We are a company who offer a window tinting service in surrey
On Saturday we had a visit from VOSPA,who i quote are checked on the people fitting window tinting to see if its being done legally.
what they are doing is checking that "tinters" are NOT tinting the drivers and passengers windows on our customers cars as this is deemed illegal and would leave us open to prosecution.
Also if a customer has had this done and has an accident his insurance company could and will wash there hands of any claim with this stuff fitted.
SO BEWARE - ITS ILLEGAL TO FIT IT TO FRONT WINDOWS AND ITS ILLEGAL TO SELL A CAR WITH THE STUFF FITTED AND IT WILL BECOME PART OF THE MOT SOON !The station will refuse to test a car with the tint fitted.
So thats another part of the motor trade thats going to run downhill as more cars now come with it standard and not many people will want the windows just tinted at the rear because it looks so odd.
But i can see the safety benefits
Hopeful none of you will get caught as there enforcing heavy fines if you do break the law.
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Not trying to teach my granny to suck eggs here, but as I understood it there were limits set for windscreen, front and rear with regards to how much light (as a percentage of the light outside) had to be let through. I know the front isn't supposed to be particularly dark, but I thought some tint was allowed.
I've heard that in the US it varies from state to state. So a car that's legal in one state will be illegal in another.
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Life is complex; it has real and imaginary parts.
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I remember the Chrysler PT 'things' had to be recalled because the glass was stupidly tinted.
Attention seeking via attention defying devices, unbelievable.
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This was discussed earlier, see:
www.honestjohn.co.uk/forum/post/index.htm?t=35490&...f
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too much information there but its always been an offence even in the seventies to have too heavy a tint on the front side windows the police or vosa use a refractometer to check light through the glass if it fails you get done.
One final thing im not a kiljoy but you are driving down the road and a car pulls up to the junction from your left your doing 60 its an "A"ROAD you cant see the driver for the tint does it not frighten you that they may pull out?it does me.
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E34 kif
You're right. IIRC factory fitted tinted glass has the transmissivity marked on it, probably as a legal requirment. From memory I think one of my cars is something like 75% for the screen, and 70% for the sides.
JS
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Just in case it's not been included in a previous thread on this subject;
tinyurl.com/e37hs
The latest (Oct'05) VOSA publication on tinted windows.
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It's hard to buy a car now without tinting to the windows but it is normally only 10-15%.Anyway all the windows should have a EU certification mark (e) to show they comply with the legal requirements.
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The ITV Crimefighters programme tonight showed BiB testing tinted windows not in daylight but IN THE DARK with a hand held bit of kit.
A couple of vehicles were stopped, tested and given 7 days to get the tints changed and were told to drive home with the side windows down.
Has anyone any more details of the test equipment?
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I dont know about the kit they are using, but there is nothing wrong in measuring in the dark....probably easier as no background light to confuse things. The kit almost certainly has a small calibrated light source which is passed through the glass to a sensor which measures the relative intensity of the light...almost self calibrating as before inserting it around the glass it can be checked for 100% transmission on the air.
tech note....do they allow for reflection at the glass surface as well as bulk transmission, what wavelength are they measuring at as transmisson for a given piece of glass can vary greatly with wavelength. What about polarization of the light?
StarGazer
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Blimey - glad I jast part Exed SWMBO's Picasso - bought it new and paid the dealer to have the windows tinted, although the tint on the front windows was less than that on the back as he told me that the rules were different for front windows than the back. Still sounds like it may now be ilegal though.
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My ex-Japan Mitsubishi Galant Estate has light tint on the windscreen and front side windows, but 'privacy glass' behind that. Looking at the New Zealand regulations, I was interested to see that only the windscreen has to have 70% Visible Light Transmission. All the other glass can be only 35%. Japan obviously has similar rules to the UK on front side windows. NZ will catch up with this rule some time, I suppose.
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