Late registration madness

[lesapandre]

Less usually chosen 'BL' colour for a Triumph as well. I think it's 'Sandglow'.

[Joey spud]

3 hours ago, lesapandre said:

Less usually chosen 'BL' colour for a Triumph as well. I think it's 'Sandglow'.

The image quality isn't great so i had a Google and the last ones off the line were offered in saffron or jasmine yellow.

I'd put my money on it being saffron.

[Eyersey1234]

Just seen this on Facebook 

[Yoss]

On 02/04/2026 at 10:22, Joey spud said:

Ok so not overly late but I can't recall seeing an Herald estate on a K. 

The Toledo, the Herald replacement, came out in 1970 but I don't know if the Herald estate carried on longer as no replacement small estate was offered. There was a 1300 estate prototype but it never made it to production.

[adw1977]

The Herald saloon was produced until December 1970, the estate until May 1971, according to AROnline.

[Noah Davies]

I Didnt Think This Vauxhall Tigra Ended on 60?

[Missy Charm]

On 20/03/2026 at 13:10, aotb said:

As registration is generally done after the body has been built there can be a bit of a lag on model changes. 
 

One of our Master ice cream vans is on a 10 plate, but the platform cab was built in 2008 and sat at a dealer for 18 months before we bought it as a new unregistered half van. I think there was a bit of a surplus around at the time. 

When the commercial body was added to the back, did the Master become half van, half biz kit?  

[forbeslongden]

I’ve got a feeling that I’ve not seen an R reg Clio in this shape before, I can imagine it was a phase 1.5 with the Williams kit added on it, but looks well strange being on a late plate.

[Noah Davies]

11 minutes ago, forbeslongden said:

I’ve got a feeling that I’ve not seen an R reg Clio in this shape before, I can imagine it was a phase 1.5 with the Williams kit added on it, but looks well strange being on a late plate.

there are a few of these on R reg plates

but however there isnt on on an S reg 

[Noah Davies]

i never ever saw how late this pre-facelift clio campus came

[warren t claim]

On 26/04/2026 at 09:47, Noah Davies said:

i never ever saw how late this pre-facelift clio campus came

Only offered in boggo Campus spec long after its replacement was put on sale.

[MantaGTE85]

Whilst attempting to leave a bus stop in an Optare Solo (hence no photos) I was happily let out of the stop by a brown Spitfire 1500, registered TFP666X. I thought Spittie production finished in 1980!

[MantaGTE85]

16 hours ago, warren t claim said:

Only offered in boggo Campus spec long after its replacement was put on sale.

Yes, new sales of these (just about) spilled into alongside the facelift mk3 I think.

[mk2_craig]

21 minutes ago, MantaGTE85 said:

brown Spitfire 1500, registered TFP666X

I googled that. Looks ace!

https://www.historics.co.uk/auction/lot/lot-130---1981-triumph--spitfire-1500/

[quicksilver]

24 minutes ago, MantaGTE85 said:

Whilst attempting to leave a bus stop in an Optare Solo (hence no photos) I was happily let out of the stop by a brown Spitfire 1500, registered TFP666X. I thought Spittie production finished in 1980!

There seems to be a lot of late-registered BL stuff knocking around. Maybe they over-produced and had loads of unsold stock left that took years to clear, or maybe this is like the MGB where investors bought the last of the line cars and stored them unused in the hope of making money. The very last Spitfire is a W-reg (ORW756W of October 1980) so TFP666X (August 1981) definitely is a late reg.

[Knotty Ash Towers]

There is at least one A-prefix reg Spitfire and quite a few Y-reg ones as well.

 

 

[AnthonyG]

There were quite a few amateur speculators, usually with links to a local BL dealer, who managed to get hold of new MG or Triumph sports cars when the end was nigh (which was discussed endlessly in the press for about a year before it happened), not registering them but squirreling them away somewhere in the hope of making a quick buck. When they realised that, actually, the reason BL stopped making these cars was because not many people actually wanted one, they were then registered circa 1981/2 and fed onto the ‘classic’ market. I suspect very few actually made any real money doing this.

This usually affects MGBs the most due to the emotional baggage around shutting Abingdon - I’m not sure anyone bothered with a TR7 for example - and I suspect there were quite a few burnt fingers in particular from attempting to flip the overhyped ‘LE’ ones.  

