RE: [doc] Reg plates and model years

["Chris Parnham" <cp@xxxx>]

Well James,
That's a big subject!

Up till 1963 there were mixtures of letters and numbers, up to a maximum of
6 in total, starting with A1, up to say A 999, then AB 1.....AB9999, then
ABC 1.....999, 999ABC etc etc. I bought CP 6115 first issued in 1928.

Just to make it interesting, some were never issued at all, some would be
issued one way around, and not the other, e.g. A1 but not 1A.

After 1963 we got up to 3 letters and up to 3 numbers followed by "A" so it
could be AAA 111 A,
or AAA 1A etc.
In 1964 it was a "B" , AAA 123B, etc...for the next 20 years.

Then in 1983 they started the other way around, A123 ABC etc . right the
way up to Y.
Z is only issued in Ireland!

A couple of years ago they started changing them every 6 months, this time
with two letters, two year numbers, 3 random letters, for example....AA 01
AAA, then 6 months later AA 02AAA.

And just to complicate things further, you cannot transfer a number on to
car to make it look younger than it is. In other words you could not put
A123 ABC on anything older than a 83 car!

AND the government , for years has been selling off any "unissued"
registration numbers. Some by simple price, many by auction. I have bought
loads over the years, some have been a great investment. For example 2CP
bought 10 years ago for 3.5K is now worth over ?20K!

You can keep transferring them from car to car, for about ?80, lots of
little rules are involved, but its harmless fun.

You regularly see numbers for sale over ?100,000. Generally speaking, the
shorter the better, but then you get say, K 1 NGS , KINGS, which I think
sold at auction for a record sum.

Best regards

Chris P..... G7OLF, 2CP, 49CP, BAK 5T, AXI 1698, etc.


-----Original Message-----
From: James Espey [mailto:james@xxxx]
Sent: 22 December 2002 23:25
To: doc-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [doc] Reg plates and model years


Would someone explain to me the meaning/significance of the lettering system
of the registration plates used in the UK? Sometimes I see cars advertised
with no model year, but with an "R" or other letter registration. How does
this correlate with model years?

James


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