Newish car with wrong number plates

facade

born_again said:

Surprised that they never noticed with "A good work ethic"

Why would they notice? You can't see both ends at the same time!

The only person likely to notice would be the driver, if they had gone to the trouble of learning the registration (I've had my Citroen 2 years now, and I don't have a clue what the registration is beyond it starts with a B and is a 22 plate. (Yet I can tell you my late father's Mk2 Jaguar was 3536FD, and I last saw it around 1970, and my first car was an A60 DRF900E) I suppose registrations aren't important enough now  to waste any of my remaining mental storage on!

I had a car with different registrations front & rear for a couple of years 557 & 577. Eventually I cracked the front one and got a new one from the V5.  When I came to fit it, it was different to the one that I took off!  

  That turned out to be fun & games, as the dealer I got it from HPI'd the car from the front registration, which came back clean (same make & model) whereas mine had been written off! (The dealer bought it back and presumably put it straight to auction)

Herzlos

It's possible they just changed the back one to replace the branding with their own, and got it wrong. As said you can't see both sides at the same time so it's a hard one to spot if you're not familiar with the number.

You can't really use the car in the mean time, so you'd need to leave it off the road until it's sorted. You can probably get one made whilst you wait at a motor factors for somewhere around £15 if you don't want to wait for the dealer. 

QrizB

Out of curiosity, we're both plates made by the same organisation?

They should be marked with the postcode of whoever manufactured them.

I'm wondering if the wrong (rear) plate is a replacement for one that was cracked or damaged?

TadleyBaggie

facade said:

Why would they notice? You can't see both ends at the same time!

Presumably they would have walked up to the back of the car whilst in car parks and checked that the car is indeed theirs (and not a similar one) by checking it has the correct registration...

sheramber

TadleyBaggie said:

facade said:

Why would they notice? You can't see both ends at the same time!

Presumably they would have walked up to the back of the car whilst in car parks and checked that the car is indeed theirs (and not a similar one) by checking it has the correct registration...

No, you press a button and the car keeps and the lights flash, so you know which is yours. 

facade

TadleyBaggie said:

facade said:

Why would they notice? You can't see both ends at the same time!

Presumably they would have walked up to the back of the car whilst in car parks and checked that the car is indeed theirs (and not a similar one) by checking it has the correct registration...

My comment was in answer to the suggestion that the lad who washes it should have noticed.

I know which is my car in a carpark, unless someone has managed to round up a couple of dozen identical ones all 22 plate starting with B- then I'd have to either look inside or use the remote!

I'd likely notice if mine started with a different letter on the front compared to the back, but for all I know the 'plates are different right now!

matt_drummer

What about when checking that your car is fit for the road, things like lights, wipers, tyres, make sure nothing is falling off, things like that?

Or do you all just get in and drive and leave things like that for the MOT tester?

plumb1_2

matt_drummer said:

What about when checking that your car is fit for the road, things like lights, wipers, tyres, make sure nothing is falling off, things like that?

Or do you all just get in and drive and leave things like that for the MOT tester?

I don’t think most check their cars for lights etc, as there’s so many warning lights if there’s a fault, just a casual glance when approaching.
And as for making sure the car is the correct one in a car park you usually have an idea where it’s parked. And as above,you press the fob, and if the lights flash and it unlocks it’s gonna be 99.9% yours. 

plumb1_2

QrizB said:

Out of curiosity, we're both plates made by the same organisation?

They should be marked with the postcode of whoever manufactured them.

I'm wondering if the wrong (rear) plate is a replacement for one that was cracked or damaged?

Yes they both have the same garage dealership and postcode and phone number, in printed on them.

matt_drummer

plumb1_2 said:

I don’t think most check their cars for lights etc, as there’s so many warning lights if there’s a fault, just a casual glance when approaching.
 

Clearly quite a lot of people don't!

They are all just ignoring warning lights you think?

How many cars have warning lights or messages for inoperative lights?

How do you check your brake lights with a casual glance whilst approaching the vehicle?

There's the ones that think it's cool to drive around with their front fog lights on in all weather conditions but can't be bothered to make sure they actually both work!

Headlights out on the same cars for weeks on end, you tend to notice the same cars on your regular journeys.

Brake lights, how may cars do you see driving around with only the high level brake light working as the other two have blown bulbs?

What about checking tyres, not just for pressures but for condition?

I suspect that many cars are only checked at the annual MOT test, it's shocking.

I can't begin to comprehend how anybody doesn't know the registration number of their car let alone not notice for months that one end, or even both ends, have the wrong registration on.