Spotted Today!

[CALL_911]

Oh shit I really want to go to the Ferrari exhibit at Saratoga

[Morris Minor]

Had to drive into town today & saw a new Hyundai Santa Fe on the freeway. Kinda funny looking in a blocky kinda way. Its rear evokes the GM Dustbuster minivans of the early 1990s for some reason. And the brake lights are shaped like dog bones.

https://www.caranddriver.com/hyundai/santa-fe

[veeman]

I've seen a few.  I like the look mostly because it's noticeably different styled than most other SUVs.

[Morris Minor]

Mostly Teslas proliferating here but there's a sprinkling of R1Ts. This is the first R1S I've seen. I like the color. Here's hoping Rivian makes it through to profitability.

[Madman]

Off-road outfitted MINI Paceman.

[Madman]

On my drive to work on Thursday morning, I was a bit surprised to find myself overtaking a UK registered right-hand-drive Volkswagen Crafter van on the I-40, just east of downtown Nashville.  I thought it was a Mercedes Sprinter at first, as the first-generation Crafter was a rebadged Mk II Sprinter with a different front end. (The new Crafter is all Volkswagen's own work and is also sold as the MAN TGE)  But then I noticed the tail lights were different.  The VW badge on the back was missing, so it wasn't obvious at first.

As I overtook the van, I looked over and saw two young girls inside, who were presumably doing a "Van Life" trip across the USA.  I tried to get a picture of the front of the van but I couldn't do that and drive at the same time.

It must have cost a fortune to ship that van over here but, depending on the length of their stay, it's probably still cheaper than renting a camper or RV over here.  Years ago, I spotted a German registered Fiat Ducato camper van in Nashville, so this sort of thing isn't all that uncommon.

Just for fun, I ran a DVLA (British equivalent of state DMV) search on the plate: GK66 OOF

Volkswagen Crafter Cr35 Tdi,  2.0 diesel,  First reg: 5 Sept 2016,  DVLA office: Maidstone, Kent,  Tax expires 1 July 2024 (oops!),  MOT expires 10 Dec 2024,  Passed last MOT on 11 Dec 2023 at 121,318 miles with six advisories,  No export marker so it's almost certainly over here on a tourist visa (One year for foreign registered motor vehicles in the US).

[SJ_GTI]

Huh, I never knew you could do that. I guess it makes sense though, Canadians drive in the US all the time (and vice versa), so the same rules would probably be true from other countries.

[AutobahnSHO]

It's crazy expensive to rent an RV. I don't understand why, with so many gathering dust I would think they would want some small income rather than nothing!

[Madman]

Huh, I never knew you could do that. I guess it makes sense though, Canadians drive in the US all the time (and vice versa), so the same rules would probably be true from other countries.

It's also not uncommon to see cars running Mexican plates in southern border states.  Even as far north as Tennessee, I've seen a Mexican-plated Seat Ibiza, Volkswagen Pointer (Mexican name for the Brazilian-built VW Gol), Nissan Platina (a Nissan-badged Renault Clio sedan), Toyota HiAce van, and others running Mexican plates.

A few years back, Shmee brought his Ford GT over from the UK for the Gumball Rally and got pulled over in NYC because the cop had never seen a British plate before and had no idea what it was!

It happened again in San Francisco, too.

[Morris Minor]

Aren't they supposed to display a "UK" oval sticker when abroad? We always had to have a GB sticker when we took the car over to the continent.

[Laconian]

Aren't they supposed to display a "UK" oval sticker when abroad? We always had to have a GB sticker when we took the car over to the continent.

Those stickers have a purpose? I thought they were just some kind of nationalistic fad.

[Madman]

Aren't they supposed to display a "UK" oval sticker when abroad? We always had to have a GB sticker when we took the car over to the continent.

Display of an International Registration Code is required when one is driving outside one's home country.  However, I doubt this has any bearing in the United States since, as demonstrated in Shmee's videos I posted above, most American police officers are ignorant of international driving laws.  If they aren't even able to recognise a UK number plate, how are they going to know to look for a UK national identifier sticker?

