Can someone explain UK number plates to me?

Hi Aaron

An H reg will ref to the year i.e. H-april 1st 1990/end of march 91

that is providing the reg starts with the H i.e. H123ABC

early plates were just a couple of numbers and letters and as the years went on more numbers and letters were added.

in 1962 it went to the first 'A' reg i.e. ABC123A

Reg's were always changed on April 1st and when it got to 'Y' it was then changed to the same but backwards i.e. A123ABC in 83

'Z' was never used nor was 'O' or 'I' as these looked too much like numbers and were confusing

Due to the demand of cars it was chganged in I think 99 and they had two plates out 1 on 1st april and the second on 1st august

In 2001 it went to 01 and then 51 on 1 august and it has been the same since i.e. 02 52 03 53 04 54 05 55 etc...

Also a car with a 'Q' plate is normally a kit car/replica or a registered car or bike with not full identity i.e. road registering a race car or bike with lights

Obviously with the above registrations sometimes it will spell names or initials i.e. J1MMY is worth a lot, I remember seeing XJ220 for sale at £225,000 in about 1990

Hope this all makes sense and helps

Pete

 

Here is an explanation: http://www.driverstechnology.co.uk/car-registrations.htm

Jonathan

 

Pete,

Sorry to correct you on a few points but for the sake of completeness:

The plate changes at the time of the H plate were on 1 August.

When twice a year changes were introduced they were on , and still are, 1 March and 1 September.

There was no 01 plate as the first on the current style plates were issued on 1 September 01 with 51.

Ken

 

Sorry ken, I was quite busy this morning and was typing pretty quick

Pete

 

...and then of course there are the numerous tw@ts who misrepresent the numbers, letters, spaces, you name it, in order to try to make a plate say something it clearly doesn't.

 

yep those are annoying, the ones on ebay that say if you put a dot here and here and here and here it will spell whatever

 

I personally wouldn't bother unless I had an absolute corker of a plate.
Some of the real cr*ppy plates you see on cars, I suspect, are well intentioned presents from members of the car owners family. It really is one of those presents that you cannot get away from - not unless you want to p*ss the wife/kids/in-laws off...

 

As something of an Anglophile, I've always wondered about this. Helpful as the above posts are, I still don't quite understand!

Jack

 

bergxu. Here we don't call them vanity plates, but 'cherished numbers', and yes, some people put an enormous value on them.
Or they spell something, or they are initials and so on.
Some companies try to get them for prestige. JCB (the earth diggers company) has its fleet of executive cars marked JCB1, JCB2, etc...
The CEO of DHL in England (the courier company) is chauffered in a Merc. with DHL1.
By the way, these registration numbers are transferable; means that you sell the car but keep the numbers for your next one!

 

The registration plate M1 just sold a few days ago for a new record price of £331,500. That's something like half a million US dollars. See here: http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/s/217/217599_a_record_price_number_plate_for_birthday_boy_6.html

Jonathan

 

When I was near Chelmsford about 5 years ago I see a black mayoral limo type car with 'F1' on the plate, god knows what thats worth

 

I seem to recall that was up for auction a couple of years ago. There was conjecture that Bernie might buy it. Don't remember what happened in the end.

 

It was sold for somewhat less than M1, but still six figures Sterling.

Jonathan

 

I think F1 is owned by Essex Council - they want £300k+ for it

 

It did look like an official vehicle

 

It's going to be interesting to see what this industry does when the government legislate the mandatory use of some kind of RFID equipment in cars...........with each car having a government serial number what use would there be for Plates (which lets face it are soooooooo 1900's )

 

I googled it and it sold last year for £144,500

 

And the last Essex Mayor's car it adorned was a Volvo S80. The first was a Panhard Levassor in 1904

 

Here in Guernsey there's a 911 Turbo cab (I think .... it's definitely a 911 cab!) with the number plate ......


911



Numbers are all you need over here!

 

The joys of a small(er) island...

do you also have phone numbers that I only ever see in old Ealing comedies ('Hello - Westminster, three double six')