Black and white number plates in the UK, legally
26th August 2005 by Simon
We’re getting our Fiat 500 back on the road. It’s been sitting on our drive for the last 3-4 years, us having originally bought it in Sicily. Driving a car with a 500cc engine, that is best used for small journeys, was a real adventure, one I may go into another time.
The original number plates were the gorgeous ones from Palermo - tiny one on the front, square on the back.
Sadly, once you’ve had your car in the UK for more that 6 months you have to have it re-registered in UK, thus loosing the original plates. We applied for a vehicle registration from its year of manufacture, 1972 and got a J reg.
We’ve now got to get the number plates made up and we really wanted to get Black and white number plates, ie white numbers on a black background.
I was surprised to see on the DVLA site (UK car licensing authority) that we can legally get these because if the car was built prior to 1 January 1973, it’s OK.
Looking around for suppliers, there aren’t that many around in the UK, I’ve found Framptons, who are located on the UK south coast. A quick call to Steve (+44 2392 264755), found him very helpful and friendly.
We’re going for the pressed polished aluminum ones, which should cost £32.95 and are made the same day as they are ordered. Looks like it’s all going to go well, if not, I’ll let you know.















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£32.95 ?> thats ridiculous you can get them for around £25!, do some more research !
Regards
I too have a classic 500. I was due to buy a 1974 version but ended up getting a 1972; just so I could legally use the Black and White plates.
Getting a bit cheek recently, I actually got black and white plates for my 2000 Merc and within about 20 mins of having them on I got busted!!!
:)
@David - that’s amazing about the speed of getting stopped with the Merc.
Actually, if the car was registered after 1/1/1973 but built before that date, then you can use the black and white number plates. This would include any car up to ‘M’ and may be a the first few ‘N’ series (1974)