The Legal Sizes For Import Number Plates DVLA Confirmed

[turbonut]

Oddly, this has reminded me that when I passed my MOT last month, I did so with the smaller font plates on, which are infact smaller than the legally allowed Jap limit due to a cock-up by the plate-makers.

Yet last year when I also forgot to change the plates to the old legal ones, the very same MOT guy failed my car on its plates.

I wonder why it got through this year.

 

I have legal import plates with the BS standard mark on them (from Parker plates). However, I had to put the standard UK plate over it to pass the MOT....bit of double sided tape did the trick

[James]

• Character Height - 79mm
  
• Character Width - 50mm
  
• Character Stroke - 14mm
  
• Space Between Characters - 11mm
  
• Space Between Groups - 33mm
  
• Top, Bottom & Side Margins (minimum) - 11mm
  
• Space Between Vertical Lines - 19mm
  

 

Right, with regards to dimensions of the rear plate I have taken some measurements:-

 

 

Over 2 lines, the minimum height of a UK square plate is 191mm:

 

11mm margin + 79mm letter height + 11mm space between characters of top and bottom row + 79mm letter height + 11mm margin.

 

 

For a 5 digit plate e.g. "A1 AAA", the minimum width of a UK oblong plate is 338mm:

 

11mm margin + 50mm character width + 11mm space between characters + 50mm character width + 33mm space between groups + 50mm character width + + 11mm space between characters + 50mm character width + 11mm space between characters + 50mm character width + 11mm margin.

 

So yeah, UK square minimum height = 191mm and UK oblong minimum width = 338mm.

 

 

If you have the rear number plate surrounds fitted, this makes the recess only able to accomodate the dimensions:

 

maximum height = 185mm

maximum width = 330mm

 

In other words - if you have the number plate surrounds fitted - a UK plate of the layout 'A1 AAA' CANNOT be fitted to the rear of the car!

 

I do not have the surrounds fitted, yet - given they are a factory option on the car - will argue my case.

 

Hope this helps people

[Kirk]

BUMP

 

Ok so whats the summary here? The smaller plates cannot be used?? I just got my 7 character import plate which is 410mm x 90mm and a 14 x 7 import plate on the rear from craigsplates which are apparently legal so if there legal then theres no reason realy why they can be contested right?

Edited August 5, 2010 by Kirk (see edit history)

[Tee from China]

is that really true? "imports can run without cats if manufacture is before 95"

 

Have a look at this - the words ' exact match' are the important ones:innocent:

[Tee from China]

Basically no matter what your governor or your traffic buddies say or think the law is that Imports can have the smaller font so let them do their worst it will never get to court, too many coppers think they can rewrite the law, in short they can't.

 

Dude, if you read the regulations they only apply to imported cars with standard unmodified bodywork that have small plate apertures such as American, Korean as well as Japanese that are legally allowed to use the smaller digit size and it has been clearly shown that Supras dont have this problem - which can be proved in court!

 

Therefore PC's are not rewriting and merely upholding the law to the letter. It seems that people lump all imports together which is not always the case and many people are misinterpreting the regulations to their own ends.

 

Any traffic cop worth his salt will know the regulations by now and will be aware which models do or dont comply.

 

Maybe a list of models that do comply to the regs is the answer.

 

Many of you on here will be too young to remember the saga over iridescent number plates back in the mid to late 70s which looked like silver on black till the sun caught them and they went multi coloured - looked bl@@dy fantastic and still perfectly readable as they were the correct height and spacings etc but got banned all the same!

 

Silver on black plates sure look cool but are illegal on post 73 registered cars that's the law, just as this regulation only applies to certain models and not all imports.

 

Rules are rules and Supra owners will have to accept that small front plates are NOT legal - end of

[Tee from China]

BUMP

 

Ok so whats the summary here? The smaller plates cannot be used?? I just got my 7 character import plate which is 410mm x 90mm and a 14 x 7 import plate on the rear from craigsplates which are apparently legal so if there legal then theres no reason realy why they can be contested right?

