[Closed] 3d number plates

none and they will get you pulled by the cops as they do not meet the required standards

They help you to identify that the owner would really like a personalised plate but can't afford one?

As TJ said, not road legal, attract a £100 fine AIUI.

Too Jazzy?

But yeah, they look shite and are usually the warning sign of a throbber at the wheel.

They make spotting the bad drivers easier for the rest of us.

none and they will get you pulled by the cops as they do not meet the required standards

You can get the gel ones that are legal and BSAU marked, the foam ones are not legal. But bizarrely they will pass an MOT as the book does not say to check for the BSAU mark, a hangover from cars not having them!

3d plates aren't automatically legal, though, a lot of them are and I reckon the person who goes "I want a really eyecatching number plate are drawn to the illegal ones.

(ime from motorbikes, the rules are essentially "don't take the piss", I had small-ish plates for years and never once had any grief for it)

Pressed metal is the nicest imo- totally legal, really nice finish, just looks like normal except a little nicer... It's weird how much of a difference putting a nice new plate on a car can make. Or how just putting the wrong design on one can make it instantly look chavvy.

and they will get you pulled by the cops

I'm hoping that most cops have got better things to do than pull folks with number plates that have a bit of depth to them TBH

I’m hoping that most cops have got better things to do than pull folks with number plates that have a bit of depth to them TBH

It's almost like a beacon though.

A good reason to get pulled over, because if they've gone to the effort of 3d number plates, there's a higher chance they might have bald tyres or some other defect.

I’m hoping that most cops have got better things to do than pull folks with number plates that have a bit of depth to them TBH

From what I've seen on Traffic Interceptor Cops Code Red, pull someone for dodgy plates and you're likely to find other issues with tyres/insurance/license/drugs...

Good reason to pull you and breathalise you as well.

You know the other thread where folks were losing their shit about getting breathalized without good reason.....almost like they regularly drink drive or something....

This would be a good reason....as you have committed an offence.

That said I have a 3d plate on the back of the land rover.........because that is the original 35 year old stock plate from the factory. It's non reflective and non GB /EU marked..... But perfectly legal because it's age appropriate. Another one that grinds my gears is the twonks that put black and white classic plates on cars that are not classics like it makes them look like classics.

I think we can forgive @trailrat for having a traditional pressed metal number plate..assuming his car is a genuine antique 😉

Parts of it is......

Most of it is welding wire and modern electrics.

I’m hoping that most cops have got better things to do than pull folks with number plates that have a bit of depth to them TBH

Many a tweet I see at work where the pull for 3D plates leads to a confiscated car and an arrest for numerous offences including drugs and drink incapacity.

People doing illegal stuff in cars are really thick. Drive an insured and taxed motor within the speed limits and no other attention grabbing features, you'll never get tugged. Crackers.

3D plates are so years ago ! 4d plates are in now 😉

When I worked with the police the biggest drugs bust I saw came about because some idiots in a car threw a pizza box out of the window - car was stopped by cops and the cops found a kilo of cannabis.

I think all 3 d plates will be illegal - there are very specific requirements

see also vertical rear wiper

It’s the dicks who put front plate in the windscreen that grind my gears.
I’d confiscate their cars out of principal

Dual post

I think all 3 d plates will be illegal –

Yeah there not no matter what you think.

How ever a vast majority are because people push boundary's /want to be unique/be edgy..... Mostly you just look like a tit. See also "custom spacing" your plate.

3D plates are so years ago ! 4d plates are in now

Yeah 4D plates coming to a mid priced SUV near you soon. Not only tacky, but a total disregard for spacetime.

I’m hoping that most cops have got better things to do than pull folks with number plates that have a bit of depth to them TBH

Why would you wish that?

There are old fashioned physically 3D plates and the new 'pseudo 3D plates'. As some (many) of the later will not be readable by ANPR etc I would hope that the 'cops' would welcome the opportunity to make sure that a very basic requirement to have a legal vehicle is met in order to help the 'cops' police things like speeding.

All cars are originally supplied with legal plates. If the plates do not meet the required legal requirement then someone has paid to have the car made illegal. Speeding cars can kill more readily than non-speeding cars (baby robins, child's face etc)

To put it another way; I wish that 'cops' didn't have anything better to do, that suggests they have to sort out nasty things like rape/murder/GBH/Domestic Violence etc

That said I have a 3d plate on the back of the land rover………because that is the original 35 year old stock plate from the factory. It’s non reflective and non GB /EU marked….. But perfectly legal because it’s age appropriate.

That reminds me, I need to order some age-approoriate plates for the Mini. The current Euro-font plates really annoy me 🤣

I think all 3 d plates will be illegal – there are very specific requirements

Yea, nope.

The new rules mean they have to be black letters only, but they can still be 3D.

That reminds me, I need to order some age-approoriate plates for the Mini. The current Euro-font plates really annoy me 🤣

I wanted a new front plate to match the rear and legally I could only get show plates.

Son has 4d - but still legal. Must be a pain in the ass to wash ! I'll stick with standard ones.

