Private Number Plates After Delivery

[P-plates]

Recently took delivery of my Model 3 and even after ringing and being told over the phone that they would make up plates for me and that they often put them in the boot, I was disappointed to find no plates in my car , after speaking to a delivery agent they advised that the Service Center next door would make them up but there would be a charge ( I was also told this on the phone). So I took my new car to park in front of the Showroom/Sevice Center only to be stopped by an employee who asked if I was going in, after explaining why I was there he told me that they do not make up plates and I would need to buy some online.

So my question is where is the best place to get private plates made up, is it worth trying to phone other Tesla SCs or to order them online from somewhere else?

I live over 2 hours from an SC but I will be travelling around the Christmas period so could pop in if I am guaranteed to be able to buy some.

 

[xnetco]

Recently took delivery of my Model 3 and even after ringing and being told over the phone that they would make up plates for me and that they often put them in the boot, I was disappointed to find no plates in my car , after speaking to a delivery agent they advised that the Service Center next door would make them up but there would be a charge ( I was also told this on the phone). So I took my new car to park in front of the Showroom/Sevice Center only to be stopped by an employee who asked if I was going in, after explaining why I was there he told me that they do not make up plates and I would need to buy some online.

So my question is where is the best place to get private plates made up, is it worth trying to phone other Tesla SCs or to order them online from somewhere else?

I live over 2 hours from an SC but I will be travelling around the Christmas period so could pop in if I am guaranteed to be able to buy some.

I have been buying metal plates from number1plates.com. They fit into the existing Tesla number plate holders.

 

[Glan gluaisne]

I thought that the standard plate holders look incredibly ugly, so I removed the complete rear plate holder and fitted a standard plate fixed with VHB tape. At the front I removed the outer part of the standard plate holder (the big and ugly bit) and fitted a standard plastic plate to the moulded black part left fixed to the car, again using VHB tape.

Looks very neat, IMHO, and a million times better than the standard plate holders.

 

[MelT3]

It appears to depend on which delivery centre you go to. I collected from Birmingham yesterday and they made up a set of plates for me before I left, no charge. Perhaps try complaining that other customers are being given them foc?

 

[hmy7k]

I asked at Birmingham for a set when I collected. they said it was £42 and I would get a call from parts this week to pay.

Anyway they didn't return my retention certificate and in the excitement of collecting the car I forgot to check, i noticed though on the way home but despite 3 calls to delivery and messages being sent to Birmingham no sign of my certificate.

Today I ordered a replacement from DVLA, which should be here in a couple of days.

If they bother to ring for the £42 the will have questions to answer but I suspect I will never hear from them again.

It's basically a lottery.

 

[Roy W.]

I got a set made up FOC at Manchester when I collected the car. It took them less than 10 minutes.

As @Jeremy Harris says above though, the plate holders are ugly, large and rattly, so you’re probably better off without the Tesla metal plates.

Me and a few others have put stick-on plates on the car, which look quite neat. Details here:

[URL="https://teslamotorsclub.com/tmc/posts/3805274/"]Stick on number plate[/URL]

 

[MelT3]

I had two or three issues that will need rectifying when I collected the car (paint blebs/scratches, panel clips not seated, wheel arch trim loose) so perhaps they were eager to make up for it by giving me the plates foc.

 

[P-plates]

Thanks for all the input, due to this being my first new car (and in fact my first car) I want to avoid modding it in any way, so would prefer to use the admittedly rattly plate holders, I will try the pressed aluminium ones from number1plates but wanted to make sure that they are 'standard size' that I need?

 

[Glan gluaisne]

If you just unclip the ugly "Tesla.com" bit on the plate holder (need to do this to swap the plates anyway) there re two screws beneath that fasten the plate holder body. On the front, removing these two screws reveals another plastic bracket that is also screwed to the car. You can leave this in place and fit a standard UK front numberplate to it, using standard VHB double sided tape strips, which is both secure and means no modifications to the car. It i also very neat looking. At the rear, the ugly plastic frame unclips the same way, and removing the screws underneath (revealed when the plate is slid out) gives a flat area where again a standard rear number plate can be fixed with VHB.

Loads of new cars are supplied with plates fixed with VHB, and if you ever need to change the plates, and put the old ones back, then there will be zero damage to the car, it's just a matter of warming the plates up a bit with a warm air gun and gently pulling them away, so the old plate brackets can be refitted as normal and the old plates slotted in and the clip pushed back into place. No one would be any the wiser that the plates would have been changed, just from looking at the car.

I've probably swapped the plates on about 10 or 12 cars I've owned now, and always used VHB tape to fix my private plates, as it leaves no marks when you come to take them off again when you sell the car. It also looks a lot neater, with no apparent means of fixing on show.