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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sKOaF7esBFY&t=104 Thought this was pretty cool.

Personally I'd get something in writing like in an email or something where they have said they are at fault and will pay for reparation otherwise it could be likely that they will then deny was them. I've seen it happen to people I know, one they took them a quote and saw how much it was going to cost they just said no. Then went on to say they didn't even do it and that they never said they will pay for it to be repaired. Not to say these people will do this, but it's smart to cover your bases so your not left to foot the bill.

Ok so because you guys are really good FINALLY starting a thread thats not in the forsale section, ill give you the story. Disclaimer: I must stress, i do not recommend or condone or anyway responsible if you choose to use replicas on New Zealand roads. This post is inteded to inform only, not to recommend one way or another, you can make your own decision Similarities: Both Pressed Aluminium Both Reflective Genuine plates.co.nz Plates: Ferns are lazered on, and stretch right to the very edge of the plate, leaving one single silver filled rectangle where you combination is. Have additional reflecting silver ferns when held in the correct light, just like your standard govt issue plates. Hew New Zealand specific font that it used on both wide and narrow plates. Replica ones that you can buy through me here on bimmersport Ferns are a sticker that i put on personally when the plates arrive here in New Zealand. Stickers leave a slight gap between them and the outer edge of the frame. This is due to copy right reasons i will say below Do not have the additional ferns Have the font used right through the European union apart from the United Kingdom which has its own Font again. (AFAIK) My understanding of the reason New Zealand changed to the new font midway through the Dxx### series is because the new speed cameras could not read the old style number plates because it wasnt a font programmed by the machine. They reprogrammed it, but it still had issues differentiation some letters, such as O and Q and 0. So the font was changed to a "better" font. I have been told that as time has marched on, some speed cameras rolled out now cannot even read the old font at all anymore, but roughly half of NZ's fleet are already on the new style font. ALL of the Euro letters are slighlty narrower than the NZ ones, because NZ plates have 6 letters, whereas the european ones have up to 9 characters (less two for the flags at each end gives 7). Other differences include the numbers 7 and 0 (zero), and quite a few of the letters are different too, such as C, I, J, Q and Y. But many of them are the same or so close to the same it would be hard to tell such as A, B, D, E, F.... Now, there are three reasons why the replica ones are illegal to run on the road in New Zealand. (not illegal to possess) Speed cameras are not calibrated to read the european font. Thats not to say they won't, as I say, some letters are very similar, and remember the cameras are catching your car speeding so they do have a margin of error built in. For example, I own the combination ETHRTY in genuine european style on my BMW E30. I hope it wont happen to me, but there is nothing stopping Joe Criminal from importing a set of fake europlates with the same combination, and putting them on a stolen E30 and robbing a petrol station. Someone hands the registration to the police, and the police think its me that robbed the station. The victim or witness knows nothing about cars and dont notice they are replica plates, thats the last thing on thier mind. Hell, the plates could be on a Corolla or whatever, red sedans are red sedans to some people. I get jailed or whatever. The third one is what most people think is the main reason, and thats that Plates.co.nz designed the europlate style etc and its a copyright infringement. Everyone has their own opinion of this. I should probably check with him before i post this, but basically, Chris at Germanplates.com was the only crowd at the time to produce them as a replica of the plates.co.nz ones. P.co.nz didnt like that and complained and threatened legal action etc. So he changed them and thats why the ones people have brought from me have the thin white rectangle right round the edge of the plate. Chris (or any other 3rd party) has (edit: never) sold them with the New Zealand Font before. I have discussed this twice with Chris, but 2x die sets to have made up for the printing machines is in excess of $5k. NZ isnt a big enough market for them, and even if it was marginal, the chance of P.co.nz coming after him or me or both is just too high. As for getting away with them, well i have been doing them here for about 4 to 5 years now (that thread was started after about the 5th group buy), each buy is roughly 10 sets, so there are easily 200 sets out there JUST through Bimmersport. Add in everyone here that has imported themselves, and then all the people on eurosport.org.nz, all the VAG and Merc forums, etc etc etc, must be a few thousand cars on our roads now with them. I am sure most of them arent on garage walls as art etc.. So im not surprised the police are starting to take notcie of them, probably being subsidesed by plates.co.nz as thats how the world works (yes there is corruption in New Zealand, you are blind if you think there isn't) In that time, I have only heard of people getting tickets for them in the past year or less. and yes, all in Auckland. Wow i wonder how long that took me to write

Seems it's only a problem north of the bridge... too many cops and not enough meth there

Seen that too, will look good with some green tinsel at xmas time

very cool Berj!

I was following a couple of youtube guides I found. Pretty much spray on leather cleaner stuff, use a brush to scrub it in a little, wipe off with microfibre towel. Then using conditioner on a microfibre applicator pad thing, rubbing it in then wiping off the excess with a separate microfibre towel. I ended up buying the Maguire's stuff, which I had heard online was good. Is the Maguires stuff here different than the stuff they get overseas? Tristan - thanks for the heads up. I might have to go get me some of them soap flakes. I'm stuck with the Maguire's conditioner for now, but I'm sure it'll tide me over until I've bought the rest of my detailing stuff.