Number plate "adjustments"
Author
Discussion

Davey S

Original Poster:

34 posts

262 months

Thursday 10th March 2005
quotequote all
All,

Need a bit of guidance on numberplates. I'm about to buy a personal one for my Chim, there are a number that are suitable.
A couple of which would require the use of coloured screws/caps etc to make items such as B's become D's, 6's to C's etc.

Whilst I understand that this is frowned upon, what is the likelihood of getting a grilling from the law, and what could be the punishment? I do a lot of miles, see a lot of adjusted plates, but don't know of the dangers. The DVLA website is useless on this, doesn't even cover spacing limits.

Help greatly appreciated before I part with the hard earned cash.

Dave

towman

14,938 posts

269 months

Thursday 10th March 2005
quotequote all
Hi Davey.

Don`t do it! It looks cheap and nasty and repeated offence will lead to you losing the plate completely (and your money)!

Your call.

GreigM

6,740 posts

279 months

Friday 11th March 2005
quotequote all
To be honest fiddling the plate to read something else looks a bit "chav" to me....but its your call. From the number of these I see I think the chances of plod doing anything are slim, however I did see someone at my work parked a Nissan 200SX with the plate
"J 16V SX"
which one day changed to its correct
"J16 VSX" - so I assume they got "advised" by the police.

Dibble

13,276 posts

270 months

Friday 11th March 2005
quotequote all
Had a quick lokk at your profile, Davey S, and if you're considering this, it's a good job you're not in our area...

The ANPR team regularly (ie several times a day) report people for "number plate" offences; this includes a report being forwarded to DVLA, who have taken the plate back from some of our repeat offenders.

I too think it looks a bit "chav", but that's just personal opinion.

tycho

12,276 posts

303 months

Friday 11th March 2005
quotequote all
Noooooooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

People call them tosser plates for a reason.

jesusbuiltmycar

5,130 posts

284 months

Friday 11th March 2005
quotequote all
Dibble said:


The ANPR team regularly (ie several times a day) report people for "number plate" offences; this includes a report being forwarded to DVLA, who have taken the plate back from some of our repeat offenders.

I too think it looks a bit "chav", but that's just personal opinion.




Do they also report people with excessively dirty number plates???

How do people manage to get a layer of muck so thich the plate is unreadable even at close range???

I am ashamed to admit I haven't washed my mondeo (apart from windows) for about 6 weeks, and although the car is filthy the plates are still easily readable...

deeen

6,408 posts

275 months

Friday 11th March 2005
quotequote all
Spray WD40 on it before driving through a field, allegedly. Seems a bit pointless as the penalties for driving with an obscured / illegal (such as funny spacings / screws) numberplate are higher than those for not displaying a number plate at all, IIRC.

munter

31,331 posts

271 months

Friday 11th March 2005
quotequote all
The only change i've made to the plate is to remove the solid one and stick one onto the bumper. The stick on one is not as reflective as it should be (e.g. it's not at all)..... I've been behind a few trafpol and they dont seem to care. But it's properly sized and spaced....

jap-car

775 posts

280 months

Friday 11th March 2005
quotequote all
jesusbuiltmycar said:

Dibble said:


The ANPR team regularly (ie several times a day) report people for "number plate" offences; this includes a report being forwarded to DVLA, who have taken the plate back from some of our repeat offenders.

I too think it looks a bit "chav", but that's just personal opinion.





Do they also report people with excessively dirty number plates???

How do people manage to get a layer of muck so thich the plate is unreadable even at close range???

I am ashamed to admit I haven't washed my mondeo (apart from windows) for about 6 weeks, and although the car is filthy the plates are still easily readable...



My rear number plate was completely obscured by dirt (through natural causes) until a couple of community officers advised me to clean it earlier this week. They didn't take my reg number though

FastShow

388 posts

282 months

Friday 11th March 2005
quotequote all
I've been running L30 NCP as L30N CP on my Cupra R (and previously my Cupra) for coming up to 4 years. Never had so much as the slightest bit of interest from plod, or ANPR in that time.

I do always carry a set of legal plates in the boot though, just in case, but I've never needed them.

