Late registration madness

[dollywobbler]

There was a 1987 D-plate MGB at the BMC BL Rally. Not got a pic to hand, but it was not registered for seven years!

 

Classic case of someone stashing it away and hoping it'd be worth megabucks in a few years time. Oh well. Guess the fact that MG built about half a million Bs put paid to that idea!

[eddyramrod]

JV 481 was issued in September 1978. By then of course Ford had moved on to the Mk3 Capri; this was a UK car from 1971 that had been driven across Europe to get here. It used to have a K suffix. Driven, I should add, by the second owner, who sold it to me in 2009! The correct number on this car would begin FP or thereabouts.

 

Cars are registered sequentially here in Cyprus. No concession is made to "private plates," "age-related" or any other factor. You turn up at the registration office, they give you the next number, that's it.

Here's my 2002 pickup. When in UK it wore a 51 plate. It was registered here in 2008. The Isuzu and Chevrolet trucks that share the styling are all on plates beginning E** or H** (F** and G** weren't used, I don't know why). Incidentally the numbers involved are so low that we're still on K**; L** hasn't been issued yet.

The only thing you can do to opt out of this system is have your car declared an "Antique" by the blanket club that looks after these things in Cyprus (roughly equivalent to FBHVC), whereby you are issued a plate with three numbers followed by the single letter A. Several of the classics in our club have these. Mine don't qualify: the Capri has been modified, and the A40 will be.

 

Want something really confusing? Across the ceasefire line, in the Turkish-occupied area, cars are being registered. They are following the same pattern that was in use in 1974, and the numbers involved are so low that they haven't got near using three-letter combinations yet. There will be another JV 481 out there, not on a Capri.

[eddyramrod]

Ah yes Norm, but yours say "Ohio" or "Michigan" etc across the top of the plate, and some are even in different colours, so JV 481 from Detroit is going to be different to JV 481 from Atlanta. Here, the plates follow the same format as each other, with no identifiers.

[brammy777]

I saw a K plate MKII Astra Cabriolet today. I presume it was one of the very last registered, it would only have been sat around for a year and a bit because you can get J plate ones.

[M'coli]

I saw a K plate MKII Astra Cabriolet today. I presume it was one of the very last registered, it would only have been sat around for a year and a bit because you can get J plate ones.

I suspect they were still making these at K plate because cabriolets usually lag behind the other model lines due to tooling costs etc.. Sorry!

[trigger]

Yep, K plates aren't that uncommon sadly, I saw one last week up my road in fact! It's the same as the Astramax vans, I sometimes see a L plate one about.

[brammy777]

Well at least they arent that rare then, because I was gutted not to get a picture. Now, not so much!

[Formula Autos]

I saw an R plate Volvo 900 estate today (no camera on me though, sadly). This must have been one of the last of this breed, musn't it?

 

I also saw an R plate W124 Merc recently, and have seen some N plate ones knocking about too. Anybody any ideas what the story is with those? Did a dealer have an unregistered stash of them?

[25v6turbo]

Y reg old shape Laguna

V reg Triumph 2000

K reg Renault 25

V reg Safrane

G reg MK2 XR2

K reg sierra.

[Tayne]

.

[catsinthewelder]

Some of the older (pre 85ish) appearences may well be because the DVLA was less bothered about the age of the vehicles that it was registering back then.

 

I had a Wolseley 16/60 a while back that ran on 70s plates for years (N possibly). It was a CKD built car which had been imported from South Africa at a young age and given a then current registration mark.

 

The owner before me wrote to the DVLA enquiring how much it would cost to give it plates from the right year. The DVLA wrote back giving him a correct 69 G registration number and demanding that he destroyed the plates that were on the car immediateley and put some with the new reg on. It still didn't have a front numberplate when I gave up on it and sold it on.

 

Newer stuff wise,

I've seen a P reg 405 pottering about Ludlow, looks tidy with chrome roof rails, alloys and that nice metalic green.

Likewise a mint condition P reg 205 in tirquoise (sorry about spelling) parked in Hereford last year.

Loads of locally built Maestros on T,V,X,Y plates seem to crop up.

[Father Ted]

Do I win a prize?

[trigger]

^ wow!

 

I've just seen a Mk 3 Escort Estate on a H plate, sadly it was hammering it down at the time so I couldn't get a photo.

[cms206]

 

 

The vehicle details for P663 OCS are:

 

Date of Liability 01 12 2010

Date of First Registration 22 04 1998

Year of Manufacture 1996

Cylinder Capacity (cc) 1300CC

 

..... ?!

[Pillock]

My old Astra Cab was a 1990 model, so a G plate. It was an NI import though, so the V5 had a similar line to that... "Date of manufacturer xxxx 1990, date of first registration xxxx 1996". Apparently it had been bought over in 1996, had a private plate put on and then removed and the DVLA issued a 1996 reg. Two weeks later a letter arrived demanding that the 1996 plates be destroyed, gave a 1990 reg, and made all sorts of threats about non-compliance like they weren't the chumps at fault.

 

It then went back to NI, had a new plate, and came back to England and eventually into the crusher still wearing it.

[Tayne]

.

[Vin]

I remembered recently that when me and my mates where all learning to drive, one of them had a MK2 Escort on an X plate.

[Alexg]

 

06 plate C15 seen at local tip

[steve austin]

X reg mk5 Escort seen in Enfield recently.

[Tonka]

Couple of weeks back I was behind a red T reg'd povety spec. Maestro on the A50 near Uttoxeter, nice little puff of blue A-Series smoke as it changed gear.

[Mash]

I spotted an S-reg Mk3 Astra recently, just a Merit or something, didn't look like a loaded up run-out model either.

[garycox]

I saw an S reg Mk3 Astra Convertible yesterday, thought it looked odd.

[The Main]

I remember being pleasantly perplexed at seeing a 'W' reg Singer Vogue in Swansea about 25 years ago.

[trigger]

I saw a BMW 5-Series E34 shape today on a 'P' plate, I couldn't get a photo though.

[Pete-M]

I remembered recently that when me and my mates where all learning to drive, one of them had a MK2 Escort on an X plate.

 

Lots of the RED prepared rally ones were X plates.

[trigger]

Just spotted this on RR that someone has just bought, It's a 1988 but DVLA have registered it on a K plate

 

http://retrorides.proboards.com/index.c ... read=89707

[Mash]

I remember being pleasantly perplexed at seeing a 'W' reg Singer Vogue in Swansea about 25 years ago.

 

That would have had its original number sold around 1980/81 I imagine. Back then there wasn't the same system for age related plates. A lot of American imports in the 70s ended up with new registrations despite being much older - one of our neighbours when I was a kid had a W-reg Chevrolet pick-up from the 50s.

[eddyramrod]

Correct: my 1966 Plymouth had a 1976 P suffix...

[Pillock]

Isn't it weird how some car+reg combos just look wrong?

I was passed by a '58 plate Pug 307 yesterday, just caught my eye. Sure enough, the 308 was launched in September 2007 and they were never sold alongside each other. Hundreds of those things pass me every day and I never take any notice.

[Tartan58]

When did they stop making the Jag XJS? Saw one today with a N Plate, looked like a run-out model with subtle body kit etc.