QNI plates

[belfastguzzi]

Not sure if I queried here before. As I can't find anything through a search, I'll ask.

 

Has anyone had success in getting the original plate restored to a bike, or any vehicle, that has previously been assigned a QNI plate? I know this is regarded as impossible: I'll clutch at any straw.

 

Grateful for any info regarding success – or lack of success.

[mike wilson]

I'm a good friend of the VMCC Machine Registrar. I can ask him. What machine, etc? PM if you don't want to do it in public.

[Guest redguzziv10]

our mechanic, who also restores old bikes and cars says that the best you can hope for is an age related plate.

you may wish to check the DVLA rules for further information.

[belfastguzzi]

I'm a good friend of the VMCC Machine Registrar. I can ask him. What machine, etc? PM if you don't want to do it in public.

Thanks folks – it has just struck me that this is just Northern Ireland related, not UK, though presumably you have an equivalent.

 

It's the '84 Le Mans lll, which was rebuilt on a second-hand frame (same model/age). So it was given the QNI plate.

 

The plate is ugly and I would prefer the original, as the original

• fits better with the sort-of-classic status

• is smaller (partly because there are only 3 numerals, not 4, in the old number)

• is a much nicer, neater and more interesting number: AXI with 3 numerals.

 

Redguzzi, as far as I can gather, the rules are that these plates can't be changed once you have them. I have queried it with DVLNI on the basis that the origin and age of the bike and frame are known – however I don't think that will wash with them. The fact that it has a second-hand frame seems to have been the crucial factor meaning that it had to be given the QNI plate.

 

'QNI marks are issued to vehicles of indeterminate origin, where

the age or identity of the vehicle is in doubt.

The display of a QNI prefix is a visible sign to a prospective

purchaser of a vehicle's uncertain origin.'

 

I'm enquiring just in case anyone has found a means of persuading the authorities.

The only way that I know of, so far, involves selling it across the border, re-registering and then re-importing etc... which I don't want to do.

[mike wilson]

I take it you don't still have the original frame and log book?

[mike wilson]

http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Motoring/Buyin...icle/DG_4022486

 

Might be of some use.

[belfastguzzi]

I take it you don't still have the original frame and log book?

No

 

http://Might be of some use.

 

So what is your equivalent Q plate, ours being QNI? Do you have additional letters by region?

[Martin Barrett]

So what is your equivalent Q plate, ours being QNI? Do you have additional letters by region?

 

It (I think) remains the old(last) format Q123 ABC in this format AB is normally a locality. Whether this would be the region where first registered or the region where registered, or totally random

 

The new format AB£$CDE - AB is the region; £$ is the year code £ represents which half Mar-Aug currently 0, Sep-Feb currently 5, after ten years they will be 1 & 6 etc. The $ is the year runs Mar-Feb. IE mine is OE03WFW OE - Oxford (dealer in Buckinghamshire), 03 Mar-Aug (July)2003, WFW random, obviously Oxford has several letter combinations probably predominantly start with an O.

 

There is no provision in the new format for a Q plate as the year identifier is no longer a letter but a number combination.

[belfastguzzi]

I think I'll have to accept it <_>

found in other webby places –

 

• I think you will find that a Q plate on a vehicle has to stay. To my knowledge you cannot change the plate.

 

• NO you cant change a Q plate to a private plate.the Q means the car has been written off and repaired or the car has been made up of spare parts with no ID

 

• your car has been put on a Q for the reason it has no identity

 

• Q Plates are non transferable and you cannot transfer other number plates to Q registered vehicles

 

• A Q Plate is literally a VRM which starts with a Q prefix. Use of this plate indicates one of two things: a vehicle which was not originally registered in the UK and for which proof of age was unavailable at registration, or a vehicle which has been built using a significant proportion of used parts.

It is perfectly normal for a kit car to have a Q registration, but on other vehicles, it suggests that their full history may be difficult to trace.

 

[Baldini]

can you get original reg of replacement frame?

[mike wilson]

Not once it's had a "Q" plate. It's there for life. Same if you get an age related number because you or some previous money-grubbing barsteward has removed the original. Those numbers, on some beaurocratic whim, stay with the vehicle for the rest of its days. "Cherished" numbers can waltz around like a deb at a ball.

 

I was going to suggest some chicanery with the original logbook and frame but, as they are no longer there, one is farked.

[belfastguzzi]

Not once it's had a "Q" plate. It's there for life. Same if you get an age related number because you or some previous money-grubbing barsteward has removed the original. Those numbers, on some beaurocratic whim, stay with the vehicle for the rest of its days. "Cherished" numbers can waltz around like a deb at a ball.

 

I was going to suggest some chicanery with the original logbook and frame but, as they are no longer there, one is farked.

Thanks for your interest folks. I fear that the previous owner gave the authorities too much information when he changed the frame over. The DVLNI here haven't answered my query (yet), but all the opinions are pointing in the same direction. Even though I think it's unfair to say the bike' s origin is now 'unknown', once the Q mark is given, it's a once only, for-life, decision and it's there to stay.