Illegal car numberplates

legal eagle 1

Just quick question on whether many of you have illegal numberplates on your cars i.e wrong script writing/wrong size etc. ? Have any of you being stopped by the Garda and fined for these?

Gary ITR

I know of a couple of guys who have been stopped for having plates with the wrong font.

I have German font plates for my car but I've decided against fitting them. I'm going to go with regular font but silver on black

*Kol*

I had but i took them off for the NCT and never put them back on. I never had any issues while they were fitted.

Anan1

Not me, i've no interest in being hassled/done for something so pointless. I have heard of it happening though, and I have the impression that there are fewer cars out there with illegal plates than there used to be.

macroman

They tend not to bother once it's legible or they've pulled you for something else and highlight it to you.

legal eagle 1

Ya i've been told a few times at checkpoints that there are illegal but, i've never actually been told to change them or anything. I'm just wondering if they can give me an on the spot fine or whether they give you a warning and then time in which you can change them?

L1011

Onkle wrote: »

I have German font plates for my car but I've decided against fitting them. I'm going to go with regular font but silver on black

Which is even more illegal...

I've a set of 'donegal specials' for my car - bold/no dashes - but never got around to putting them on. I was also bought a set of Finn Harps ones for my first car, Harps logo in the europlate section. Never put them on for a different reason, namely that they were cheesetastic.

Gary ITR

MYOB wrote: »

Which is even more illegal...

I've a set of 'donegal specials' for my car - bold/no dashes - but never got around to putting them on. I was also bought a set of Finn Harps ones for my first car, Harps logo in the europlate section. Never put them on for a different reason, namely that they were cheesetastic.

Sorry I should have mentioned, my car is pre '87 so I can have a different colour.

L1011

Onkle wrote: »

Sorry I should have mentioned, my car is pre '87 so I can have a different colour.

Are you on XX-YY-ZZZZ plates or old Irish plates/ZVs?

Eoin

I've German style plates on mine - I don't have the fake stickers and all that, just embossed metal plates with a different font. There's a small bit missing from the zeroes. The county and country are there as they should be.

Something like this:



They might be pointless, but I've not been pulled for them so far. I wasn't even that pushed about getting them, but they were only 30 or so and they've grown on me.

Gary ITR

MYOB wrote: »

Are you on XX-YY-ZZZZ plates or old Irish plates/ZVs?

86 C ***

niceirishfella

eoin wrote: »

Well, at least they are "readable" unlike some of the one's I see.
The only hassle I've ever had with the Rozzers was over a trade plate:eek::P

L1011

Onkle wrote: »

86 C ***

At best you're allowed leave off the euroflag and Irish language county on those as they're pre-91, black on white is all thats legal...

However, seeing as I'm now trying to find a suitable set of screws for my similarly illegal ones, I've had to bolt the high horse in the stables :P

Gary ITR

MYOB wrote: »

At best you're allowed leave off the euroflag and Irish language county on those as they're pre-91, black on white is all thats legal...

However, seeing as I'm now trying to find a suitable set of screws for my similarly illegal ones, I've had to bolt the high horse in the stables :P

Hmmm A friend just went through an NCT with silver on black. His are 86 D ****

L1011

Onkle wrote: »

Hmmm A friend just went through an NCT with silver on black. His are 86 D ****

Test manual only refers to 'vehicles registered before 1987', omits the 'first' and 'in the state' either site of registered. This would be why... some testers would have failed him, most I guess wouldn't. The new format isn't allowed on anything other than reflex reflecting black on white. The county name and Euroflag came in 91 after some Gaelgoir took a case against the plates being in English :rolleyes:

Graham_B18C

eoin wrote: »

I've German style plates on mine - I don't have the fake stickers and all that, just embossed metal plates with a different font. There's a small bit missing from the zeroes. The county and country are there as they should be.

Something like this:



They might be pointless, but I've not been pulled for them so far. I wasn't even that pushed about getting them, but they were only 30 or so and they've grown on me.

What type of car and what year do ya have em on?
They look the business on old BMW's only thing I've seen em on really!

JoeA3

I have "german plates" on mine, but they do have the IRL. I don't have any stickers on them, but neither do I have the hyphens or the country name in gaeilge!

On the car 18 months and never any trouble whatsoever from the law. Personally I think they look clean, very legible, in fact more legible than many of the "legal" plates that dealers fit. Some dealers fit very poor quality ones that I see.

L-M

[QUOTE=[URL]="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vehicle_registration_plates_of_Ireland"]Wiki[/URL]]Since 1991, the design of the standard Irish number plate has been based on European standard guidelines, with a blue band to the left of the plate containing the 12 stars of the European flag and the country identifier IRL. The rest of the plate has a white background with black characters. Unlike legal requirements in most other European countries, a standard uniform character font is not required. The rules simply require legible black characters, no more than 70 mm high and 36 mm wide, on a white reflective background. The result is that a large variety of perfectly legal font styles may be seen, on either pressed aluminium or acrylic plates, both of which are allowed.[1] Despite the rather relaxed lack of a specified font, the hyphen between the lettering must lie between the minimum dimensions of 13mm x 10mm or the maximum dimension of 22mm x 10mm. Also required is the full Irish language name of the county which must be positioned above the identifier. Vehicle owners may be fined if the plate's format does not meet the requirements and will most certainly automatically fail government vehicle testing NCT which the vehicle is required to undergo on a two-yearly basis.[/QUOTE]

I always quote the above when this topic comes up, and I really must find out if what I'm quoting the whole time is actually true.