The UK changed their International Registration Code from GB to UK effective 28 September 2021.

https://www.bbc.com/news/business-58734265

https://www.rac.co.uk/drive/news/motoring-news/gb-car-sticker-to-be-replaced-by-new-uk-version/


Older plates displaying the blue band with Eurostars and GB identifier are still valid, but a car with such plates must, in addition, display the new UK oval when driving on the continent.  You can also purchase UK over-labels to stick over the previous GB identifier on the plate itself at places like Halfords.

https://www.halfords.com/search?q=uk+over+labels


This is similar to rules with allow cars in the UK registered prior to 1 January 1973 to continue displaying their old-style black plates.  You can still get plates with no identifier at all but, of course, you will need a UK oval identifier when venturing outside Blighty.

Everything you ever needed to know (and more) about British number plates...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vehicle_registration_plates_of_the_United_Kingdom


As for that van I spotted, those girls had better get that expired tax sorted by the time they return home! Speaking of which, as of 1 October 2014, the UK stopped issuing the paper tax discs which were required to be displayed in a car's windscreen.

[Madman]

I forgot about this Shmee video, when he brought his Zenvo over to America.  He got pulled over in Utah and the cop tried telling him it wasn't legal to even be driving a foreign registered car in the state of Utah!  Shmee had to educate the cop on US vehicle importation laws.

Cop story starts at 8 Min, 50 sec.

Stig's Persian Cousin has been pulled over numerous times in the US and Canada for driving his imported Lamborghini on Dubai plates.

https://www.youtube.com/@StigsPersianCousin

[Morris Minor]

Those stickers have a purpose? I thought they were just some kind of nationalistic fad.

For France, we also had to put goofy yellow plastic lenses over the headlights, which additionally, supposedly, refracted the beams from the left to the right. Utterly useless, but one could not have rosbifs dazzling frogs.

[Madman]

For France, we also had to put goofy yellow plastic lenses over the headlights, which additionally, supposedly, refracted the beams from the left to the right. Utterly useless, but one could not have rosbifs dazzling frogs.

Ahh, yes.  Halfords still sell those, too!

[Morris Minor]

An alternative, before the era of sealed beam units was to buy yellow bulbs.

To conform to EU standards, the French stopped the yellow headlight thing in 1993. So I'm surprised they're still in accessory shops.

[AutobahnSHO]

Saw these yesterday!

You cannot view this attachment.

[Madman]

An alternative, before the era of sealed beam units was to buy yellow bulbs.

To conform to EU standards, the French stopped the yellow headlight thing in 1993. So I'm surprised they're still in accessory shops.

Oh, the yellow ones I haven't seen in years.  I'm talking about the ones that deflect the main beam away from the opposite lane on dual carriageways when on the continent.

Like these...

https://www.halfords.com/motoring/travel-accessories/car-headlamp-converters/halfords-headlamp-converters-151225.html?stockInventory=undefined


From my travels, I also recall the ones that look like black tape stuck over a part of the lens, which completely obscured the portion of the main beam shining towards the left.  I haven't seen those in a very long time, either.

I just assumed the French have very sensitive eyes? 

Here's a video on how those headlamp adaptors work...

[Morris Minor]

Oh, the yellow ones I haven't seen in years.  I'm talking about the ones that deflect the main beam away from the opposite lane on dual carriageways when on the continent.

Like these...

https://www.halfords.com/motoring/travel-accessories/car-headlamp-converters/halfords-headlamp-converters-151225.html?stockInventory=undefined


From my travels, I also recall the ones that look like black tape stuck over a part of the lens, which completely obscured the portion of the main beam shining towards the left.  I haven't seen those in a very long time, either.

I just assumed the French have very sensitive eyes? 

Here's a video on how those headlamp adaptors work...

Okay gotcha. I remember something similar to those. It occurred to me that with smart LED projector matrix clusters you could press a button to flip to uncouth drive on the right mode. 

[Madman]

From earlier today.

[Madman]