Similarly, some Americans paid silly money for the last convertible Cadillacs (the ‘76 Eldorado) encouraged by GM who stated these would be the end of the line, these people weren’t overjoyed to see convertibles return in the early 80s, particularly Cadillac themselves with a  (smaller) Eldorado one circa 1983 and then the ‘86 Allante. There was talk of a class action lawsuit at first but then I suspect GM paid some proper lawyers to shut all the nonsense down. 

[LightBulbFun]

7 minutes ago, AnthonyG said:

I’m not sure anyone bothered with a TR7 for example

*laughs in L Prefix TR7*

On 28/04/2024 at 18:11, forbeslongden said:

 

[AnthonyG]

I keep meaning to ask you, there is (or was, haven’t seen it for 6 months or so) a ratty Marina couple, definitely an early to mid 70s one, around Tewkesbury, that’s on an A reg prefix (83/4), plate. 

Where the DVLA giving out current reg plates for personal imports as late as that? I knew it happened in the 70s but assumed they had changed to giving a plate relevant to the build date well before the switchover to prefix letters. 

It’s not like the build date would have been hard to ascertain, any BL dealer would have been able to get that from the commission (BL’s Vin) number.

its possible it’s a weird one constructed out of a CKD kit ten years after it ‘should’ have been built, somewhere like New Zealand or South Africa, then made it over here later on. 

[sheffcortinacentre]

They stopped when A reg was introduced & imports got there correct year letter (or Q for undetermined age).

It's could've been a mistake or possibly an import from that year as dunno if ital was sold outside UK/Europe?

In South Africa the last Mk5 cortinas were built approx a year later than here well into 83. 

[LightBulbFun]

1 hour ago, AnthonyG said:

I keep meaning to ask you, there is (or was, haven’t seen it for 6 months or so) a ratty Marina couple, definitely an early to mid 70s one, around Tewkesbury, that’s on an A reg prefix (83/4), plate. 

Where the DVLA giving out current reg plates for personal imports as late as that? I knew it happened in the 70s but assumed they had changed to giving a plate relevant to the build date well before the switchover to prefix letters. 

It’s not like the build date would have been hard to ascertain, any BL dealer would have been able to get that from the commission (BL’s Vin) number.

its possible it’s a weird one constructed out of a CKD kit ten years after it ‘should’ have been built, somewhere like New Zealand or South Africa, then made it over here later on. 

as mentioned the practice of giving current plates to imports ended with the introduction of A prefix plates in August 1983. However you sometimes still got the occasional fuck up/slip-through, where an imported vehicle is still issued a current plate, as you say could also be some weird CKD, or stored-new car situation also like that TR7

I have also seen it* where you have a British domestic vehicle, say a 1957 Morris Minor, that is say computerised, with its original registration mark in 1978, and because reasons the original date of registration is not carried over from the buff logbook, or is somehow unknown, so on the DVLC would record the date of computerisation as the date of first registration so it would say "Date of first Registration March 1978, Year of Manufacture 1957"

and then what can happen when that Morris Minor is robbed of its number plate, is although it should be given an age related plate suitable for a 1957 vehicle, the DVLA lackey just looks at the date of first registration and not the year of registration, and issues an "age related" plate for the date of first registration not the year of manufacture as he should.

so suddenly the 1957 Morris minor gets issued a "age related" T suffix plate issued in 2017 or whenever its robbed of its original plate

 

thats how B150SDC happened, it was originally DWP40, computerised in 1984 with that computerisation date recorded as its date of first registration, and then robbed of its plate in 2013, and issued a 2013 series, B prefix plate!

 

I'd still really love to find a picture of RM23 as LGH31T, which originally was VLT23, but after being robbed of that plate, ended up as LGH31T under the same situation, (before being issued an actual age related plate) but sadly I cant find any pictures of it like that, but i'd love to see one

 

*I have also seen similar on imported vehicles, that are originally correctly issued an age related plate when imported, but then when robbed of that age related plate, or after having a personal plate put on and then removed, another "age related" plate is incorrectly issued according to the imported vehicle's date of first registration not year of mfg

 

[RWL2012]

On 26/04/2026 at 09:43, Noah Davies said:

there are a few of these on R reg plates

but however there isnt on on an S reg 

Really? The only R-reg Mk1 Clios I've seen are the last facelift (Phase 3) with the bigger, rounded headlights.

[RWL2012]

On 26/04/2026 at 09:47, Noah Davies said:

i never ever saw how late this pre-facelift clio campus came

On 27/04/2026 at 22:21, warren t claim said:

Only offered in boggo Campus spec long after its replacement was put on sale.

