Some of my regular readers might realise that I have a thing about number plates. Something that caught my eye was the top image. At the time I was looking for a 725, however foreign plates can’t be counted. However it looked very much like a British plate, just styled as a German one. So once I got home I used wikipedia to double check.
Wiki says that plates are in the format of 1-3 letters for the place, then stickers to show the emission test and vehicle safety test, then 1-2 random letters, and then 1-4 random numbers (maximum number of characters is 8). So clearly the plate on the left is actually a GB plate just designed to look like a German one (example at the bottom).
I’ve now seen two in this format, so I’m guessing someone is producing them for homesick Germans. But as with other styled number plates unless they are in the offical typeface with the correct spacing they are illegal to drive with and will fail an MOT.
German plates look nothing like our british ones
A123 ABC
ABC 123A
AA 55 ABC
The reason people have the german style plates in england is a big thing on the vw scene to make your car look like a german car after all this is where the car comes from.
I used to have some of these, very big on the dub and euro scene and I think they look awesome. It’s shame they’re illegal though, which seems silly as its perfectly OK for someone to bring their own car over here from abroad and drive it with their foreign plates. Oh well, I guess them’s the rules lol.
i have these number plates on my golf gti n have recently been told by the police to replace them, legal plates just dont look as good on the car!
by any chance did you ask the owners of the cars if you could use the images of the plates?
especially the G725 WFG mk1 golf cabrio ?
as this is my car and i was never asked if you could use this image !
Ami the only person I’m required to ask permission from is the photographer, and that’s me.
The car was parked on the road, and it was breaking the law.
This plate breaks the law on several counts (wrong font, no postcode of maker’s address, incorrect country code – i.e. ‘D’ when it should be ‘GB’) They are also difficult to read by ANPR systems and therefor could be used to commit other crimes and evade capture.
I had to chuckle about needing permission to post a picture of a car parked in the road. How would BBC or ITV ever do an outside broadcast? Hopefully Ami has replaced it with a road-legal one by now.