General Pedantic MOT Tester?

[mjc506]

Interesting that the reply mentions road signs and emergency vehicle retroreflective markings... Road signs are (normally) made of a composite of plastic core with thin aluminium 'skin' each side - of course not retroreflective in the slightest, then the sign face is made from retroreflective self-adhesive plastic (often 3M film). I guess the argument could be made that the 'sign' is made from the 3M film, with the composite board just a support, but the same could be said about a number plate...

And then emergency vehicle markings are the same 3M film applied to a steel body shell...

 

[DaveMcT]

Number plate changes are mainly driven by ANPR recognition requirements; it could be argued that folks who don't want their vehicle to be identifiable might be inclined to drive or behave less safely. ANPR isn't just about driving offences; it helps catch murderers and child molesters too.

Emissions kill people, just not so obviously or directly as bald tyres.

I fully accept the emission argument and I hate it when people remove the catalyst or cant be bothered to fit a clean air filter to their dirty diesel. But using the MOT vehicle safety test to sign off a page full of (mostly trivial) number plate checks is an abuse. Anyone doing bad stuff will run with no plates fitted or steal the plate off somebody's car (if they don't steal the car). They don't care.

I had a bike plate fail because it was not quite the right size and did not have the plate-maker's name and post code. The one the tester made up for me was perhaps 1/2" bigger and looked horrible. Properly thrown together. It only ever got used on MOT days. Even better, his address details were just a yellow sticker stuck on the front face. It would be peeling off in a few weeks of sunlight.