One Man's Crusade Against The Personalised Plates Monopoly

[jimbo01 0]

They are cracking down at the moment on plates. Seems its now a topic of concern for all police.

Yep with all the P labs, gang crime, dangerous driving, unsafe cars, it's great to see the cops cracking down on this.

Their story about crims buying them is bull sh*t. Why would they pay good money to import some german plates? Crims nick plates off cars all the time to use on the cars they are committing crimes with.

So why... ?

Maybe it's $200 towards their quota?

Maybe there are too many cops who enjoy being pricks?

[_ethrty-Andy_ 2122]

Graham do you drive with the White letters and black background plate?

Got that for my e30 but I don't think I would venture any more than a block from home on public roads with it, thoughi have my legit nz Europlate in the front and rear windows..

[Tristan 338]

Graham do you drive with the White letters and black background plate?

Got that for my e30 but I don't think I would venture any more than a block from home on public roads with it, thoughi have my legit nz Europlate in the front and rear windows..

I drive everywhere with my front plate (back doesn't fit) - Black with raw text, Euro logo.

[antil33t 90]

I never had a problem driving.

Parking the car however...

[cliffdunedin 8]

Have the parking ladies down here snapped you for them Michael?

[Apex 693]

Graham do you drive with the White letters and black background plate?

Got that for my e30 but I don't think I would venture any more than a block from home on public roads with it, thoughi have my legit nz Europlate in the front and rear windows..

Black white front and black silver on the back, I just put the black white one on as the other black silver got st-owned on Targa tour.

Parking wardens should not have the powers they have, I dont mind a parking ticket but why should they be entitled to dish out registration fines

[deeveus 81]

Just with the price, I'm sure Target would love to get ahold of this story regarding the pricing anyway. Has anyone suggested this story to them?

[my_e36 43]

Price is not "THAT" bad compare to Hong Kong where I came from. Personalised Plate program is run by the Transport Department (~LTNZ here), put in an application along with HK$5000 (~NZ$950) deposit. Then the plate along with all other applications will group together in a public auction and you have to bid for it with the deposit as minimum price. You win, you pay extra on top to whatever the winning bid is, if you lose, you get your deposit back.

[hybrid 1039]

Im pretty sure that a ammendment to the law isnt stopping anyone from starting a plates business up and doing what plates is doing.

The business just needs to be approved by the LTSA and use the single approved plates manufacture. Which im told only costs $37 to produce.

Would totally pay for $100 official euro plates.

[antil33t 90]

Have the parking ladies down here snapped you for them Michael?

Yes, in Mosgiel, on tay street.

[_ethrty-Andy_ 2122]

what happened with this? guessing still only the one company and Graham isnt a tycoon?

[Apex 693]

I had a good run for years with the “fake imported plates†and then I got done three times in one month, ended up in court, lost, got schooled in the complications and reasoning’s and learnt a lot about identity theft etc and then after going through the proses of ordering and fitting NZ plates I can understand why the parallel import plates are illegal, anyone can fit any plate to any car. Safe to say I have learnt my lesson and would not run fake plates again.

What I found funny when getting my current genuine euro plates remade is that it only cost $56.00 vs the $400 it cost to have existing non euro plates re made as euro plates, what’s the difference? This $344 difference is what annoys me, there is no justification and personalized plates are making $350 to do little more than order your plate from the manufacture.

If they lowered the cost to say $200 I think that would be fair, they would still make $150 for doing nothing and I bet they would sell 10x the amount they do now.

[deeveus 81]

EuroPlates

My confusion is; why do they issue "EuroPlates" for Japanese vehicles, I've seen them on a Honda Jazz, Corolla e.t.c. They look terribad by the time they've had to fold up the ends because they don't fit ffs. And forgive me if I'm wrong but isn't Lexus a Japanese brand? They have special Lexus europlate designs which in some cases don't fit the cars! They have American made cars there also such as Jeep & Dodge lol.

I've even seen them on a 100 Series VX Landcruiser and IMO it didn't suit it.

Edited May 1, 2012 by The Diesel Guy

[nath 128]

Interesting thread to pop up it's head again.

Price aside(which I have a feeling has hit it's apex of demand): does anyone agree that in our small country with relatively few cars and proliferation of personalised plates, a safe general statement is that altered plates of any sort are fast becoming unfashionable? Whether they say silly things or not.

Or is my taste just developing with age?

[tcbaurpower 5]

Interesting thread to pop up it's head again.

