Conference terri::cars_uk

    
    In the UK (and probably most places in Europe), it is illegal.
    
    Mark

>>    An expensive way of telling other motorists what a tosser you are.


why is it?


...art

It is somewhat pretentious!


Ian

"Not only am I rich enough to afford this, I'm rich enough not to take it 
seriously"


                       .. HHGTG, Douglas Adams

    Fancy that! All these years and I hadn't realised what a tosser I was.
    Well, well, well.
    
    Better not let the EF91 crew find this out....
    
    What a load of twaddle.
    
    Cheers, Laurie.

>    Fancy that! All these years and I hadn't realised what a tosser I was.
>    Well, well, well.

You should have I asked me, I'd have help increase your perception.

  > In the UK (and probably most places in Europe), it is illegal.
    
    So why is this so obviously ignored by the authorities? I can't think
    of any other clearly-visible motoring offences that have a blind eye
    turned to them. I agree that there is not a safety issue involved, but
    neither is a noisy exhaust or a silly horn that plays a tune unsafe;
    they will still get you your collar felt by Mr Plod, presumably because
    they cam cause `distress to others'. Well I find personalized number
    plates very distressing: distressing that there are such tossers in the
    world.
    
    Phil Gill.

    It's not always snob value.  Nowadays, when you can pick up a
    'personalised' registration for less than �200, it's just another way
    of making your car different from all the others. The same way that
    people stick on 'go faster' stripes and chrome wheeltrims, etc.
    
    Laurie's number is more of an investment (isn't it, LSB :-), and a way
    of making his sprogeye a little more 'special'.
    
    Now, I've just recently bought H10 RCH (to be read as HI ORCH), but the
    only vehicle that I can put it on is my motorbike, which would make it
    read:	H10
    		RCH
    
    So, what does that make me ?? (No need to comment, I already know) :-)
    
    
    Tony 'The Wimp' Orchard

    
  >  turned to them. I agree that there is not a safety issue involved, but
  >  neither is a noisy exhaust or a silly horn that plays a tune unsafe;
    
    I think that tune-playing horns were originally banned to prevent
    people from having horns that sounded like police cars, ambulances, and
    so on.  Of course, with the more recent sirens there is no longer a
    chance of confusion.
    
    Mat.
    *:o)

    
    I guess that, although illegal, number plates which look like words are
    a lot easier to remember than legally spaced plates.
    
    Maybe the police figure that it'd be counter-productive to prosecute?
    
    Mark

    re .10 
    
    I agree, if it makes the car stand out more to the public then it
    sure as hell will attract more police attention. That reason alone
    would deter me from buying a pers. plate. The way I drive, I can do
    without anymore police attention than I probably already get. Also, if
    a copper was to see you driving badly/too fast or whatever, but wasn't
    in a position to nick you at the time  ie, off duty, chasing someone
    else, going the wrong way down the road etc, he may remember the plate
    and if he saw it again, may nick you even though you aren't doing 
    anything *that* bad, or even not let you off 'cos he remebered your
    plate. 
       Another reason as well : if you have a slight disagreement with
    someone whilst driving along or whatever, said person for all you know
    may be going to the same place as you and arrive after you. They may
    decide to run a key along the paintwork or something even nastier.
    
    Nah, you can keep your personalised plates. I wouldn't go as far to
    say those with them are tossers though. Nevertheless, don't cut me up, 
    'cos I might be going where you are !  >-)
    
    
    Jerome who doesn't like unwanted attention.

Dunno whether this should go here or in seen in passing, but
I saw an old shape BMW 3-series with a J plate, and the other
day I saw a Sierra with an A plate. An old A plate that is!!! 

How can this be??


Ian

    �An old A plate that is!!! How can this be??
    
    As I understand it you cannot have a newer plate on an older car but
    there is no law against having an older plate on your car.
    
    Just because it has a year letter on it does not preclude it from being
    a personal or "cherished" plate.
    
    Roy

� I saw an old shape BMW 3-series with a J plate...
    
