UK-POLOS.NET - THE VW Polo Forum

Hey Everyone,

Was wondering if anyone knows if you can get a replacement licence plate from a dealer?

I got a brand new GTI last September and it goes in for its first service tomorrow, but annoyingly the front licence plate looks awful. The tape on the back of the plate has started to come off and water has managed to get in. The middle the plate is no longer white but a horrible brown colour and the letters are all cracked, there is around 4 brown streaks going down the front of the plate.

Seeing as its a plate fitted by the garage (the cover says GTI World), I didn't know if it would be possible to demand a new plate from them? The car is only a year old and while as it may sound like a small thing it makes quit a big impact when you look at the car straight on as it always looks filthy - I can't take a photo as its too dark now but will try again tomorrow. I just feel its not really something that should be happening on a year old car.

Before I go in demanding a plate I first wanted to see if its something I'm worth arguing for or if its not really something they'd ever agree to change?

Thanks.

I would ask for a new one, and not expect to have to pay for it. A number plate should last longer than a year.

If water is getting between the perspex outer layer and the white reflective backing, that suggests either faulty materials or faulty workmanship by whoever made the plate; presumably the dealer.

Yup, make Western do the right thing, which you would not need them to do if they had done the job correctly last year, by the way, who decided to stick the plate on instead of using screws, my wife's Polo is just over 2 years old and it came with plates screwed on, I, as usual, replaced the horrid mild steel plastic headed screws with SS screws with coloured caps. Maybe suggest that for the next plates, suitable SS screws can be bought from Screwfix etc and coloured caps from Halfords for white, yellow and black, if you need a blue cap they can be bought on ebay.

The plate is screwed on, I was meaning the white reflective is what was peeling. I managed to get a few photos of how it looks and the back peeling, think you'll agree it looks pretty bad.

https://ibb.co/hadwEQ
https://ibb.co/hCf9ZQ
https://ibb.co/crgu15

Thanks for the advice as well, I'll make sure to bring this up tomorrow and try and get them to sort it...

That looks pretty bad, but fortunately, easy to rectify. Shouldn’t cost the dealer more than £10-£15 to make up a new front plate, and it certainly looks like faulty materials or poor workmanship, so they should bear the cost.

If it was due an MOT that would be a fail so get the dealer to replace it.

I had an issue with plates for my wife's Polo. While not as bad as yours, I could see what looked like air bubbles ( they weren't air bubbles) in the lettering so I took the car back and they made new ones. These were only slightly better and when challenged, the guy that made the plates said it was the machine that the plates are done on is old!!
I noticed the plates were made just off from the workshop not in a closed room so the potentioal for airbourne particles to get behind the film was high.
He also said if you look at the plates on the cars in the forcourt, most have slight defects.
Quite happy to sell 15 - 30k cars but cant or wont get a decent no plate machine??

Exactly!

joe6 wrote: Thu Sep 28, 2017 12:21 pm If it was due an MOT that would be a fail so get the dealer to replace it.

That is a very fair point, so effectively that car, while being less than 3 years old, is not fully roadworthy - as far as the MOT is concerned, that should sort them out!

Hey everyone, forgot to respond to this.

An update - I took it into the garage and the sales manager agreed to replace the plates free of charge - due to them being GTI World plates I have been told I will need to wait while they order them in, but Sunbeam is correct, its just one of there own 'cheap' machines so I can imagine that seeing as I wash the car with a powerwasher this won't be the only plates I'll be asking for from them!

Thanks for all the help and advice! Now I just need to try and get them to fix the squeaky breaks free of charge as well... Which is another massive pain in the side.

Plates that are drill in my opinion are more open to water seeping in, I just use adhesive pads had no problems. Plus realistically it would have to be a tight arse dealer not to replace (£2 what they get them at) number plates