Whilst travelling up to Warrington from Surrey at the weekend, I noticed several cars (mostly BMWs) with very dirty rears, and unreadable numberplates.
This is obviously a speed camera scam, but I was amazed that the police didn't stop any of them (the cars must have been in this state for some time)
Are cameras able to pick-out the registration number when the plate is in this state, or do the police not care as it's just part of the numbers game?
Any comments?
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Think is more a case of laziness in not washing cars- although at this time of year will only stay clean for about 5 minutes. If lights were spotless then maybe you are right.
Driving high miles soon shows how quickly a car can get. Sides of mine have gone black after 2 weeks.
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The lights and the rest of the cars looked reasonably clean, it was just the rear boot area....
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What a good idea. Must try it.
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saw a filthy, and unreadable rear plate on a Golf today - presumably, hatchbacks are more vulnerable to mucky rears than booted cars ...?
EH
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My last two cars, prior to my current new Golf, were Rover hatchbacks which did not suffer rear filth attraction; these cars possessed, their one and only saving grace, and that is, they had a saloon-ish shape to them whereas the Golf, in common with similar-shaped vehicles, gets dirty as soon as the road surface is above moistness. It is a hellish nuisance and was something I hadn't bargained for when buying this car, which, in all other respects was an excellent buy.
This annoying phenomenon, might be a reason to make me very careful when choosing my next vehicle as, clearly, hatchbacks of the Golf ilk, are a pain in the butt in wet weather, as the rear window needs constant wiping and washing.
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I drive a Mk5 Golf, and within a day after washing the rear becomes very dirty. The number plate becomes undreadale in a couple of days, its also a pain to open the boot due to the dirt. My Mk3 Golf doesn't do this. I put it down to the new Golf having a big 'bum' unlike the Mk3.
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I drive a Mk5 Golf, and within a day after washing the rear becomes very dirty. My Mk3 Golf doesn't do this. I put it down to the new Golf having a big 'bum' unlike the Mk3.
Has your Mk3 got a boot spoiler on it? I had a Mk3 with a rear hatch spoiler, like on the Gti. That used to get a dirty rump; it was such that on wet motorway journeys I would have to keep the rear wiper on intermittent all the time. The spoiler worsens the vortex effect mentioned by bignick. On my current Saab hatch the rear window is at a much shallower angle, and I hardly ever have to use the rear wiper on the motorway.
;o)
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As cars have become more aerodynamic there is a sort of vortex effect that deposits road dirt on the rear panel/tailgate area. It operates in much the same way as Mr Dysons vacuum cleaner. Hatchbacks are particularly affected in my experience resulting in a patch of dirt covering the rear of the vehicle up to about 6" from the edge, so often the lights are unaffected but the number plate is plastered.
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When I was a lad the trick was to put some Spray Mount (aerosol adhesive) on the numberplate and then drive on a dusty road for a bit. The numberplate would always stay just dirty enough but the effect was quite subtle.
Fortunately most of my student cars weren't able to break the speed limit so I never bothered with it.
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I believe that it is still only a £30 fine for having an obscured number plate, assuming that you actually get stopped by an officer and prosecuted for the offence.
Whereas a speeding ticket is usually 3 points and £60. Its not hard to see why a mucky number plate is sometimes more desirable than a clean one.
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ANPR mishits are leading to a number of prosecutions in this neck of the woods. I.e. ANPR misreads a dirty plate, ounter gets stopped and booked - almost certain that this is going to become endorsable soon either that or a heftier FPT. Can't remember.
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But does the ANPR misread a dirty plate? If it is dirty enough to be illegible, then surely then ANPR won't read anything. Then I would guess that rather than it being flagged up to be stopped it would get ignored in favour of catching a more definate target.
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I think all of the ANPR vans that I have seen, and the remote cameras set up on motorway bridges, are aimed at the front of the car rather than the back. The front NP never seems to get dirty in the winter so I wouldn't have thought this was a big issue?
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I suspect for a lot of drivers its down to laziness in not washing their cars.Any "advantage" against a speed camera should be balanced against the risk of being "done" by traffic police.A work colleague of mine was nicked two winters ago for having an unreadable number plate on his VW Golf.