    Ian, you can see one almost every day if you take a squint through the 
    window! Mr Osmond's convertible is usually in the Viables car park,
    when it's not parked round the back of McDonalds!
    
    McWegg�

    And of course if a car is officailly written off and then re-registered
    it get the current plate , os you could have a Mk 1 cortina with a J
    plate. That is unless the rules have changed, but it used to be
    possible.
    
    Garry
     

    RE -1
    Nope rules have changed!  You will now end up with the dreded 'Q'
    plate.  That BMW sounds a bit dodgy!!
    
    ..Craig

    The BMW's OK, assuming it's never been registered before.
    
    Ian. 

    Its quite common to see discontinued models with later regs than you'd
    think. As Ian mentioned if a car has never been registered before it
    will get the latest reg.
    
    Theoretically if a Ford dealer discovered an unregistered Capri tucked
    away at the back of his showroom it could be registered with a 'J'
    plate.  That would make you look twice :-)
    
    Roy.

    I believe the BMW is a current model, even though it's the "old shape". 
    BMW still make the Cabrio as a new shape one isn't available.

    
    
    re .16
       according to HM customs and excise a Q-plate is only valid for 9
    months. The car should be 'properly' registered if
    a) the vehicle will reside on mainland UK for longer than 9 months
    b) the vehicle has been on mainland UK for 9 or more months.
    
    when registering a vehicle 2 things can happen. If you can provide
    documented evidence of when the car was manufactured it will get the
    appropriate mark, ie. J if 1991/2, H if 1990/1 etc...
    or
    If the apprpriate documentation can not be provided the car will get
    the current mark, ie 1991/2 J. but the LVLA (local vehicle licensing
    authority) will rubber stamp the registration using red ink with the
    words NOT NEW WHEN FIRST REGISTERED.
    
    Alan
    
     * this was the practise when my father retired from our LVLA, which is
    situated in minster street (Reading).
    

Here's an interesting question prompted by this note.

My Alfa is an "85 model" but the current registration document is dated 
September 1990.  This was when it was registered in Maryland.  Now, should
I bring the Alfa to the UK, one of 3 things could happen to it...

	1.  I could get an "H" as the registration shows 9/90
	2.  I could get a "C" for December 85, when it was imported to the US
	3.  ?????

What are the panels opnions on 3 above?

Brian

    re .20
    
    I imported a car from the Isle of Man about three weeks ago and tried very
    hard to get a new 'J' reg.  I was told more than once by my LVLA that
    this is not possible. If you cannot prove the date of manufacture you
    will get a 'Q', and apparantly this is for life!  If you can prove DOM
    then you will get the appropriate prefix letter reg.
    This is all acording to the LVLA in Manchester.
    
    re .21
    
    When was it first registered?
    Has your car been registered in the UK before?
    
    
    ..Craig

    Re .20
    
 �    according to HM customs and excise a Q-plate is only valid for 9
 �    months. 
 �    If the apprpriate documentation can not be provided the car will get
 �    the current mark, ie 1991/2 J. 
    
    NO! This did use to be the case, in fact I used to own an ex-army
    Landrover that was 15 years older than its M reg plate. But things
    changed some time ago, there is no way now of getting a plate that 
    is newer than the car.
    
    It occurred to me this morning, though. Will the 'dreaded' Q plate
    become more sort after in a few years time? In 1997, will people be
    clamouring to trade in their P regs motors for a kit car?
    
    Ian.

    
    Some people want to trade their cars for kits now! :^)
    
    Of course, as most of you already know, you cannot transfer a Q plate
    onto a car which has carried a normal plate.
    
    Mark

Re .22		First registered in Massachussetts in Decmeber 1985
		Never been in the UK.

    re -1    First registered in Massachussetts in Decmeber 1985
    
    If this date is on the log book (registration document), when you come
    to re-register it in the UK it will get a 'C' plate.
    
    ..Craig
    
    

>    If this date is on the log book (registration document), when you come
>    to re-register it in the UK it will get a 'C' plate.


