pulled over by a police car...

[mikinoz]

Bloody hell, what a thread.

Simple response would be 'fine officer' then tomorrow you put them back on and if ever pulled over again claim they are not the same covers.

Every car delivered has these nowadays. They are not illegal.

I should say if they are a dealer fitted item that does not meet the ADR's, arguably there is an issue there that could be pursued.

[Manaz]

Bloody hell, what a thread.

Simple response would be 'fine officer' then tomorrow you put them back on and if ever pulled over again claim they are not the same covers.

Every car delivered has these nowadays. They are not illegal.

I should say if they are a dealer fitted item that does not meet the ADR's, arguably there is an issue there that could be pursued.

It doesn't matter if they're illegal or not - a cop can issue a defect notice if he thinks they might be, and force you to an inspection station to have their status confirmed.

As already stated, the driver of a car is solely responsible for its roadworthiness - it wouldn't matter if the dealer supplied it with bald tyres, it's up to the person driving the car to ensure that it meets the requirements for use on the road.

[drewr]

I didn't know you were there to see exactly what transpired!

Ha. I can understand why Maca would draw this conclusion, there are few that actually have their heads skrewed on lately, especially when it comes to vehicle 'defects'. I had one just the other week, try to tell me that my STOCK R32 was too low. Upon my challenging him for about 15 minutes demanding he measures it correctly on flat ground and proving him wrong, he wanted to tell me it's not my car and it's against P plate regulations! Well, i am a company manager so i took it to register under the company in case 'someone' got caught by a speedcamera...and err, it's a N/A 180kw engine, so i also complied there, after a few words. It is quite amusing after looking back at it, watching them scratch at the sides of a barrel trying to ping you on anything they can...

They're just jelouse they're stuck in Bommodores all day. =]

[Water Boy]

Stress less bro.

He is doing his job. You werent doing anything stupid.

[Maverick]

Ha. I can understand why Maca would draw this conclusion, there are few that actually have their heads skrewed on lately, especially when it comes to vehicle 'defects'. I had one just the other week, try to tell me that my STOCK R32 was too low. Upon my challenging him for about 15 minutes demanding he measures it correctly on flat ground and proving him wrong, he wanted to tell me it's not my car and it's against P plate regulations! Well, i am a company manager so i took it to register under the company in case 'someone' got caught by a speedcamera...and err, it's a N/A 180kw engine, so i also complied there, after a few words. It is quite amusing after looking back at it, watching them scratch at the sides of a barrel trying to ping you on anything they can...

They're just jelouse they're stuck in Bommodores all day. =]

Seems to be the typical P plater/bogan response to being pulled over.

Have a think about how many cars and variants of those are on the road and the police have to determine if the car is legal whilst smartarse wannabe lawyers have a go at them for doing their job.

Your attitude would have caused the officer to deal with you as he did, you even admit to registering the car in a company name so you can illegal avoid speed camera infringements and if the cop really wanted to "ping" you as you put it rest assured your car would have been off the road and you'd have nothing but a heap of penalty notices.

[BrettD]

Without adding in all the qoutes with regards to the law, reflection, who's responsible yadda yadda

In the end ignorance is no excuse when it comes to being fined for something(laws) you didnt know.

The main reason Police go after covers is that a LIDAR(speed gun) works at its optimum by its reflection off your plate..

That simple, trust me 'wink'

[drewr]

Seems to be the typical P plater/bogan response to being pulled over.

Have a think about how many cars and variants of those are on the road and the police have to determine if the car is legal whilst smartarse wannabe lawyers have a go at them for doing their job.

Your attitude would have caused the officer to deal with you as he did, you even admit to registering the car in a company name so you can illegal avoid speed camera infringements and if the cop really wanted to "ping" you as you put it rest assured your car would have been off the road and you'd have nothing but a heap of penalty notices.

I don't see that to be a smartarsed at all; he signalled me to pull over, no problem, i pulled over ASAP, he then asked for for license and breath test (no problem, always happy to comply with that), which mind you he asked for in a blunt and arrogant tone, but ok what ever, bad day etc; but then further going on to trying to tell me that I will be getting a defect notice (costing ME money) for something that is both unjustly and simply WRONG, then I have every right to challenge him (and it was not in a smartarse manner at all, it was simply demanding that justice be served correclty). If I swore and carried on then yes, perhaps a bogan response, but when I did not once abuse or swear at the officer, even amongst all of his arrogance, i can hardly see how you can deam that as "bogan". But hey, if you want to jump to that conclusion, you go ahead and do so.

Yes, there are many variables when it comes to cars on the road, but really, can there be that margin for error when it's essentially going to cost you/me, the road users our hard earned money and time because of their mistakes??? I mean sure, if my car was some faded out peice of ****, with a guard hanging off and essentially just appearing to be un-roadworthy, i might be able to justify him questioning me and disputing me when i ask for an accurate measurement to be made. But when it is a new car, that i take very good care off in forms of cleaning and actually keeping tires/etc roadworthy, i hardly see how or why they can hassle me and furthermore challenge me when it's requested for a fair measurement.