Worst are the heavily tinted plates, next the super reflective ones. The drivers should just get pulled and the car seized to they fit the correct ones, that or prosecution for attempting to pervert the course of justice

Here you go, this ticks all the boxes!

This is a car at work, ultimately it’ll get a registration change and proper legal plates put on.

That's the ones. ^^^ So the bi-coloured ones I've seen are referred to as 4d?

Those are solid black - called 4D, they are about 4mm thick..

There are age specific plates that can be put on cars of a certain vintage.

But when you see people trying to bend the rules it's pretty obvious. Hence barry in his battered old Audi a3 running 19 inch rims, that probably belongs to his mum.. a police officer might put two and two together.

Hand painted lettering by a signwriter on my vintage Ariel Red Hunter motorbike number plates.

my old motorbike has white lettering on a black mount - no plate at all!  ( perfectly legal )

I’m hoping that most cops have got better things to do than pull folks with number plates that have a bit of depth to them TBH

You’ve got them haven’t you? Just admit it.

I almost asked the very same question as the OP a while ago after noticing a few knocking around, even on ‘normal’ cars, but obviously didn’t bother. 🤭

The current Euro-font plates really annoy me

As in FE-Schrift?

There’s a total throbber round here who has black/silver ‘cherished’ plates on his A3. I’m told that if the DVLA get wind of stuff like this they give you a warning, then on a second offence withdraw the plate.

Isn't this how number plates used to look like?

It’s the dicks who put front plate in the windscreen that grind my gears.
I’d confiscate their cars out of principal

Posted 4 hours ago

I did that a few months ago. Came out one day to find the front plate had fallen off the van and was laying in the road in front of it (guessing glued on? It's screwed on now and hasn't fallen off again)
Anyway, I stuck it in the windscreen and drove off.
I got stopped, and breathalysed, on the A72 neat Clovenfords. No penalty, but got told to fix it ASAP

3D/4D plates are perfectly legal. Assuming correct spacing etc.
My rear numberplate is a bit elderly and some of the backing has stuck to the car. Where some heathen drilled the bolt holes out, if it's taken off/falls off it has to be carefully aligned to read correctly.
I really don't want to put a modern plate on it but might have to one day.

My first car I drove for years with a bit of perspex with the broken bit of number plate drawn on, MOT guy used to shake his head and pass it.

As in FE-Schrift?

No, that would be tragic! The people who use those plates (usually German on VAG cars) are trying too hard to make their mass-produced Euroboxes look 'individual'. I mean the old style of Charles Wright Font, the current ones are Charles Wright New which means they are smaller with narrower letters ie the Euro size. On a 1989 car they look completely out of proportion as there is a lot more white/yellow plate than there used to be. The new font was called 'Euro - new' on the number plate printing machine I used to use when they first arrived just after the millennium.

For the past few years my MOT has had "front registration plate deteriorated but not likely to be misread" as an advisory. Is there a similar advisory if you turn up with non-standard numberplates?

Anyway mine has got beyond a joke and I promised the car it would get new plates if it passed, which it has done, so it's getting new ones with a border and a wee Scottish flag (I thought that was pushing it a bit with the naffness!)

It’s the dicks who put front plate in the windscreen that grind my gears.
I’d confiscate their cars out of principal

Posted 4 hours ago

I did that a few months ago. Came out one day to find the front plate had fallen off the van and was laying in the road in front of it (guessing glued on? It’s screwed on now and hasn’t fallen off again)
Anyway, I stuck it in the windscreen and drove off.
I got stopped, and breathalysed, on the A72 neat Clovenfords. No penalty, but got told to fix it ASAP

I think the poster meant people who purposely put the number plates in the window so they can avoid ANPR and then claim “it just fell off earlier down the road Officer” are the dicks. Not people where it has genuinely just fallen off..

I think most people here are talking about 4D plates. The smooth plates with 3D text style by using a grey accent are illegal as the numbers are not all black.

The plates with raise letters are legal (like countzero's example) but not if they have non-standard spacing or an additional outline colour.

(Still needs to show the the BS mark and manufacturers detail actually but can't be bothered to go back and check countzero's photo as I've got virtually no connection!)

I think the poster meant people who purposely put the number plates in the window so they can avoid ANPR

And there was me thinking it originated to make your car look JDM.....

Plate in the window won't necessarily avoid ANPR.

Wow, who'd have thought; number plates?  What a weird thing to get wound up by

For the record, no I don't have them on my car, (it's a very dull and normal mini) Although one of my GPs has them on his Tesla...natch. The reason I don't think the cops are going to be interested is that mostly they're legal anyway. as long as it's the right font, it's correctly spaced, and reflective, what exactly is the cop going to stop you for?

The plates with raise letters are legal (like countzero’s example) but not if they have non-standard spacing or an additional outline colour.

I couldn't tell you if this is true or not but I do know our local police force disagree and have been actively handing out fines for 4d plates. They have made a point of it on social media and are quite adament that they're not legal.