My point is, that the CURRENT resgistration document shows September 1990, but
that isn't the date the car was first registered.  When you move states in the
US, you get a new document from the new state .....

    re -1 
    
    Well in your case I think you'd probably get away with a 'G' plate.
    Unfortunately with most cars this isn't so.
    
    ..Craig
    PS I know with some imports the car must go through a customs clearance
    before you can re-register - I don't know what happens in this
    procedure.
              

    re last replies.
    
    I imported a Capri to the UK when I returned home from the US in '78
    
    The car was new when I bought it in Tennessee and when it arrived in
    the UK it was almost 5 years old. When I got around to registering it
    (after a reminder from the Excise bods!) I got a registration plate
    that was the current UK year plate. So YRO 555S was a '73 Capri weraing
    a '78 plate. I had to get it MoT'd before the new registration was
    issued and that's another story........ The registration document was
    marked up as "Not new when imported" and because I didn't pay import
    duty (and VAT) when it arrived at Southampton, there was also the
    caveat written ont toe registartion that the vehicle couldn't change
    hands for two years without the duty payable at the original assessment
    on import. When that two year period expired, I could have got
    another registration document without duty clause but didn't bother.
    There weren't any problems when I sold the car after another 5 years
    of happy ownership.

    Over here in Northern Ireland it is possible to import a car and
    reregister it with whatever the latest reg prefix is. I bought my
    imported Escort RS Turbo from England with an F reg on it and
    reregistered it to get the latest no, over here. It's quite good cos
    quite a few peeps have thought it was brand new, even though its got
    30K on the clock.
    
    Our reg numbers are different over here and do not have a letter prefix
    which denotes the year, altough it is possible to deduce what year it
    is by considering the letters (if it has not been reregistered of
    course). My new reg is UXI 6057. I did have a Fiesta with VIA 2345,
    and I am begining to wish I had kept that number :-(
    I believe that one of the reasons that we are allowed to reregister our
    cars so easily is for security reasons, ie. members of the security
    forces changing theirs regularly to avoid being targeted by terrorists.
    I bought an XR2 which had been owned by a Policeman with about 4500
    miles on the clock, and he had reregistered the car twice. Perhaps he
    was just trying to get a nice number :-)
    
    I was only 3 away from being allocated UXI 6060 which would have been
    quite nice in comarison to 6057 :-( 
    
    When I reregistered my machine I decided to get some slightly more
    attractive number plates. They have smaller letters/digits and are
    slightly slanted (italic). I have had these plates on for about 7
    months now and about four weeks ago was stopped by Mr. Plod at a Police
    check who proceeded to tell me that my plates were illegal after
    measuring them with a ruler, which he produced from about his person.
    He took down all my details and said he was taking me to court over
    it.... I then contacted my local Police station who said that if the
    officer had not asked me to produce my insurance, then it is v.
    unlikely that matters will be taken any further, saying that it was
    such a trivial offence anyway. I showed him a cpic of the plates on the
    car, and he agreed that he had seen much worse. I wonder if me pointing
    out a car that had only one headlight working, but yet was waved
    through without a word to the driver, had anything to do with me
    getting off ?? :-) I just had to point out that it should be the same
    law for everyone, and not just those driving "performance" cars, which the
    Police seem to loath over here. Have been through loads of checks
    before and after this incident without a word from the Police.
    
    The plates remain on the car, as I think they look jolly good and are
    very legible. The letters are 62 mm high, and according to Trafic
    Police they should be between 80 and 88 mm. I was told at the "scene of
    the crime" that they MUST be 88mm high, and to look at the reg on the
    Police car. I am not joking when I say that they were bloody lucky that
    they actually fitted on the plate at all, they were that big. Traffic
    plod also said that it was illegal to have dots on the letter i which a
    lot of peeps have over here, and that it was strictly true that it was
    illegal to wave any writing like that of the dealer name on the plate
    at the bottom, like nearly all have. If you have 88mm high letters,
    which I doubt, then there is no room for this anyway :-)
    
    Gary.

	Registration for imported cars has changed quite a bit since 78.