And if it means anything to you, it is not in fact so I can "AVOID" (i.e pay 3 TIMES the fine) speedcameras, but also to be eligable for the company fuel account, so it is in fact not illegal, what so ever. My point was more so that HE was in fact the one in the situation being arrogant about it, if he had an issue with my registration, why not say so upon first confrentation when he breath tested and license/rego checked? Why was it all of a sudden an issue AFTER he had just been proven wrong (and this is not the only instance i have heard of!). I did not once swear, or abuse this officer, everything that was said was done so in a mature manor; It is just becoming quite a joke as to how far SOME 'officers' need to go to try and ping a law obiding road user, it simply is unfair and bull**** and which is why I can so whole-heartidly agree with the obscurity of the thread starters issue; and I do see it as an issue, because I see countless cars with these numberplate covers on them, it just takes a misinformed officer to wrongly tell you that it is illegal, then it has the potential to cost you money as well as time (time off work) to goto the department and have this cleared, etc etc. I realise no one can be perfect, and mistakes are going to be made, and in this instance it was only a warning, but it does get you agrivated, no matter what age or license you hold, no one likes to be dealt with unjustly and without respect.

Please note, when I say this, I am not referring to a Police force in general, I can whole heartidly appreciate the fantastic work so many of them do. There are bad apples though...

[Pharkus]

Perhaps the chap should have been out there pinging people with aftermarket HID lights....

/troll

[drewr]

Without adding in all the qoutes with regards to the law, reflection, who's responsible yadda yadda

In the end ignorance is no excuse when it comes to being fined for something(laws) you didnt know.

The main reason Police go after covers is that a LIDAR(speed gun) works at its optimum by its reflection off your plate..


That simple, trust me 'wink'

Yeah, i am aware that you can in fact purchase reflective plate covers that deter speed gun readings (off eBay, mind you) and really ARE noticable (i saw one on a Porsche the other day, from straight on his place just was not visable, what so ever) but to pull over road users and harrass them about this problem, especially after mentioned that all of the euros in his parking lot had the same experience, wouldn't that, out of common sense become apparent that the road users are not the ones responsible for the 'not illegal' plate covers? Surely instead of asking people to remove their stock plate covers, they should in fact lodge an investigation into the dealerships/manufactuerers if it is such a concern?

I am probably coming accross as a righteous cock here, but this is an area that gets under my skin a little bit, the Transport sector in general is something i firmly beleive needs a revision.

[Speed]

I'd prefer it if the police would concentrate on pulling over people with brake lights out or not working, driving in the dark without headlights on, people that don't indicate, people who cross lanes of traffic in one swift motion or people driving less than the speed limit in the right lane.

[Maverick]

I'd prefer it if the police would concentrate on pulling over people with brake lights out or not working, driving in the dark without headlights on, people that don't indicate, people who cross lanes of traffic in one swift motion or people driving less than the speed limit in the right lane.

Let's assume that the cop didn't see any of these, should he pull people over for other offences or should he just sit on the side of the road waiting for these specific ones that annoy you?

[Ben J]

Let's assume that the cop didn't see any of these, should he pull people over for other offences or should he just sit on the side of the road waiting for these specific ones that annoy you?

Considering they were obviously not commiting any sort of offence thats like saying "I want to play soccer, but cant find a soccer ball, so I'll just go kick the neighbours children."

[Speed]

Let's assume that the cop didn't see any of these, should he pull people over for other offences or should he just sit on the side of the road waiting for these specific ones that annoy you?

Maverick,
My "preference" as I worded it "could" make for safer roads. I never said that they specifically "annoy" me. It is how it is.

Off course he/she should pull people over for other offences. "Other" being the operative word.
Unfortunately, these general offences that I mentioned, "appear" to get overlooked on a daily basis.

I just don't believe that the number plate cover/frame issue should be as high on the priority list as you do.

[Maverick]

Maverick,
My "preference" as I worded it "could" make for safer roads. I never said that they specifically "annoy" me. It is how it is.

Off course he/she should pull people over for other offences. "Other" being the operative word.
Unfortunately, these general offences that I mentioned, "appear" to get overlooked on a daily basis.

I'm not disagreeing with what you're saying, I would like to see zero tolerance for all the vehicle defects but let's be serious there isn't enough police in the country even if all of them were tasked for 10 years to clean up the roads. It's easy to criticise the police when you don't know the full facts which we don't and won't in this case. I prefer to look at it as he's doing his job and there were probably other reasons other than glare from a number plate cover that led to him pulling over the OP.

I just don't believe that the number plate cover/frame issue should be as high on the priority list as you do.

I never said that number plate frame should be high on the priority list however the police officer believed there was a problem and spoke to the driver. If a law is being broken I expect the police to act no matter how trivial. We don't know what else was going on as I said earlier so sitting here and judging the officer based on a biased report of what occurred (and yes I've been biased before when telling stories about being pulled over) is not in anyone's best interests.

[hooba]

Wow, a lot of hot air and venting considering a fine or defect wasn't even issued.