Going by the above, the is no uniform font required, just as long as the size fits the above guidelines. I suppose the only catch is the definition of legible through your eyes, and the eyes of the law.

Eoin

Grahamo999 wrote: »

What type of car and what year do ya have em on?
They look the business on old BMW's only thing I've seen em on really!

It's a 00 5 series. Pic with reg. They do look great on the older cars alright, but also good on new M3s and so on.

L-M

Actually, on that note, I've German plates on order so I'll throw up a pic when they come:D

Graham_B18C

eoin wrote: »

It's a 00 5 series. Pic with reg. They do look great on the older cars alright, but also good on new M3s and so on.

Have to say, that looks the tits. Nice one

lafors

I've the german style plates on my wife's A3.
I needed plates after I imported it and liked the look so went for them.
They meet all the requirements I could find, EU flag, IRL, county in Irish, hypens, and font size. (I didn't put stadt seals on...don't like them)
She's been through a good few checkpoints, never heard a complaint.
A friend of mine who's in the traffic corp said they'd have no problem with them, they don't break any rules he knows of and if anything the new ANPR system they'll have, and the toll bridge cameras, will find them easier to read, especially as they 0 is cut so makes it easier to define from an 8.

miju

have customised plated but font is very readable and I've proper plates too for the NCT in the boot

MackQ

MYOB wrote: »

Test manual only refers to 'vehicles registered before 1987', omits the 'first' and 'in the state' either site of registered. This would be why... some testers would have failed him, most I guess wouldn't. The new format isn't allowed on anything other than reflex reflecting black on white. The county name and Euroflag came in 91 after some Gaelgoir took a case against the plates being in English :rolleyes:

So, what's the craic with this plate then?

Obviously some sort of "agreement" in force here.....

Esel

MackQ wrote: »

So, what's the craic with this plate then?

Obviously some sort of "agreement" in force here.....

There is a separate section in the Statutory Instrument for backlit plates, afair.

There is no specified font, but many specs (some given in a post above) for character size, gaps, dash size, positioning, distance from edges etc. etc. One to watch if going 'non-standard' is the stroke width - 10mm is specified. In theory this can vary by 1mm, so you could legally have 9mm in places, 11mm in others. A lot of the italic script plates you see are definitely out-of-spec on stroke width though.

Cosmo K

Registration plates, see page 3:

http://www.ncts.ie/nctmanual.pdf


answers all your questions.

KTRIC

I have a German plate on my bike.

In my case it was manditory, I don't see why people think its cool

Graham_B18C

KTRIC wrote: »

I have a German plate on my bike.

In my case it was manditory, I don't see why people think its cool

Looks cool in German Cars, finishes the look!

-Chris-

eoin wrote: »

It's a 00 5 series. Pic with reg. They do look great on the older cars alright, but also good on new M3s and so on.

Is your car pink?

Gregor Samsa

Limerick man wrote: »

I always quote the above when this topic comes up, and I really must find out if what I'm quoting the whole time is actually true.

Going by the above, the is no uniform font required, just as long as the size fits the above guidelines. I suppose the only catch is the definition of legible through your eyes, and the eyes of the law.

That quote isn't entirely accurate. While there is no specific font requirement, it's not just a case of having a legible text at a particular size.

Number plate regulations are covered in S.I. No. 318/1992 — Vehicle Registration and Taxation Regulations, 1992.

FIRST SCHEDULE > Form of Identification Marks

14. The identification mark shall appear in black characters and each letter or figure shall have a height of 70 millimetres and a stroke width of 10 millimetres. The total width of the space taken by each letter or figure (other than the letter "I" or the number "1") shall be 36 millimetres. The distances between adjoining letters and adjoining figures shall be uniform and shall be not less than 8 millimetres.

This basically boils down a sans-serif, monospaced font - which restricts your choice massively. Then there's the proportion: 70mm high, 36mm wide, with a stroke width of 10mm, which restricts the choice even further.

So that rules out perfectly legible fonts such as:

Times New Roman (not sans-serif)
Arial (sans-serif, but not monospaced)
Verdana (sans-serif, but not monospaced)
Courier (not sans-serif, monospaced, but not the correct proportions)
Monaco (sans-serif, monospaced, but not the correct proportions)


I'd say that at most, there's only a handful of fonts that meet all these requirements, and by the nature of the requirements, they'd all look pretty much the same.

Eoin

AudiChris wrote: »

Is your car pink?

Just very dirty in that photo. This is it cleaner.

niceirishfella

eoin wrote: »

Just very dirty in that photo. This is it cleaner.

Still pink?:D

Eoin

niceirishfella wrote: »

Still pink?:D

A manly pink though.

