Re: [doc] Re: "J Reg" / Admin request

[Richard Kilpatrick <richard@xxxx>]

In message <99B260380558D7468DA107808AF388A465B8DE@xxxx>, 
"Gutkowski, Martin" <martin.gutkowski@xxxx> writes
> In 1987, the D reg lasted 7 months only and E started from 1st July '87 with the changeover being July 1st each year thereafter. This was for
> economic reasons - the start of a new plate is an incentive to buy a new car, so they shifted it to the traditionally slack period of the year
> for getting new cars.
>
> So, to answer your question, a J reg car would have been first registered in the 12 months beginning July 1st 1992.

Martin, that's not correct. The registration letters go like this:

3 letters, 3 numbers - Up until 1950s except in regions with slow sales.
3 numbers, 3 letters - 1950s, to 1962 (up to 1965 in some regions). Some 
councils ran out of these, too, and adopted the 1234 AB format - some 
still issuing single letter suffixes (i.e. 1234 A).

Some regions had plenty of 3/3 format numbers - other regions adopted 
A-suffix (ABC 123A) registrations with the year identifier in 1962. By 
1965 (C) this was compulsory

Initially the plate change co-incided with the year change - January to 
December, until 1967 'E', which applied from Jan 1st 1967 to July 31st 
1967.

Prefix numbers applied from 1983, when all usable letters of the 
alphabet had been taken, up until 'S' registration when the decision to 
use up the remaining letters to introduce the new format was taken, also 
to create 2 changes during the year to encourage sales. 'T' was the 
first of these 'six month' registrations, from the 1st March to 31st 
August '99. In 2001, 'Y' was issued and after that the AB51 ABC format 
was adopted.

Weirdly, I'm sure I've posted this before ;)

Richard
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