

Height 79mm

Width (except the figure 1 or letter l) 50mm

Stroke 14mm

Space between characters 11mm

Space between groups 33mm

Top, bottom and side margins (minimum) 11mm

Space between vertical lines 19mm

The only difference pre 2001 (post 73) is the letters are 57mm wide.

Import sizes

Character Height 64mm

Character Width 44mm

Character Stroke 10mm

Space between characters 10mm

Stav

[lutonmatt]

i have not heard about the size thing before but saying that my yank has smaller plates then normal and have never had a proplem

and as the bs number i got a thing in a mot paper the other day saying about if your reg is 51 on you can not change the size or style or the back bit and has to have some nukbers on it too but it does not come in to the mot test until we get a noice from vosa witch will be soon so it may be harder to get a plate done if reg is 51 on

[boddamloon]

[Unregistered_User]

That's unusual.... can't make my mind on that one, but I think it works - it's obviously offset for a purpose as well though!

J

[boddamloon]

I didnt want to put a plate on my bumper i think plates spoil the look so i got a reflective sticker made up and i also got the BS sticker made up and have stuck it on to the sticker thats all ready on. Cheeky i know

[Rob]

think ur asking to get pulled with that on!