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>This is obviously a speed camera scam
Erm, no...it's obviously winter and most people have better things to do than wash the backs of their cars every day!
I had the Golf cleaned on Tuesday last week, and then went up to the midlands to collect my nan for Christmas. The sides and front are still gleaming but the back is filthy.
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Erm, no...it's obviously winter and most people have better things to do than wash the backs of their cars every day!
My cars get filthy too (rural area and lots of muck thrown up from the roads).
Solution is a 99p sponge from Wilkinsons, wet it and wipe over the front and rear plates and light lenses. One of the responsibilities of car ownership.
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... wipe over the front and rear plates and light lenses. One of the responsibilities of car ownership.
couldn't agree more.
not only because it is a legal duty, it is a socially responsible thing to do for any safety conscious motorist.
( but then what can we expect when we have so many people who drink and drive too ! )
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Trouble is, a lot of people rely on car washes, and although the brushes will clean the rear lights, they quite often won't clean the numberplate properly - especially if it's recessed into the rear bumper / boot / tailgate.
Watch the car in front next time you're at the car wash. The horizontal brush doesn't always go down the rear far enough, and the vertical brushes don't always sweep past the middle of the rear car, thus leaving part or all of the numberplate dirty.
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I have to agree with Aprilia and co. It's our responsibility to keep our vehicle number plates clean and if that means cleaning it every day or more often then so be it, laziness is no excuse.
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"Solution is a 99p sponge from Wilkinsons"
That much? Only 49p in Asda...
The back of my car gets absolutely filthy. I think it's the aerodynamics of the rear end (Megane hatch) and fat tyres that are wider than the mudflaps.
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Surely if you were to go as far as mucking up the number plate to avoid speed camera fines, it would be preferable to go over a couple of the numbers with a black whiteboard marker turning that 3 into an 8 for instance?
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"black whiteboard marker turning that 3 into an 8 for instance?"
Subltle difference being that muck gets you a thirty quider and marker pen gets you nicked and a criminal record to boot.
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So, filth thickly plastered on the back one, front one 'fallen off', Bob's your uncle then?
Thanks for the hints chaps.
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Plus of course the Osama mask, herself in chador, that ought to do it eh?
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If that was the case Lud you'd end up with more than the transport police on your tail ;-)
--
Its not what you drive, its how you drive it! :-)
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"black whiteboard marker turning that 3 into an 8 for instance?" Subltle difference being that muck gets you a thirty quider and marker pen gets you nicked and a criminal record to boot.
Mmm...so, how about cleaning off the muck - apart from those bits that would make a 3 into an 8? ; -)
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I drive between Manchester and London once a week just lately, and the back of my Zafira is not just dirty - it is filthy beyond question! And yes, I do wash it (or rather hubby does!!) but I can guarantee that by the time I have done a few miles of over the tops of the peaks to get to the M1 it is filthy again.
Sadly I got clobbered by a speed camera as I approached Chesterfield a week or so ago, and it caught me doing 37mph. Even sadder, it was a front on camera and the front reg plate was still gleaming clean, whereas if it had been taking pics of the back of me it would have been hard to spot it was a Zafira let alone what the reg was!
I used to moan my black Vectra showed dirt, but that was nothing compared to to a silver Zafira.
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I have an e39 530d and I gave it a proper cut n polish on boxing day, driven around 600 miles since then, the top of the boot is totally clean and looks like I just washed it, but the back of the car is caked in crap, something regardign the aerodynamics is going on..
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Nothing short of a good sand-blasting and a sheep-dip could shift the muck on my car now.
I'll get round to it next year.
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>>Nothing short of a good sand-blasting and a sheep-dip could shift the muck on my car now.
Not just the car.................
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Nothing that can't be sorted by mooning out the window when I'm next in the car wash
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I hear that Bicester Village hasn't recovered from the last time. And apparantly you were steering without hands - I'm impressed.
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My old 318 (E30) didn't have a rear 'spoiler' - that silly little bit of rubber on top of the boot. However, my father's 323 did have one. The difference to the rear-light-crud issue was amazing - his car needed the rear lights wiped off at every fuel stop, as they built up a layer of dust/dirt in an amazingly quick time.
During wet weather, the difference in the swirl of the water droplets behind the car was very noticeable.
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