Every car owner wants to improve their vehicle’s exterior appearance and driving performance. Modified cars not only look polished but attractive as well. If you want to modify your vehicle, you must know about the vehicle alteration rules in India. Ask yourself this question: is car modification legal in India?
This is because the High Court concocted specific lawful rules in 2019 that each vehicle proprietor should keep while altering their vehicles. If you have any desire to be aware of such rules, keep reading this blog as it centres around legitimate and unlawful vehicle modifications, which you should learn.
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What Are the Legal Car Modifications in India
Here are a few car modifications in India:
Upgrading Car’s Tyres
Upgrading your car’s tyres is legal the length of the new tyres meets the manufacturer’s necessities. However, while upsizing your car’s tyres, you should install one with a comparative or higher burden index and speed rating compared to stock tyres. Besides, if the new tyres include a bigger segment width, selecting one with a lower sidewall level is required. Moreover, you can install tyres of a distinct compound and type to your car.
Changing Car’s Tone
You can repaint your car with the shade of your inclination. However, you need an endorsement from the RTO or Regional Transport Office for this variety of modifications made to your car. Also, the RC of your car should specify the variety of changes made to it. However, stringently try not to repaint your car in Armed Force Green. In India, this tone is held for military use as it were.
Upgrading Suspension
You can upgrade your car’s suspension to work on driving execution. However, upgrading your car’s suspension should not hamper the ground freedom. Increasing or decreasing the ground leeway overwhelmingly is not legally adequate.
Body Wrapping
Body or vinyl wrapping assists with protecting your car’s factory paint. The expense of this modification goes roughly from ₹ 10,000 to lakhs. Besides, a legitimate body wrap can endure over 5 years. You likewise needn’t bother with any pre-and-present endorsement from RTO to get a vinyl wrap for your car.
Car Modifications With Body Kits
are these days becoming a pattern among car enthusiasts. Therefore, a few car manufacturers are likewise providing them as extras. Body kits include corrective components, for example, a front splitter, body cladding and sideboards that assist in working on a car’s esthetics and don’t hamper its underlying changes.
Installing Aftermarket CNG Kits
It is legal to install an aftermarket CNG kit on your car. However, installation requires registration with RTO, and from that point onward, you will get a refreshed registration certificate for your car.
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Installing Drove DRLs
You can install Drove DRLs on your car. These DRLs are beneficial in weather like rain or thick haze and help to make your car visible to workers.
Making Changes for Differently-abled
Making changes like fitting-adjusted mirrors, automatic grip, brakes or accelerator, and so on, in a car and making it reasonable for a truly tested individual is legal.
Modifying Engine Within the Permissible Limits
You can make changes to your car’s engine. However, this modification requires endorsement from the RTO. Note not all changes are legal in India. For instance, you can supplant your car’s existing engine with a strong one. Your car’s engine limit should not surpass the manufacturer’s specifications.
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What Are the Illegal Car Modifications in India?
We hope you have got an answer to the question, “Is car modification legal in India?”. However, there are a few practices that are illegal as well.
Apart from knowing about legal car modifications in India, you should know about the illegal ones to avoid legal results. In this way, go through the car modifications listed underneath that are considered to be illegal in India:
Tinted Window Glass With Lower Than Half Visibility
Except if you are a VVIP or celebrity, adding a tint film to your car’s window glasses diminishes the visibility by more than half and is illegal in India. Additionally, according to late legal guidelines, using awnings on your car’s window sheets is illegal.
According to rule 100 of the Central Motor Vehicles Act (CMVA) of 1988, the visibility of every car’s rear windows and windscreen in India should be something like 70%. Plus, the minimum visibility of a car’s side window glasses should be half. Anything underneath that is considered to be illegal in India.
Installing Clear and Extravagant Horns
According to Government guidelines, you can’t install horns that are stronger than 100 decibels on your car. This suggests that if you install fancy aftermarket horns, for example, pressure horns or alarms on your car, you can confront a legal punishment according to the motor vehicle regulations in India.
Using a Designer Registration Plate
Using an embellished or designer registration plate on your car is illegal in India. According to the motor vehicles regulation, each new car should have high-security registration plates embellished with IND. If you own an old car, you should guarantee that the text styles of the letters referenced on the number plate are clear. If you don’t conform to these guidelines and traffic police notice something similar, you might need to pay a weighty fine.
Installing Exhaust Lines
Replacing your car’s existing fume pipe with another extravagant one that creates a loud sound is illegal in India, according to rule 120 of the CMVA. This is because it causes more noise and air pollution. Besides, such a fume pipe is unacceptable for undergoing the Pollution Under Control (PUC) test, a necessary test for each car. This test determines the emission levels of a car and evaluates whether it observes legal guidelines for toxin emission.
Modifying Lights Past Permissible Guidelines
You can replace the incandescent lamps with white LED lights. However, you can’t pick colours like blue, green, or red while replacing your car’s headlights.
Using Larger than usual Alloy Wheels
You can customize your car with alloy wheels. However, installing alloy wheels bigger than your car can lead you to confront legal repercussions.
What Are the Things to Consider Before Modifying the Car?
It has been now referenced that you can make changes by complying with legal car modification rules in India. In this way, if you have chosen to make changes to your car, consider the following factors before proceeding with something very similar:
Cost Expected for Car Modification
Modifying your car is an expensive undertaking. Thus, planning out which part of a car you need to modify is essential to get a good deal on such modifications.
Safety of Your Car
Remember the safety of your car while modifying your car. Eliminating safety highlights for upgrading the exhibition is not advisable.
Warranty
Car modifications can hamper the existing warranty on your car. This is because the manufacturer will put harm on the modified parts for their malfunctioning and may dismiss your case for availing benefits under warranty. Therefore, if you have bought a service agreement while buying your car, staying away from any car modifications is great.
Resale Value of a Car
Making changes to your car influences its resale value. This way, you might get a lower sum while reselling your modified cars to a purchaser.
Insurance Premium
Certain car modifications like making changes to the engine can increase your premium payable towards your car insurance strategy.
Accessibility of Car Parts for Old Cars
If you own an old car that is not generally manufactured, finding its part can be difficult. Regardless of whether you find something very similar, you need to consider its expense and the advantages you receive consequently before investing in it.
Conclusion
In this article, we answered the query, “Is car modification legal in India?”. To close, having an unmistakable thought regarding the legal car modification rules in India is essential to try not to have to deal with any damages. Some practices are legal while others are not. You have to avoid those to not pay the penalty. For that, go through a similar reference above carefully.
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