What's the law on German style plates

frank gallagher

Seen a few cars around with them

conzy

Not sure exactly, people say if they have the dashes they are legal but they still don't have the county name. I have German plates with no dashes and just the eu logo marked with IRL. Got pulled by a garda with the anpr system (only had car a few days and showed as uninsured) and they said nothing about the plates..

Basically its highly unlikey you will get a fine unless they are having a slow week.. keep the originals incase you get a slap on the wrist and you will need them for the NCT too

focus_mad

The font you can get away with. If you have the stickers on the reg plate it will depend on the Garda.

I was facing a summons until I offered to cut them off there and then on the street!

For a plate to be legal it has to have the county in Irish on it (from my reading of the legislation). Would this alone not make German style plates illegal?

Might be worth a read...
http://www.irishstatutebook.ie/1999/en/si/0432.html

focus_mad

You have to have the IRL and county on the plate.
It's possible to have them on the plate with the german style font

Ardennes1944

get them from eire plates. i have german plates with the county name in irish and the irl and eu symbol

JimmyCrackCorn

No they are not legal.

You can end up in court. It does happen on a regular basis.

--Kaiser--

All non standard plates are illegal

focus_mad

--Kaiser-- wrote: »

All non standard plates are illegal

Your definition of non-standard?

Mint Sauce

Dont have German plates, but my understanding was you could still have the cuts in the letters and numbers, as long as the font was otherwise the same, the county in irish was still in the same place, and the EU/IRE symbol was in place.

Basically, a pressed metal irish plate with cuts in the letters/numbers.

Mariusz Pudgyanovski

my understanding is that the only requirements for font is to be "sans serif", which basically means any font that is "without tails".
so i guess it's down to the gard's/court's judgement on whether the german font is tailed or not.
that and the numbers/letters have to be legible and have dashes between them too.

otherwise it is a legal requirement to have the EU circle of stars on a blue backround, IRL under it, bordered, and the county name in irish above the reg number, and no other markings such as the german stickers etc.
those last 2 things alone make the generic german style plate illegal

Mariusz Pudgyanovski

more importantly, is what do folks think of non-german cars with german style reg plates?
i've seen a few czech, french and spanish made cars with the german style plates

Caliden

focus_mad wrote: »

Your definition of non-standard?

Anything that doesn't meet these requirements

http://www.irishstatutebook.ie/1999/en/si/0432.html

kdevitt

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 “I”) shall be not less than 36 millimetres and not more than 50 millimetres. The distances between adjoining letters and adjoining figures shall be uniform and shall be not less than 8 millimetres.

This is the section which covers the font - its entirely possible that a German style plate can have these dimensions, and be fully legal once the other bits are included (county, EU flag etc). I know eireplates do plates which don't have the cutaway section on the 0, which stand out less - but not sure if they're the legal stroke or width.

They are fully legal if you car is pre 1987 though!

Franticfrank

I don't understand what's so special about German style plates? Are people buying them because the font looks good or something? I've lived in Germany plus my girlfriend is German - she thought it looked ridiculous last time she was over