MR2Mike

20,143 posts

285 months

Friday 11th March 2005
quotequote all
Quite apart from being completely unable to fathom why people would pay serious money just for a stupid number plate, it simply dosen't make any sense to me to make your car more of a target for the plod.

A number plate is a purely functional object, why do people feel the need to bugger about with it and make is spell things? Does it make people feel more manly, or do they think that other people will look up to them due to the incorrectly placed screws on their number plate?

Peter Ward

2,097 posts

286 months

Friday 11th March 2005
quotequote all
Don't you just love it when cars are advertised with "unique" registrations?

The best ever: XJ V12 on an E-type.

FastShow

388 posts

282 months

Friday 11th March 2005
quotequote all
MR2Mike said:
A number plate is a purely functional object, why do people feel the need to bugger about with it and make is spell things? Does it make people feel more manly, or do they think that other people will look up to them due to the incorrectly placed screws on their number plate?

:: shrugs ::

Wheels are functional objects, yet people like to put 18" alloys on cars. 99% of spoilers aren't there to provide downforce to the car they're fitted to. Metallic paint is utterly pointless, yet a common option. Brake callipers don't require painting red to function, yet people do it anyway. And so on.

As for attention from the police, as I've said, in 4 years I've had none.

It's just another way of personalising your car, it's not ludicrously expensive, it looks pretty good in the flesh (I get more comments about that than the Brembos, for example) and I like it. I've never understood why that upsets so many people.

>> Edited by FastShow on Friday 11th March 15:34

Deva Link

26,934 posts

275 months

Friday 11th March 2005
quotequote all
A TrafPol told me he liked these messed around with plates, as they're more memorable in the event of a vehicle being in an incident.
Bib can easily figure out what the correct reg is.

^Slider^

2,874 posts

279 months

Friday 11th March 2005
quotequote all
Generally, I fine them as i see it as deliberate attempt to alter the registration mark especially if coloured screws are used to alter the plate.

Spacings im not too concerned about as long as i can easily read the index from a distance away.

Dirty plates which are unreadable but will generally not attract a fine, just a clean it up. Depends on the person stopped.

Gareth

Davey S

Original Poster:

34 posts

262 months

Friday 11th March 2005
quotequote all
Thanks for the info guys, especially from the BiB.
Basically, I want to get rid of the current plate as it is crap.
My problem is that for my initials, DCS, I can't get anything remotely ok. (unless anyone's got a spare 60k for DAV1D they're willing to give me!)

As many of you said in the post it does look rather chav like, however the current plate is worse -
I don't need a plate to say I've got a biggun, i'm quite happy with the missus knowing it thanks very much.

Outcome is I'll keep looking, so if anyone knows of someone with a good dave plate or ds plate, please point them in my direction.

ledfoot

777 posts

282 months

Friday 11th March 2005
quotequote all
I have seen plates fitted to cars with enough screws to assemble a kitchen unit, and this seems to be increasingly common on chav cars now.

It is just so obvious that people are trying to make their plate unreadable by scameras.

sparkythecat

8,098 posts

285 months

Saturday 12th March 2005
quotequote all
Davey S said:

Outcome is I'll keep looking, so if anyone knows of someone with a good dave plate or ds plate, please point them in my direction.


Don't know how much you want to spend mate, but there are loads of plates with DS and four numbers on for under £2k

A search on here will turn some up

www.regtransfers.co.uk

Davey S

Original Poster:

34 posts

262 months

Saturday 12th March 2005
quotequote all
Sparky thanks for that.
been on there a bit but hadn't seen that particular search function.
I've now got a choice of three to go with. spend the weekend to decide then choose one on monday me thinks.

TripleS

4,294 posts

272 months

Saturday 12th March 2005
quotequote all
This week I've seen:

A 17 EOS (meant to be ADIOS?) on a BMW in Wetherby. That had been done by using a D cut to look like a 7, adding a black screw and closing up the spacing.

Then there was N 11 KWR on a Range Rover, arranged as N11K WR with black screws added top and bottom just the right of the second 1 to create NICK.

I would have thought a police officer would regard both of those as nickable.

Best wishes all,
Dave.