I assume the sole reason they’re there is because under street lights they’re almost impossible to read due to the shadows cast by the letters.

This way you can drive like a knob and no one knows who you are. On the flip side they’re even more useful than private plates to identify the owner as someone who drives like a knob.

https://www.gov.uk/displaying-number-plates/rules-number-plates

The government seem to think they're legal as long as they follow the rest of the rules (reflective background, letters all black, no other colours, correct font and spacing, bs marking if post sept 2021 etc).

I couldn’t tell you if this is true or not but I do know our local police force disagree and have been actively handing out fines for 4d plates

which is wrong headed, because the government website says that raised letter is allowed, as long as the license plate conforms to all the other legal requirements.

Looks like the rules were tightened up from September 2021, but that doesn't mean that plates fitted before that date are now illegal. https://www.gov.uk/displaying-number-plates/rules-number-plates

Plate in the window won’t necessarily avoid ANPR.

Indeed, but the dicks don’t know that, that’s partly why they’re dicks. 🤷‍♂️

And there was me thinking it originated to make your car look JDM…..

More a style-thing. Lots of aftermarket bodykits don't have a provision for mounting a plate as in a few markets they're not needed, mainly the US in some states and Japan didn't for a while either. The JDM look is more for square plates to fit in their OEM spaces but looks stupid if you have a Euro size bumper.

reluctantjumper
Full Member

More a style-thing. Lots of aftermarket bodykits don’t have a provision for mounting a plate as in a few markets they’re not needed, mainly the US in some states and Japan didn’t for a while either. The JDM look is more for square plates to fit in their OEM spaces but looks stupid if you have a Euro size bumper.

Yep- I'm allowed to fit a slightly smaller/different dimension plate to mine as it's JDM. The rear looks good, the front has a standard UK plate on because the JDM format looked daft.

I’ve just checked my original photo of the Beemer with the raised characters, and it does carry a BS number, in small print in the bottom right-hand corner. I think it says SMT BS AU145.

[i]our local police force disagree and have been actively handing out fines for 4d plates[/i]

I don't know the channel put there is a police/traffic guy that has collaborated with a car modding guy on youtube to set things straight over stuff like plates, exhausts and window tints. Not sure why youtube suggested it to me but it seems pretty clear on the legal 4d plates thing. Some illegal plates have a colour under the letter so from the side its not a single colour.

My favourite thing about these plates is watching the monkeys in the safari park picking the letters off. Look for all the cars with blank no. plates parked up after doing a lap of Longleat.

I like the aluminium pressed plates, no particular reason. They're legal and they look nice

Tweet i same from a traffic cop referred to

be marked to show who supplied the number plate
be marked with a British Standard number - this is ‘BS AU 145e’ for plates fitted after 1 September 2021

A lot of 4d plates have no markings at all on them, but he said as far as he was aware none had been British standard tested (they?) which alone makes them non-legal.

I find custom plates baffling.

Its a legal registration document thing. No ones gives a FF what it "says".

I wonder if i can get a custom National Insurance Number, or NHS number.

For the past few years my MOT has had “front registration plate deteriorated but not likely to be misread” as an advisory. Is there a similar advisory if you turn up with non-standard numberplates?

No, number plates (as well as retrofitted HID lamps etc) fall under Construction and Use regs which are police enforced.

I really don’t want to put a modern plate on it but might have to one day.

Show plates. Technically online replacement plates are illegal because they were ordered online without a V5C but can be legal in presentation (all details present and correct).

As said if you don't take the piss nobody would be any the wiser. If you use screw covers and custom spacing to try and act clever you should be fined and charged as if you have no plates at all.

I’ve just checked my original photo of the Beemer with the raised characters, and it does carry a BS number, in small print in the bottom right-hand corner. I think it says SMT BS AU145.

of course, just because the seller is savvy enough to print that on the plate, doesn’t mean that it actually complies – or that he is even registered with the DVLA as a supplier…

And just because the correct procedures haven't been followed, it doesn't follow that that plate itself isn't compliant.

see also vertical rear wiper

Eh? Fairly normal from the factory. Certainly on old Porsches.

Loads of detail on why these are illegal here.

https://twitter.com/surreyroadcops/status/1480949665608650753?s=21

I find the phrase '4d plates' baffling. Do they exist in extra dimensions, and can the retailer offer proof of this?

Or by 4d, do they mean 2d, with 3d shading? or stick on letters/numbers? so 2d then with illegal lettering. 3d at a push.

Get Prof. Brian Cox on the phone, I demand answers! heheheh!

Perhaps those with illegal plates should apologize and get a colleague to look into it, then hide with a supposed positive Covid test in the family.
Maybe get a pal to claim maybe the rules are too strict.

Bonus points for being involved in deciding the number plate rules.

And just because the correct procedures haven’t been followed, it doesn’t follow that that plate itself isn’t compliant.

I think we all know what compliant plates are, even the pressed metal 3d vintage ones.

It seems the law takes exception to stick on letters that can easily be changed, and James Bond style revolving numberplates, the rottters!