Number plates (Tags)

[Colly0410]

Here in England the price of a new car has the plate & registration included in car sale price, the plate issued with the car usually stay's with it till it's scrapped, you never have to buy a new plate unless you want too. You can buy a plate & put it on your car but you have to pay a transfer fee = 80 pounds. (about 100 dollars)

[Colly0410]

Noticed when I was in Florida that some cars & most buses/trucks had red flashing direction indicators at the back, here in England they have to be orange, however vehicles registered before 1965 can have orange or red at the back, & orange or white at the front.

All new (since 2011'ish) cars have daytime running lights, many of them blue'ish LED's, my DRL's on my Hyundai i10 are ordinary bulbs though. Must admit you can see cars better with DRL's on the cloudy overcast days that we seem to get a lot of here in England...

[Electronic M]

In the states we still allow the same bulb fillament to serve as brake light and turn signal with a red lense...in Europe that is banned on new cars...l'm not very happy with this standard here because on cars with the center brake light and one turn signal/brake light both burned out you can't tell brake tapping from turn signaling... Also Mopar has had electrical issues in their cars. A month ago I was behind a Jeep SUV most of my commute and the intermittents it had made finding any meaning in it's lights utterly impossible...when the owner stopped I complained of how dangerous it was.

[Colly0410]

Yes I can imagine if a brake light on one side is duff brake pumping could look like a turn signal...

Few years ago I took my then car in for an MOT (a yearly roadworthy inspection for cars more than 3 years old) it passed with an advisory comment = 'high level centre brake light not working.' I said "will the cops pull me over?" He said "no, they have to be fitted on cars made after 1990'something, but no law that they have to actually work!" I drove like that for ages but never got pulled over...

[bgadow]

Some of those 3rd brake lights are a bear to fix; I remember a 90's Taurus that came in the shop. I got it all apart and found out it used LED's, only available as an expensive assembly. If I was better at solid state electronics I'd have took a crack at it. Not long ago my company van was a Transit Connect with a mobile office in the back. The 3rd brake burnt out but we found it could only be reached by totally removing the bolted-in desk/shelf unit. I just lived with it.

[Colly0410]

Originally Posted by Telecolor 3007

You have to have letters close, like you must have like B82DJL, you can't have B 82 D J L.

They are very strict here in England on letter/number spacing: the new style (from 2001) plates have to be like AB12 ABC, if you have AB 12 ABC it's a warning or fine, if they're the 1964 to 2001 style they have to be ABC 123A or A123 ABC & 1904 to 1964 ABC 123.... Friend of ours called Lisa is a bit naughty as her plate is L1SA T, it should be L1 SAT. She's received a few warnings off the cops so she's pushing it, she could end up having the plates confiscated & issued a normal plate, mind you she is a bit ditzy, lol...

[hi_volt]

Here in Arizona, when a used car is sold privately, the seller keeps the plate and the new owner has to get a new one. We also have a plethora of vanity plate styles to choose from:

https://servicearizona.com/webapp/ve...startChoice.do

[Telecolor 3007]

But if the one who sell the cars dosen't want any longer a car?

[Telecolor 3007]

Originally Posted by Colly0410

They are very strict here in England on letter/number spacing: the new style (from 2001) plates have to be like AB12 ABC, if you have AB 12 ABC it's a warning or fine, if they're the 1964 to 2001 style they have to be ABC 123A or A123 ABC & 1904 to 1964 ABC 123.... Friend of ours called Lisa is a bit naughty as her plate is L1SA T, it should be L1 SAT. She's received a few warnings off the cops so she's pushing it, she could end up having the plates confiscated & issued a normal plate, mind you she is a bit ditzy, lol...

Hello. Since you are from U.K. you can please explain how the registration numbers are given there. Starting from the past utill now. I've read that they are a combination between area and year.

