A light-hearted Public Service Announcement regarding vehicle number plates...

A friend of mine, who works outside the motor trade, recently asked me how you can tell how new a car is  from its registration plate – as we had been discussing that March is a ‘plate change month’ (along with September)

After giving him a quick overview of the current system, we had one of those sobering moments when you realise you’re a bit (lot) older than you think – because we soon found ourselves reminiscing about the good old days when plate spotting on August 1st was a big deal!  I distinctly remember Dad’s new TR7 registered 1st August 1976, the long hot Summer… ahh I’m doing it again😉

Back then, cars got a new age identifier only once a year, and August 1st was the date. If you were lucky enough to be driving a brand-new car with the latest plate on that day, you were officially the bee’s knees! 

A Blast from the Past 

For anyone younger than us (which is probably most people reading this😊) there’s a link below to the AA site explaining how you can identify a car’s age from today’s plates if you really want to know!

And for those feeling nostalgic,  the same link details how number plates worked from 1963 – 1983 and then from 1983 – 2001, before the advent of the completely new style plate.

Way back when, not only did a single letter tell you the date range a car had been registered in but the seemingly random three letters alongside the single age-identifying letter told you where the car was first registered – not as straight forward as today’s system  where the first two letters generally give the game away!

Why the Change? 

Firstly, the old number plate system had been exhausted – even when reversing the plate format from 1983 onwards.

Then the move to twice-yearly registrations was actually a pretty sensible decision. Anyone who worked in the motor trade back then will remember the chaos of August 1st – with dealerships, manufacturers, and the DVLA all under enormous pressure as so many registrations were crammed into a single month. From an admin perspective, it was a nightmare. 

Even so, I can’t help but feel a little sad that the excitement of August 1st plate-spotting is now a thing of the past…….. and maybe the plate change has lost just a little bit of its magic?

As ever all thoughts and insights greatly appreciated….

Link to the AA web

https://www.theaa.com/car-buying/number-plates