Number Plates

[securespark]

We have only ever bought a new car twice.

The first time (2002), I was shown a print off with a list of reg numbers and asked to pick one.

The second time (2009), we were told that we could not pick a plate, because they were automatically assigned by DVLA sequentially.

Being a nerd and a bit bored, I looked up the car with the next plate to ours.
Eg, if ours was AA09 AAA, I looked up AA09 AAB.

It was registered one month before ours, so I guess that they aren't issued sequentially.

Does anyone know anything about this?

 

[Mottie]

The first time (2002), I was shown a print off with a list of reg numbers and asked to pick one.

This is what I always have seen. - a batch of numbers allocated to the dealer. I suspect you were sold a pre-registered car. Dealers get discounts for the number of vehicles sold per month (or they used to) so if they were near to that number, they’d buy some themselves and register them to hit the target.

Edit: Looks like nothing has changed.

 

[securespark]

I'm familiar with the pre-reg practice. Ours isn't pre-reg. We are first owners on the V5.

We picked it up on 28 November 2009.

 

[Mottie]

I'm familiar with the pre-reg practice. Ours isn't pre-reg.

Ah well, looks like you were lied to then.

 

[cwhaley]

My wife has a lease car with her job every three years. Every year she gets to pick the plate as she leases it new from the factory -- the salesman at Ford sends her a list. This year she was lucky as the last three characters are her initials (doesn't bother me in the slightest, but she was happy).

Meanwhile I have an old 2001 'Y' reg prefix and an even older 1964 B reg suffix.

 

[jj4091]

I seem to recall (in 2005) when we got ours that you either got what you were given or for £85 you could choose last 3 letters as long as they were available.

 

[Avocet]

DVLA issues us with batches of sequential registrations. We can't choose the first two characters. They are geographic, so they have to be for our area. Obviously, we can't choose the next two either, which are the year identifier. The last three just come "on a roll", as it were. They'll be sequential in that batch, but then there is likely to be a gap and the next batch will be sequential but they won't follow on from the last batch, as other dealers in our area will have been allocated those.

As has been said, manufacturers sometimes require dealers to register vehicles by certain dates. This will either be to meet sales targets, or it will be because there has been a type approval regulations changeover and there's a finite time to be able to register them on their existing type approval.