Not the pre-facelift Clio Campus though - it was the facelifted Clio campus (with different front and rear bumpers and tailgate, with the rear reg plate moved to the rear bumper) that ran from 07 reg to 58 reg, This is a 57 reg pre-facelift Clio Campus! As in, the one that didn't really look different to the 2004 (53)-55 reg Clio II, but was normally on 55, 06 or 56 reg (after the Clio III came out on 55 reg).

Also, the Clio Campus wasn't "only offered in boggo spec" - yes, the base Campus was based on the Authentique/Rush, but the Campus Sport was based on the Dynamique/Extreme 4 (albeit with only the 1.2 petrols and lower-power Diesels available).

[cms206]

11 hours ago, LightBulbFun said:

I'd still really love to find a picture of RM23 as LGH31T, which originally was VLT23, but after being robbed of that plate, ended up as LGH31T under the same situation, (before being issued an actual age related plate) but sadly I cant find any pictures of it like that, but i'd love to see one

You're welcome 🙃

[LightBulbFun]

37 minutes ago, cms206 said:

You're welcome 🙃

Oh awesome! I much appricate that  

I had completely forgot to check flicker!

https://flic.kr/p/2my9GPo

 

speaking of Routemaster "late registration-madness" when I was at the LT museum acton depot recently for the AGM (pics in the previous few pages of my thread for those curious), one of the items discussed in the AGM was the fact they now have reproduced the Routemaster framework pieces, so if you manage to do this to a Routemaster

 

21 hours ago, Yoss said:

You can see the damage here. It had a perfect three sided imprint of a hexagonal concrete lamp post up the whole height of the car. 

 

you can replace the bent framework, re-panel the bus and have a straight bus again

 

so of course I realised had to ask, does this mean you could now build a Routemaster from scratch?

 

to which where there was a good chuckle from the other members and they started to go and point to one each other "well you have engines' you have gearboxes, so and so has A & B frames..."  "so yes you could, but not sure its a good idea!"

but I love that thought of building a Routemaster anew once more like that  

I wonder how that would be registered/handled by the bus preservation people!, heres my RML 2761 on a 27 plate LOL RM27NEW? LOL

tho in seriousness it would probably be registered under the DVLA's reconstructed classic scheme and given an age related plate based on the general age of components, or just be given the identify of whatever the A/B frames have, come from

I do know of one case where RML2306 was "re-constituted" out of other Routemasters, and somehow they managed to convince the DVLA to re-issue the reg mark n all

On 24/11/2023 at 16:47, LightBulbFun said:

speaking of Routemasters dragging this up from the eBay tat thread

On 22/12/2018 at 22:57, LightBulbFun said:

Dear Santa... 

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/283279814191

im surprised ensign still had a Routemaster undercover for sale like this, I figured they shifted them all a good 10+ years ago...

On 23/12/2018 at 02:02, Felly Magic said:

It has probably been built by them with all the spares they had, I'm sure they were kicking them out to people with more money than functioning brains, mind you to buy anything from Ensign, that is a legal requirement I think

as Im sure it was meant jokingly

however I happened to just now be passing the time reading RML histories on Ian Bus stop as you do, and it turns out someone really did make an RML out of spare parts! 

I'd love to find out more about that, for example how much of the bodywork was from which Routemaster etc!

 

[Leyland Worldmaster]

5 hours ago, LightBulbFun said:

build a Routemaster from scratch?

The RM C**

**Continuation series, innit! 

[Knotty Ash Towers]

18 hours ago, AnthonyG said:

There were quite a few amateur speculators, usually with links to a local BL dealer, who managed to get hold of new MG or Triumph sports cars when the end was nigh (which was discussed endlessly in the press for about a year before it happened), not registering them but squirreling them away somewhere in the hope of making a quick buck. When they realised that, actually, the reason BL stopped making these cars was because not many people actually wanted one, they were then registered circa 1981/2 and fed onto the ‘classic’ market. I suspect very few actually made any real money doing this.

This usually affects MGBs the most due to the emotional baggage around shutting Abingdon

AFAIK the newest registered MGB is an 02-reg. There is also a D-reg MG Midget knocking around somewhere.

[Noah Davies]

 

Found 2 17 REG Plate MK7 Transits

One Is MM17 BUS
 

This One Is DX17 EOS

[High Jetter]

X suffix Minivan on B&C tonight

[sheffcortinacentre]

Not that unusual.