Columba Rad

I was told by a guy fairly high-up in the consumer rights area that all Irish number plates are illegal because it displays the county only in Irish and not both As Gaeilge & English.

rebel.ranter

Columba Rad wrote: »

I was told by a guy fairly high-up in the consumer rights area that all Irish number plates are illegal because it displays the county only in Irish and not both As Gaeilge & English.

Who cares about the county above the numbers? Some do-gooders! The number plate just has to be unique to the car in order to distinguish it in the event of wrong doing.
I can understand the IRL bit as it is a EU directive that led to this. It probably makes more sense in mainland Europe where you have more border areas than here.

the_syco

Onkle wrote: »

I have German font plates for my car but I've decided against fitting them. I'm going to go with regular font but silver on black

White on black = mililtary.

legal eagle 1

Mine are black and red scripted writing.................to match my car. There so pretty looking I dont want to change them

zilog_jones

phutyle wrote: »

This basically boils down a sans-serif, monospaced font - which restricts your choice massively. Then there's the proportion: 70mm high, 36mm wide, with a stroke width of 10mm, which restricts the choice even further.

So that rules out perfectly legible fonts such as:

Times New Roman (not sans-serif)
Arial (sans-serif, but not monospaced)
Verdana (sans-serif, but not monospaced)
Courier (not sans-serif, monospaced, but not the correct proportions)
Monaco (sans-serif, monospaced, but not the correct proportions)


I'd say that at most, there's only a handful of fonts that meet all these requirements, and by the nature of the requirements, they'd all look pretty much the same.

There are many typefaces designed for number plate use - there's much more around than the crappy fonts you get with Windows . A lot of recent plastic plates I've seen around seem to have what looks like a smaller, thinner version of the UK standard typeface. FE-Schrift (the German font) should be legal here once within the correct dimensions and meeting other requirements (hyphens etc.).

rex-x

Mine were very readable just a mm or two too small(numbers) had everything in the right place and got pulled and told to change them and didnt got pulled again and taken to court . . . . . 100 euro fine and a nice day out :P

Just to clarify once the numbers are 70mm high they can be any font in the whole world that is readable! there are specifics about the dash's too but it was a bout a year ago and they escape me

MackQ

Columba Rad wrote: »

I was told by a guy fairly high-up in the consumer rights area that all Irish number plates are illegal because it displays the county only in Irish and not both As Gaeilge & English.

As far as I remember the county name "as Gaeilge" above the index mark was introduced at some stage after the new 1987 format was introduced to appease folks that were displeased with the fact that the "English county letter" e.g. D for Dublin had been specified for the index mark (possibly a poor decision in hindsight).

Some people had gone as far as putting the Irish equivalant index marks on; as an example 00-BÁC-1 instead of 00-D-1.

Patti D.

I was pullled over yesterday for having 'illegal number plates', was told that i had one week to change them.........then go to my local station to show them the legal plates!!!
I drive a 07 car and the font is very clear.

Tony Danza

I had illegal plates on. The font was just a little bit different to the standard font (still very easy to read) and I didn't have the county written on top of the letter. Two guards were actually walking by my house when I was putting them on, made a comment about them, I just said I thought they looked a little nicer than the standard one, they said yeah, you're right and walked on. So once they're legible, I think it's OK.

Gumbo

Patti D. wrote: »

I was pullled over yesterday for having 'illegal number plates', was told that i had one week to change them.........then go to my local station to show them the legal plates!!!
I drive a 07 car and the font is very clear.

any pics of what they classed as illegal?

tuxy

Tony Danza wrote: »

. So once they're legible, I think it's OK.

Possibly, remember they not only have to be legible by the human eye but also the ANPR system the traffic corps use.

Esel

Cosmo K wrote: »

Registration plates, see page 3:

http://www.ncts.ie/nctmanual.pdf


answers all your questions.

It's actually on page 10, what with the intro, index etc.

The-Game

kceire wrote: »

any pics of what they classed as illegal?

Yeah i would like to see a pic of the plates you have on now if you can??

FrankieD

legal eagle 1 wrote: »

Just quick question on whether many of you have illegal numberplates on your cars i.e wrong script writing/wrong size etc. ? Have any of you being stopped by the Garda and fined for these?

had script plates on car few years back and got stopped by traffic cop. he told me to remove plates or he would bring me to court. drove to garage straight away and changed plates. 3 months down the road i recieved a court summons in post and judge gave me a 25euro fine for each plate and also gave cop a lashing for wasting the courts time.

CyberDave

So, you don't get Penalty Points for having different plates, just a fine?

Kotek Besar

Out of interest, where are people buying German plates?

I've found this site, which wants £34.99 for a pair of Irish plates with German font. But I've come across a problem - it only allows room for 3 numbers after the county letter.

I.E. - 08-W-123 is fine, but if you've a forth digit, there's not enough space! Seemingly, anyway.

In any case, £34.99 is a bit pricey, imo.

Eoin

I ordered mine from here. I've 6 numbers after the county and they fit fine. €35 delivered.

Esel

CyberDave wrote: »

So, you don't get Penalty Points for having different plates, just a fine?

Don't think there's any points, but fine up to €1500, afair.