	Heather

    Heather, are you from Devon? (as in "The Devon Dumpling") because my
    previous reg was F124 ODV. Does the DV dit mean Devon or what ?? I
    don't really know where my car came from in England, except that it was
    a Ford manager's fleet mobile.
    
    Gary.

    The "DV" part of the number certainly represents the area that it was
    registered, but the letters are in no way an abbreviation. I don't know
    where DV is but I'm sure someone will enlighten us.
    
    Just a footnote: I notice that in the southampton/portsmouth area one
    of the local letter combinations is "BP". Consequently a lot cars have
    the reg "annn SBP" which is interesting because the Solent office
    address is @SBP !
    
    Roy.

    I noticed that in the Lowestoft, Suffolk area there were a large
    number of reg.'s with a "V" either in the middle or the end of 
    cars registered there. ie A123 BVG or A123 FDV.  I think that 
    the reg of a car used to easily distinguish the area that it came
    from, but nowadays this is not always the case. There are too many
    cars bought these days to have a small amount of sequences to mark
    out one area and also, when cars change hands they tend to move
    around quite a bit, which dilutes the concentration in any one area.
    I had great fun proving what a clever boy I was for noticing the
    very numerous occurances of the "V" in Lowestoft plates on a weekend
    trip there by pointing every single one out to my passengers. I was
    lucky to make it back alive. :-)
    
    
    Jerome the Observant.     

    Thanks Jerome. Pronounced Lowest toft eh ??
    Hmmm is that good or bad :^)
    
    Gary.

    Not that number plates are my favourite subject.... but in the Berkshire
    region the commonest 'plate' ends in 'TF'.
    
    Roy (H606 GTF)
       

    -2.  The reason the Solent (Fareham) office has the code SBP is because
    of the name of the business park that the office is in. I.E. Solent
    Business Park.

    Rathole alert.
    
    Is there a formula for working out DEC area names. 
    ie SBP = solent bus. park.
    I work at Viables (UVO), I assume that the V is for Viables but what
    about the rest of it ?
    
    Roy.

    Yup, I'm from Devon, Plymouth to be precise.

    DR was a common suffix, as is NF, but Dv doesn't ring any bells.

    Heather

& TT

DR,DV,TT are all from EXETER

NF is from Manchester

Just to keep this going a bit longer ...

Other Exeter reg's are CO,FJ,JY,OD,TA,TK,UN,UO

David (part time number plate watcher)

    Does anyone have a list of these things??

the front of the Glasses (sp?) Guide always used to.

    
    Yes, it's somewhere in EURO_MOTORING.
    
    Mark

    BMW are still producing the 'old' shape 3 series in the 2 door variant,
    until next March, when the 2 door new shape (4 series ?) is available
    in the UK.  Hence the 'J' reg.
    
    Pete 

That probably explains why I saw another old shape J reg 325i
yesterday!


ian

Re the rathole in .38 which nobody went down:

> I work at Viables (UVO), I assume that the V is for Viables but what
> about the rest of it ?

I don't know what the 'U' stands for but I understand the 'O' stands
for 'office'.  Site codes used to be two letters and when they started
running out, three letter ones came in with most two letter ones
extended to three by adding an 'O' for Office.  

Jon from REO = Reading Office = DECpark

The O was not added to mean "office", it was simply used to extend the acronyms
to three letters from two because, as was correctly stated, the two-letter ones
became used up.  So, all the "old" locations that existed before the change have
an O on the end, and the newer locations may have another letter in the third
position.  And no, "O" does not stand for "Old" :^)

This all ahppened about 10 years ago if my faltering memory still serves me well

Brian

The locations just get assigned from 'somewhere'; for example, the Crescent
was (and will become again, I guess) UCG. SBP was gonna become UCH, until
"someone" got it changed to SBP.

Sometimes they mean something, and often they don't.

After all, XIP is Lisbon!

Peter.

    And TLA is Bangkok.
    
    No, *really*!
    
    JK
    
    p.s. It's in ThaiLAnd