75ZT Community

Took my ZTT for its MOT yesterday it failed on rear tyres (i knew they where close to the limit) but it also failed due to the fact of it having a 'D' shaped plate?
It seems a new law has come into action where the bottom of the letters/numbers on the plate cannot be more than 35mm (IIRC) from the bottom of the number plate thus meaning that cars like ours fitted with shaped plates and other cars such as Jags,Saabs etc who use a larger size could all now fail.

Can't see how something that was a factory fit can be classed as a MOT fail.

Nothing on VOSA site, or anywhere else that I can find. The only references I can find to a dimension approximating your recall is minimum 33mm between blocks of characters. What am I missing?

The tester found it on his PC - but like you said i could not find anything online, he did say the new ruling has only just come into play, another thing the new test certificate looks like a plain piece of white A4.

Reply from Bruv who is a MOT Tester in London says "thats absolute crap"
It would effect many other cars not just MGR vehicles.

Very interesting. It inspired me to have a search on the internet for the definition of an acceptable numberplate. I found the MOT Tester's guide:

http://www.dft.gov.uk/vosa/repository/M ... Manual.pdf

Section 6.3:

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1.
A registration plate:
a. missing or incorrect
b. so insecure that it is likely to fall off
c. letter or figure missing or incomplete
d. faded, dirty, delaminated, deteriorated or obscured, (for example by a towbar) so that it is likely to be misread or is not easily legible by a person standing approximately 20 metres to the front/rear of the vehicle
e. background overprinted or shadowed with text e.g. vehicle manufacturer name

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2.
a. a front registration plate does not have black characters on a white background
b. a rear registration plate does not have black characters on a yellow background
c. a registration plate not fixed vertically, or as close to vertical as is reasonably practical.

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3.
A registration plate obviously displaying a honeycomb or similar effect background

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4.
A registration plate with:
a. characters which are obviously not the correct height, character width, stroke width, not of equal width along their entire length or incorrectly spaced
b. a character not correctly formed, sloping, or likely to be misread
c. any feature that has the effect of changing the appearance or legibility of any of the characters, so that the true identity of the vehicle is less easily established
d. characters formed using a font which is not substantially similar to the prescribed font
e. characters formed using broken or multiple strokes
f. characters laid out in an incorrect format
g. a margin obviously less than the minimum requirement
h. a non-reflective border obviously wider than permitted or positioned too close to the characters (see page 5).

Or, to requote JohnDotCom's Bruv:

"thats absolute crap"

And with regards to the legal requirements (as opposed to MOT test requirements)

www.dft.gov.uk/dvla/forms/~/media/pdf/l ... /V796.ashx
http://www.direct.gov.uk/prod_consum_dg ... 067666.pdf

They mention a minimum border of 11mm. No maximum.

And for good measure the issue date " Issue Date 01 January 2012"

Well found PP. Thank you.

Oooo please go back to your MOT tester and ask him to explain, love to see him try in the face of the evidence

Oh, and as a grand finale, the exact law itself is here:

http://www.britannia-driving-school.co. ... 561_en.pdf
(and here is where the gov confirms that the 2001 version is the current one: http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/TravelAndTr ... /DG_069869 )

The irony here is that I have a square plate.

I bet he supplies number plates.

Obviously you had thoroughly cleaned out the ashtray otherwise it would have been a fail for a dirty ashtray as well.

As a after comment, why ever would a Tester be searching on his PC to find something to fail re numberplates?
He is issued with the manuals etc and should know anyway.
Definitely one to report. Even some of the new Jags have D plates.

Looking at my refusal of a test Certificate the exact wording is as follows;

"Rear Registration plate margin less the minimum requirement [6.3.4g]"

I may give VOSA a ring tomorrow to see what they say on the subject.

Well the bloke clearly doesn't understand what a margin is. From your description the margin is clearly larger than the minimum.

Nonsense give him this

The tester didn't have a toothbrush moustache did he and a black cross hanging around his neck?

Oooh POWER

Rang VOSA this morning and they like ourselves think that tester has misread the guidelines, they recommend i leave the "D" plate on for the retest and if he pulls me up on it again then they should ring VOSA who will talk to them regarding the testers concern.
My car is booked for Thursday afternoon after work.

Will he pay you for your out of pocket expenses?

Car was retested at 4pm new tyres fitted back on the road at 4.20pm with a new MOT in hand

The tester admitted that he made a mistake and that he mis-read minimum for maximum ref the border size so no charge was made for the re-test.

Glad at end result, but bad of Tester to not know correctly.

Tootall wrote:Car was retested at 4pm new tyres fitted back on the road at 4.20pm with a new MOT in hand

The tester admitted that he made a mistake and that he mis-read minimum for maximum ref the border size so no charge was made for the re-test.

Should have gone to Specsavers