 

Basically if you read my last post the plates are perfectly legal for an imported car that complies with the regulation - Supras dont - so fit and risk time for you me thinks

[Tee from China]

BUMP

 

Ok so whats the summary here? The smaller plates cannot be used?? I just got my 7 character import plate which is 410mm x 90mm and a 14 x 7 import plate on the rear from craigsplates which are apparently legal so if there legal then theres no reason realy why they can be contested right?

 

Basically if you read my last post the plates are perfectly legal for an imported car that complies with the regulation - Supras dont - so fit and risk time for you me thinks

[ShawnPreece]

Bumping an old thread.... With jap import plates the character sizing can be smaller than on UK ones... does the UK rule about spacing between character groups also apply to import plates or is that different? (for example on a UK car you would need "A100 ABC" on an import plate could you go "A10 0ABC" or any irregular variants)

[blythmrk]

Bumping an old thread.... With jap import plates the character sizing can be smaller than on UK ones... does the UK rule about spacing between character groups also apply to import plates or is that different? (for example on a UK car you would need "A100 ABC" on an import plate could you go "A10 0ABC" or any irregular variants)

 

I would say its 99.9% no to play around with letter arrangements and spacing (is it a 3 points and £60 fine now if using illegal plates?)

Logically the spacing would reduce equally percentage wise with the height of the letters so yes the smaller the letter the smaller the spacing as it would look out of proportion if left the same as the larger letters.

I believe its all down to anpr recognition as if the size/spacing or text/font (that incudes tweaking say 4 into an A etc.) is altered in anyway or form they cannot read it even the number plate fixing screw strategically placed are not allowed!

[ShawnPreece]

I would say its 99.9% no to play around with letter arrangements and spacing (is it a 3 points and £60 fine now if using illegal plates?)

Logically the spacing would reduce equally percentage wise with the height of the letters so yes the smaller the letter the smaller the spacing as it would look out of proportion if left the same as the larger letters.

I believe its all down to anpr recognition as if the size/spacing or text/font (that incudes tweaking say 4 into an A etc.) is altered in anyway or form they cannot read it even the number plate fixing screw strategically placed are not allowed!

 

The screw placement and and letter tweaking im fine with as the characters are all as I would like them but just hoping to slightly change the spacing from "A111 AAA" to "A 111AAA" I know its not supposed to be that much different and the computer spaces exaggerate it as would only want a tiny space (so it's not so obvious) but wondered if on an import plate I might be more likely to get away with spacing slightly off... I'd imagine it would all be down to the copper on the day as im guessing spacing would still be illegal if different even on an import plate?

[a98pmalcolm]

How this is an old thread of mine, good to see it coming to some use

[James]

The screw placement and and letter tweaking im fine with as the characters are all as I would like them but just hoping to slightly change the spacing from "A111 AAA" to "A 111AAA" I know its not supposed to be that much different and the computer spaces exaggerate it as would only want a tiny space (so it's not so obvious) but wondered if on an import plate I might be more likely to get away with spacing slightly off... I'd imagine it would all be down to the copper on the day as im guessing spacing would still be illegal if different even on an import plate?

 

In short, no, you can't change your spacing for your registration format.

 

Page 14 onward is your friend here:

 

http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2001/561/pdfs/uksi_20010561_en.pdf

 

Incidentally, with regards to the '3-line' plates, these are no longer permitted unless they were fitted prior to 31/08/2001.

[ShawnPreece]

In short, no, you can't change your spacing for your registration format.

 

Page 14 onward is your friend here:

 

http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2001/561/pdfs/uksi_20010561_en.pdf

 

Incidentally, with regards to the '3-line' plates, these are no longer permitted unless they were fitted prior to 31/08/2001.

 

Thanks mate very useful link, also answers another question I had that was whether I could use French legal font instead of UK legal font and still be legal (only real difference is that the "1" has the flick on the top instead of just being a straight line)