[old_tv_nut]

Originally Posted by Colly0410

They are very strict here in England on letter/number spacing: the new style (from 2001) plates have to be like AB12 ABC, if you have AB 12 ABC it's a warning or fine, if they're the 1964 to 2001 style they have to be ABC 123A or A123 ABC & 1904 to 1964 ABC 123.... Friend of ours called Lisa is a bit naughty as her plate is L1SA T, it should be L1 SAT. She's received a few warnings off the cops so she's pushing it, she could end up having the plates confiscated & issued a normal plate, mind you she is a bit ditzy, lol...

If the spacing is not per standard, how does one even obtain it? In the two U.S. states I've lived in, the registration forms force you to use standard spacing rules.

[Colly0410]

Originally Posted by Telecolor 3007

Hello. Since you are from U.K. you can please explain how the registration numbers are given there. Starting from the past utill now. I've read that they are a combination between area and year.

in 1904 each county were given one or two letters, & numbers from 1 to 9999 for their plates I.E. London was given A & the first number plate was A1, then went up to A 9999 then to next letter combination. My home county of Nottinhamshire had AU TO VO NN, Derbyshire had R RA RB CH & so on. In the 1930's the one & two letter combinations were running out, so the put a letter in front of the two letter combinations so you'd have AAU 1 to AAU 999, the single letters were not used anymore. This system started to run out in the 1950's so they reversed the system, so you had up to 3 numbers (or 4 for one & two letter combinations) & one two or three letters, my uncle had 2766 R (this would be worth many thousands of pounds now) & Dads was 520 AAU. This system started to run out in 1963, so a new system that was 3 letters & up to 3 numbers then a letter on the end that changed every year staring with A for 1963 then B for 1964 & so on. My motor bike was AVO 15B & my first car GAY 585B, this system ran out in 1984 & was reversed starting with A, one of my Father-in-laws car was A46 ACH, one of my cars was H41 VAU. This system ran out in 2001, the present system is an area letter (Nottingham my local area is F) then a random letter, the if registered between March & September the number is the year, if registered from Septl to Feb the number is the year + 50, so the car I bought new in September 2006 was FE56 EOC, my present car I bought in March 2017 is FE17 UGZ. Norther Ireland has a different system, their plates have three letter with an I or Z in the & up to four numbers, they have no year number or letter, many taxis & buses have these plates to hide their age . British number plates are quite complicated & a lot of Brits don't understand how they work...

[Colly0410]

Originally Posted by old_tv_nut

If the spacing is not per standard, how does one even obtain it? In the two U.S. states I've lived in, the registration forms force you to use standard spacing rules.

They get a garage to make up mock plates that you can design yourself, (many people have their name or house number put on a real looking plate for show) then put it on the car themselves. Our friend Lisa has the real plates in her garage, I predict she's going to get herself nicked by the cops & be fined & have the plates confiscated, I'll post on her if/when it happens, lol...

[Colly0410]

You used to have to have a paper road tax disc in the windscreen, this had the expiry date on it & had to be renewed every 6 or 12 months, woe betide you if the cops spotted a missing or expired tax disc. Nowadays (since 5 years ago) you still have to pay road tax but there's no tax disc to put in your windscreen, the cops know if you've paid or not by taking a picture of your number plate on their cellphone or their car video camera & sending it to the cops central computer, they also have fixed roadside cameras, these also know if you're MOT'd & insured, big brother is watching...

[Electronic M]

In Illinois when I was a kid in addition to the state plate sticker some towns had their own town window sticker that they wanted you to pay for once every year or 2...

[Colly0410]

YAY my car has passed it's first MOT (a yearly roadworthy test you need here in England for cars 3 years or older) with no advisories (for minor faults that are not serious enough to fail the test) so feeling rather pleased. MOT runs out on 13'th March 2021, the MOT was actually due on 14'th March as that was date when I bought the car new 3 years ago, but you're allowed to take your car for it's MOT up to 1 month before the cars 3 year anniversary or before the old MOT runs out. The cops know if you don't have a valid MOT, insurance or yearly road tax & it flags up on their car computer. You see cop documentaries on TV & their car computer goes "DING DING DING" then they chase after the un taxed/un MOT/un insured car & the driver gets a ticket & the car is usually towed to the pound...