American Number Plates - NOW AVAILABLE
I have a passion for American cars and number plates (I often visit Texas throughout the year) and thought I'd give you as much information as possible before you buy American sized number plates from us. Unlike most cars the American car has the space to fit one size number plate usually 12" x 6". It has never been changed ever since I can remember, however, I have taken two or three calls this year from customers who have an American car, but want different plates. My guess is that these cars may come from the States, but are made in another country?
A 12" x 6" plate cannot be used on European vehicles, only on American Registered (Imported) ones. However, you cannot display a traditional American plate as the font etc is incorrect, to pass an MOT the plate would have to be made to British Standard, with UK Import font and correct spacing etc. Below is a clipping from the DVLA website.
If you go onto the DVLA website you will find the following information: "All number plates must meet standard size for lettering and style (with the exception of imported cars that were not designed for UK plates and have a functional reason for not using standard size plates). Certain imported vehicles may be permitted to display number plates with smaller characters if: The vehicle does not have European Community Whole Type Approval AND the vehicle’s construction/design cannot accommodate standard size number plates".
DVLA do not specify the size of plate your vehicle must display but if you qualify as an Imported vehicle and can satisfy the above criteria then you can legally display a plate with bike size font (64mm) rather than the standard UK car size font (79MM).
The standard plate being used is made of acrylic, and have 2 lines, or one line if you reg contains 5 digits (or 6 digits with a 1 in it), this will fit import size letters, but the slogan on the bottom becomes very small, because the letters fill 99% of the plate (height). Legal USA plates have to bear our company details and BSAU145d Kite mark, show plates from our Isle of Man branch will not bear these marks.
From 26th July 2006 we have been producing American Number Plates from our factory, using the traditional American font embossed on a 12x6" aluminium plate. We are doing a special introductory offer of £30 a set (including VAT) but plus postage. We are still searching for the dies to enable us to personalise a plate, but we will be starting with a full set of foils, to enable us to colour the letters to match the font colour of the state you may be after. We also have a full range of frames to hold the 12x6" plate. Please note if you have a plate frame yourself, it may obscure part of the plate, so you are best to send the frame into us, or a template of your frame as there is a huge possibility that your registration will be cut off top, bottom or the sides, as every frames is different! There is nothing worse than seeing a beautiful Chevrolet, complete with an expensive metal frame driving around with the registration cut off at the top and bottom - guys it looks poor!
We can also produce vintage 12x6" plates, these are made in the same fashion, however the plate is black, and will have silver letters on it, these are £34 a set. Also a great range of state plates, like Texas, California, Florida, Hawaii, Arizona and many more.. Just visit the website for all the information.
