Registration Plates

QUOTE(ST tyrone @ 17 Dec 2009, 03:52 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>Last night i was in behind a VW Passat. It has exactaly the same reg as me apart from the last letter, mines is s and the VW was o. Hows that then? Im guessing its changed how they are registered now. I remember me and 2 other guys i know all had clios and the plates were all the same apart from the last number.

Last three letters on the new style "suffix" number plates are allegedly random.

However, I believe they are issued in sequence.

So, if your registration was "ST58 ABC", the next registration would be "ST58 ABD"

As you know, the "ST" relates to the area the registration originated from, and the "58" relates to the age of the plate/car.

Obviously, with cherished plates being available online from the DVLA, the ability to determine "where a car is from" just from the letters used on it's plate is dramatically reduced....

EDIT --> The older "prefix" style plates relied on the first letter to denote the age of the vehicle, a random 1, 2 or 3 digit number, a sequential letter, and then two letters to denote the area the registration originated from.

So "K242 TUT" would mean "K" relates to the age of the vehicle/plate, "242" is a random (sequential) number, T is a sequential letter, and "UT" describes where the registration came from.

In this example, the next registration would be "K243 TUT".

When the registrations got to "K999 TUT", the next registration would technically be "K1 UUT" - although in reality both of these plates would have been withheld as they would fetch money at auction.

Good reply as always Dave...

Just a random bit info,the ST plates are registered locally to me i.e. ST06 ABC,ST56 ABC,ST07 ABC...there are loads going around that are for the owners quite luckily on Focus and Fiesta ST's

My ST is on Hampshire plates

+1, Couldn't put it better myself! Nice one Choccy

Didn't realise they withheld potentially "expensive" plates though, a bit cheeky really, just assumed it was luck of the draw if you ended up with a "1" plate on the old style!

QUOTE(Mart170 @ 17 Dec 2009, 04:25 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>+1, Couldn't put it better myself! Nice one Choccy

Didn't realise they withheld potentially "expensive" plates though, a bit cheeky really, just assumed it was luck of the draw if you ended up with a "1" plate on the old style!

Someone in my family has an A1 ??? plate,bought years ago but now worth £2500,there is a guide you can buy that gives a rough idea to the value of the last three letters...i.e A1 CAR would be worth more than A1 SWS

QUOTE(yoinkster @ 17 Dec 2009, 04:19 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>Reg plates and their last 3 letters are definitely done sequentially, when I bought my car ex-demo there was also another available ex-demo with just the last letter different - and indeed sequential, DYX and DYY. So I guess the people that registered your car did so a few milliseconds after the VW dealer had done the registering for the cars they were doing - or if your dealer is a multi-marque dealer then my guess is they did a big batch of registering cars.

+1.

Most of the unmarked police cars here have sequential last three letters.

They all start "WX" too.

QUOTE(choccymonster @ 17 Dec 2009, 04:35 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>+1.

Most of the unmarked police cars here have sequential last three letters.

They all start "WX" too.



At least you know when you're at home looking out the window and spot WX59 ABC, WX59 ABD and WX59 ABE pulling up near your house you know it's time to run

I never knew though that the last 2 letters of old school plates gave bearing on where the car's from. Does that hold true for the really old school plates CBA 999A?

QUOTE(yoinkster @ 17 Dec 2009, 04:44 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>At least you know when you're at home looking out the window and spot WX59 ABC, WX59 ABD and WX59 ABE pulling up near your house you know it's time to run

I never knew though that the last 2 letters of old school plates gave bearing on where the car's from. Does that hold true for the really old school plates CBA 999A?



However, they changed slightly in 1974, so we have to look at a slightly older table - still on the same link as above.

So, in your example "BA" would mean the plate originated from Salford.

Remember, though, this was the office from which the PLATE originated. With the ability to transfer/retain plates, it doesn't necessarily mean that is where the car is from.......

Rumour has it that pre-1974 the same registrations (i.e. duplicate registrations) were issued to cars and bikes. Hence why you couldn't transfer registrations from cars to bikes and vice versa for a while.....

QUOTE(yoinkster @ 17 Dec 2009, 04:44 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>At least you know when you're at home looking out the window and spot WX59 ABC, WX59 ABD and WX59 ABE pulling up near your house you know it's time to run

I never knew though that the last 2 letters of old school plates gave bearing on where the car's from. Does that hold true for the really old school plates CBA 999A?

The older plates like CBA 999A can be traced to an area too,even the older ones like CBA 12

Dealers used to get a job lot of plates allocated to them this is how the wife and i picked the same plates apart from the last letter which were ower first initial they looked very Howard&Hilda,i also picked the plate for my 170 from the same dealer