Safe Speed Forums

Is it illegal to use a vehicle with a speedo which only reads in kph?

Sounds like it should be, but if it actually works, is it anything other than being a bit stupid?

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It's tricky doing nothing - you never know when you're finished

I doubt it. It'd be hard on someone doing a 'world tour' in such a vehicle.

But I'm pretty sure you can't sell such a vehicle.

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Paul Smith
Our scrap speed cameras petition got over 28,000 sigs
The Safe Speed campaign demands a return to intelligent road safety

Shouldn't be a problem. You can either stick on a mph sticker to convert or learn to do it in your head. I have a kph speedo and it isn't a problem. Once you get used to 50 kph being around 30, 80 being 50 and 110-120 being around 70-75mph then it is easy. As far as I can tell vehicles need a method of the driver being able to tell how fast it is going. Mine has passed many an MOT like this. It may of course be different for later imported vehicles to pass with one. I bought it privately so I don't know whether it is now illegal to sell one with a kph speedo. Seems a bit daft as we're in the EU and everywhere else is KM.

Who could stop you?

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It's tricky doing nothing - you never know when you're finished

Good question...

I guess in practice Trading Standards? In which case it could only be applied to traders.

Possibly the Police?

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Paul Smith
Our scrap speed cameras petition got over 28,000 sigs
The Safe Speed campaign demands a return to intelligent road safety

Yes it is.

Vehicles first used on,or after,1st April 1984,must have both mph and kph markings on the speedo.

Thanks, but what if it's an import?

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It's tricky doing nothing - you never know when you're finished

we had to register a vehicle over here that we got from germany....

in order to do that we had to change the lights, and the speedo.

Go to

www.vca.gov.uk

For info

Hmmm. My first Pan that I bought 2 years ago (2nd hand) from a MAJOR bike dealer was a parallel import and that was in kph...

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Pecunia Prius Equitas et Salus

I had a small 1.6:1 gearbox fitted to the speedo for my impreza import SVA test .

The speedo now reads MPH

It coincidentaly has removed the slight inaccuracy in the speedo and now gives the correct speed.

I now seem to be going faster than a lot of other people on the road.

I am doing exactly 70MPH past other cars who think they are doing 70 but are in fact doing 65MPHish.

Is that indicated speed? Or via a SatNav?

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Pecunia Prius Equitas et Salus

It's not illegal to drive a vehicle with kph only, but to register the vehicle in the UK "strictly speaking" it will need to have a speedo that shows mph and kph. MPH stickers while not illegal are somewhat frowned against, and have to be, "accurate, durable and can be seen clearly in daylight and when instument is lit during darkness" .

In practice a lot depends on how well the clerk at the DVLA office understands the original COC.

satnav + confirmed with a radar gun on a disused airfield

Ok, I'm still confused!!!
TC says "Yes it is" and markb says "It's not" (with other useful comments in between)

Sounds like it's a grey area.

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It's tricky doing nothing - you never know when you're finished

You wouldn't get an import SVA test pass with only Kph

I've seen a german registered motorcycle wih only kph

So I guess if it's uk registered you need both.

Apologies for confusing the issue. To answer the initial question, no, it is not illegal to drive with only kph showing on the speedo. European registered vehicles (apart from some of the latest models) only read in kph, naturally it’s assumed these vehicles are over here temporarily, business, holidays etc.

But if you wanted to import and register a vehicle into the UK, the speedo would have to be changed / adapted to show both mph & kmh.
I know that’s not what you originally asked, but it seemed to make sense to include.

Yes, there are three different stages:
Selling, registering and driving.

If it's not legal it would have to be at one of these points.

Driving with only KM/H is probably not illegal, otherwise people from the rest of Europe would not be allowed their vehicles over here without modifications.

I should think that stickers on a needle based speedo shouldn't be a problem if they are done well, the numbers on there already are effectively stickers anyway. It all depends how accurate it is.

My car has a digital readout and can be switched between imperial and metric (and this switches everything!) but it only displays one at a time. I assume that is legal.

I was in a car in Florida which you could switch units similarly but it had a needle readout! There were only one set of numbers on the dial, the needle just moved to a different position depending on mode, which was quite clever.

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Andrew.

My imported car was converted to read speed in MPH from KPH, it now reads 0 - 180 in MPH but has no secondary KPH markings. My understanding was that cars sold in the UK must show speed in MPH, but no requirement for KPH.

Don't the Construction and Use Regulations have anything in on speedometers and their speed measurement scales ?

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Good manners maketh a good motorist