You didn't sound like a smartarse at all, at least not to me and I took it as it was given so nothing to apologise for.

thanks for typing all that info, for one who didn't know, that's interesting how it all comes together..
is the car subjected to road tax or the registration plate

MB_CL_600_german_number_plate.jpg - Bild entfernt (keine Rechte)[quote="Pop540"|
is the car subjected to road tax or the registration plate[/quote]

Indeed it is. Both the car and any trailer (of any description) are classified as *vehicles* and are therefore subject to road tax, insurance and HU (Hauptuntersuchung) equivalent to your MOT.
In the attached image (if it works, never tried it before lol) *MB* indicates that the vehicle is registered in the Administrative Area of Miesbach, Bavaria. The letters *CL* could be a completely random pair, mean something to someone or indeed be someones initials - there's no way of telling. As you see, German personalised number plates are ........well not a lot really. The numbers (first one I've blanked out cos it's a real plate) is simply one of a series.
The bottom disc is the State Emblem if you will. The top disc is a month clock embossed with numerals 1 to 12 and in the middle is a year e.g. 13. Whichever month number is displayed at the top is the month that the HU is due. Above this, spanning the entire month is a black bar - this indicates from a distance e.g. to the Police what month is displayed at the top. With the colour changing every year it is easy to see from a distance whether or not the vehicle has been tested fit for the road.
There is no active display of road tax because once the vehicle is registered it is compulsory that the initial and future payments of road tax are automatically debited to your bank account so there's essentially no way of avoiding it. The road tax authorities automatically notify the relevant insurance company as to whether or not the vehicle is registered. The TV licensing authority are also notified once a vehicle is registered to see whether the owner has a valid TV/Radio license.
A couple of other things that are different to the UK is that driving license as well as vehicle registration documents must always be carried and produced upon request. It is not absolutely essential that one should call the Police in the event of an accident although it is an unwritten rule that this is indeed so. They apportion blame at the accident scene either wholly or in part and this is passed on to the relevant insurance companies. Things are not always black and white though - if you run into the back of someone it's not always an arguable defense that you did not leave enough distance between vehicles as suddenly braking for no good reason could also entail the blame being equally apportioned.
The Police attending is a good thing in my opinion as I recently fell foul of this whilst visiting the UK in June this year when some idiot decided to pull out from the left and ran smack into the side of my car. I received a copy of the repair bill just two days ago - it was seven and a half thousand euros. Wow. The UK Police, who just happened to be passing stopped, enquired as to whether anybody was injured and when the reply was no they wished us a nice day and drove off. The 3rd party driver had no paperwork on him of any description and I was only given a name and address. It remains to be seen whether or not this proves to be ligitimate but either way it was a hard pill for my insurance company to swallow. "You mean, the Police attended and did absolutely nothing"? "Yes" I replied and got a very large gulp by way of reply.

Want to play a game with the kids when travelling through Germany - guess where that car is from - then print this out: http://www.kingkong.demon.co.uk/where/d.htm

Belvoir Pudding, as you say pronounced Beaver Pudding, is scrumptious. A coffee flavoured crispy edged sponge filled randomly with glace cherries, served with double cream lovely. Best cooked in a charlotte type mould creating a central hole in the pud and dusted with icing sugar for serving.

Nice one, Randa. I'm going to guess that you took a photograph of the front plate - yes? Either that or you've blanked off the top disc. The reason I'm assuming that it is the front plate is because up to about 2 years ago, or thereabouts, this disc was what they called the AU - not to be confused with the disc located in the same position on the rear plate. This AU is essentially an exhaust emission test which also falls bi-annually.
After umpteen years it finally registered with the powers that be that this system could involve one attending the testing station twice in any one year - in fact in two consecutive months if you happened to have had a new exhaust fitted that didn't coincide with the main HU (MOT). So they scrapped that idea altogether and the AU - the exhaust emission test is now integrated within the HU bi-annual test and for this reason the disc has been scraped off by the testing station. Obviously newer number plates don't have this disc in the first placed and so there's nothing to scrape off.