Price aside(which I have a feeling has hit it's apex of demand): does anyone agree that in our small country with relatively few cars and proliferation of personalised plates, a safe general statement is that altered plates of any sort are fast becoming unfashionable? Whether they say silly things or not.

Or is my taste just developing with age?

I would agree, the time has past to get a personize plate. Business like them for vechicle id.. far enough.

However in regards to the OP the main issue with plates for euro owners is they are the wrong size and they charge you to fix the over sight. The plates should be issued as euro style in the first instance and the original owner pays the extra.. if any.

[tmase 19]

Have BMW withdrawn the rights for PPlates to use their branding. I don't see it on the europlates list, though I thought you used to be able to get it. Wonder what it cost BMW NZ to reserve the whole BMW XXX series a few years back?

[antil33t 90]

Pretty sure only dealers can issue BMW branded plates.

[NZ BMW 368]

Guy I share the office with at work drives a Lexus. Anyway his plates got stolen the other night and the cops pulled up a guy down in the Waikato driving a white Lexus (same as his). Didn't bother to check the plates or that the rego in the windscreen didn't match the plates on the car. Guy got lit up by a radar down the road and didn't stop until he crashed. If the cops are not going to check the plates in the system I don't know why they have an issue with people changing the format.

One thing I do think could be an issue is the potential in the future to implement the same system in the UK where a machine vision system mounted in the nose of the car "reads" the plates. It would become more difficult to design the system if the were a number of different formats. But it could be done.

personally I think that if you can run the plate in the system then the format of it irrelevant so long as it meets the test of being clearly readable.

We've already got enough laws in this country, I would love them to strike off a few of the more stupid ones, this one included.

BTW you can get "NZ Europlates" here but the font is slightly different: http://www.autoplates.com/_custom/euro/eur...p?prod_id=68599

Edited May 1, 2012 by NZ BMW

[_ethrty-Andy_ 2122]

Its just the price issue for me too. $400 to upgrade to a 2 inch wider piece of metal is hard to justify. If your running around with the german D or a white letters n black backround then obviously your asking to be pulled and fined so i dont take any notice of that. I dont know of anyone being pulled for NZ reps though.

[NZ BMW 368]

Its just the price issue for me too. $400 to upgrade to a 2 inch wider piece of metal is hard to justify. If your running around with the german D or a white letters n black backround then obviously your asking to be pulled and fined so i dont take any notice of that. I dont know of anyone being pulled for NZ reps though.

Does seem excessive - it's a bit similar to import licencing back in the day.

It's been interesting to watch a company like Telecom be broken up over the last couple of years and the same principle would apply here. With a number of companies being able to supply plates via a connection into the NZTA database or wherever all the information is held.

I'd be interested to know if the original poster of this thread ever got an answer back from Joyce when he was Minister of Transport. Brownlee who is the current minister is probably fairly busy with the rebuild - you might have more luck with Bridges, who is the Associate Minister.

[antil33t 90]

if you buy actual NZ Europlate upgrades you are allowed to keep them and put them on other vehicles.

[Apex 693]

Interesting thread to pop up it's head again.

Price aside(which I have a feeling has hit it's apex of demand): does anyone agree that in our small country with relatively few cars and proliferation of personalised plates, a safe general statement is that altered plates of any sort are fast becoming unfashionable? Whether they say silly things or not.

Or is my taste just developing with age?

Yep.

I like my euro plates, I have had them since the euro plates come onto the market and they are mine!! I have it fitted to my new car and gives it more of a personal touch and makes it look less "company car" plus it does fill the space where a NZ plate wont.

[Young Thrash Driver 1020]

One thing I do think could be an issue is the potential in the future to implement the same system in the UK where a machine vision system mounted in the nose of the car "reads" the plates. It would become more difficult to design the system if the were a number of different formats. But it could be done.

This system is being tested in NZ. They started in Auckland a few years ago, but havn't heard anything more since.

[Wom 0]

if you buy actual NZ Europlate upgrades you are allowed to keep them and put them on other vehicles.

this is what justified it for me

that and they do look really good on the car

This system is being tested in NZ. They started in Auckland a few years ago, but havn't heard anything more since.

I think it's a bit behind the times the cops not having a system like that

the revenue from tickets for out of date wof and reg would pay it all back fairly quickly too

[_ethrty-Andy_ 2122]

wouldnt that be a reason to buy the ones with the german font? for the most part they are almost identical to the untrained (cop) eye, but those scanners wouldnt pick it up. and anyway, there are two legal fonts in NZ, so that in itself will cause issues.