Is a puzzlement

[avevale_intelligencer]

Back in the old days when I was a boy, cars in Britain had simple number plates. Three letters, three digits. No messing.

Then, some time around the late seventies I think, they brought in the single letter before or after the three digits to indicate the date of manufacture or possibly of the first licence. That scheme ran till recently when they made it two letters and two digits, for some reason.

So here's my question; how does an old-style, three-letter three digit number plate end up on the nearly new Lexus I saw today? A make, I believe, which didn't even exist back then.

Comments

[aunty_marion]

It is permitted to transfer a number plate from an older to a newer car. People tend to do it for personalised ones, so that might have been someone's initials, maybe. I believe a certain sum of money has to be paid for the privilege. You are not, however, allowed to transfer a number plate from newer to older vehicles (to make the old one look new), for rather obvious fraud-possibility reasons.

Number plates started out as one letter one number, then they gradually increased the quantities of characters. I think by the 50s or 60s it was 3 letters/3 numbers, then it went to 3 numbers/3 letters, then they introduced the single letter suffix (three letters, three numbers, suffix), then when that got to Z it went to single letter prefix (like mine); but before that got to Z they switched (in 2001) to the two letters (denoting place of registration) + 2 numbers to denote the year of registration in 6-month chunks (e.g. 07 and 57 are for March 2007 and September 2007 respectively), followed by three random-ish letters. You can pick your three letters if you want to. I told vaurien that he should have bought a new car in 2001; the registration letters for Bristol include WY, so if he'd picked the right three 'end' letters he could have had WY51WYG. I bet someone *has* got it...

[djbp.livejournal.com]

you can pay to put an old numberplate on a new car, but it's a big no-no to put a newer plate on an old car.

[rdmaughan.livejournal.com]

You can basically buy any plate from DVLA that is not currently in use or a rude word.

[keristor.livejournal.com]

In 1963 the year letter was added (at the end: ABC123J was 1970-71 for example, since there was no I). It was reversed in 1983, starting with A123ABC. The current system, xxNNxxx, was introduced in 2001.

However, all schemes are still valid as 'vanity' plates, providing the number either belonged to a car which has been destroyed (as is the case for most of the earlier cars) or the number plate has been transferred or swapped. For instance, if someone else didn't have it, I could buy CHR15C (CHRIS C) -- since someone bought that as a vanity plate, they probably aren't willing to sell it. Vanity plates can cost vast amounts for rare or desirable ones, even 15+ years ago when I saw that particular plate it was worth several thousand pounds.

So it is not at all uncommon to see obviously new cars with 'old' plates.

[the-magician.livejournal.com]

And as has been said by others, you can't make an older car appear newer by putting on a year letter later than the first registration of the car, but it's perfectly ok for Keris to buy a brand new Bugatti Veyron and put CHR15C on it even though that's a number plate from 1965.

My car is an "R" reg, so over ten years old ... I could not put MR 05 HEA on it because that would indicate it was a car that was only five years old (or younger) *and* because that sold at auction in 2005. My initials 05 HEA is available, but it's £3,299 plus tax and transfer fees, and I don't have a car that recent ... so I'm not buying it!

[occams_pyramid]

Years back I saw OO 8
I gather the one before that was owned by a film company.

[howeird]

Interesting stuff. In the US, every state and territory has its own rules, and its own design. In addition to the standard plate, most states offer various vanity or commemorative plates - my California plate is both a vanity plate and a "save the whales" plate (part of the fee goes towards oceanic environmental protection). Washington State's standard plate used to be three alpha and three digits, the alpha designated the county the owner resides in.

Edited to add a link to my license plate clicky

[filklore-on-lj.livejournal.com]

Note that F1LKA is available, but will cost a packet.