The secret(s) behind British license plates

[Marsch]

Can somebody please tell me the secrets behind British license plates.

I always read it's a "code XY" and that one can make something out of this but what?
It also seems that plates normally stay with a car but what's the reason for this?
Is there a special way the letters and numbers are arranged? I ask because I read that somebody had a plate like "ABC1 2DE" while it should have been "ABC 12DE" and that he may get in trouble for it IIRC.
I see there are special plates like the "CL10 GAD" from Glenn for example. How expensive and difficult to get are these?
Anything else that may is of interest in that direction.

:sean:

Thanks!

 

[-Eddie-]

CL10 plates can generally be picked up for around £249+. This prices includes the £80 assignment fee.

As for the way the letters are arranged I’m not sure as ours are different here in Northern Ireland


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[Benno]

Current plates are two letters, two numbers, space, three letters.

"AB51 CDE"

First two letters identify the area the vehicle was first registered. The two numbers identify the age of the car. The final three letters are random. These started in September 2001, so began with "51". In March 2002, it went to "02", then in September 2002 it went to "52", so on and so on.

For example, my original plate of my Clio is WR06 XFS. That means it was first registered in the Bristol area (W - West of England, WR - Bristol) between 1st of March and 31st of August 2006.

Most CL10 plates are purchased through a database ran from the DVLA offering specific plates for sale.

 

[Johnny 99]

The first two letters insicate the area in which the car was first registered. Foe example in the area around Inverness where I live cars will gave SX or SY as the first letters. A car registered in March-August 2012 would then have 12 as it's numbers, one registered between September 2012 & February 2013 would have 62 as it's numbers. The other three letters are unique to the car for that registration area and time. However if you have a desire for a certain combination such as CL10 for Clio, you can purchase these from the authorities (or at least purchase the right to display the number). The number normally stays with the car throughout it's life, however there is a market for desirable numbers and you can sell the right to display a number to anyone who wants it though they cannot use it to make a car appear younger. I.e. You can't put a 12 number on to a car younger than August 2012.
People sometimes reserve number plates before they are issued to put on future cars.
There have been other registration systems before with a single letter as a prefix or a suffix denoting the year of registration. These can be quite valuable.
Before then we had plates with no year displayed. The 1st number plate issued was A1 & that would cost you serious money! I did used to regularly see D1 & that would be very valuable particularly as it spells the name Di (short for Diana as in Princess Di).
On my 2013 Merc I have J1 JON, which dates from 1992, and is quite valuable because the lower the number the more it will cost you. However if it did not have the J prefix it would probably be worth 10 times what I paid. I have CL10 JON on my 2012 Clio.
Complicated isn't it? I hope I have explained it clearly.

 

[Marsch]

CL10 plates can generally be picked up for around £249+. This prices includes the £80 assignment fee.

As for the way the letters are arranged I’m not sure as ours are different here in Northern Ireland


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What a bargain. *cough, cough*

I mean we can't get plates with comparable arrangements but I got mine for about 80,- € IIRC and I could also pick it from a list of available ones with an "in before reservation" on the net.

I did a a quick search and found a list of the NI ones and if the second letter is a Z it seems the chance is great that it's from there.

Current plates are two letters, two numbers, space, three letters.

"AB51 CDE"

First two letters identify the area the vehicle was first registered. The two numbers identify the age of the car. The final three letters are random. These started in September 2001, so began with "51". In March 2002, it went to "02", then in September 2002 it went to "52", so on and so on.

For example, my original plate of my Clio is WR06 XFS. That means it was first registered in the Bristol area (W - West of England, WR - Bristol) between 1st of March and 31st of August 2006.

Most CL10 plates are purchased through a database ran from the DVLA offering specific plates for sale.

Great, that clears that up for the most part. I've also read that plates starting with L mean London or that B stands for Birmingham for example. Is this correct?

Unfortunately we don't have the possibility of such plate "personalisation" because of the arrangement they use over here. So, in my case there weren't and aren't that much options available and B-RS 200 and the like are in use already.
But I've found an interesting option as it's possible to register cars at a different place from where you live since a couple of years. There's a small town/county named Illertissen in the south of Germany and their plates start with ILL. So, ILL-RS 200 would be possible.

The first two letters insicate the area in which the car was first registered. Foe example in the area around Inverness where I live cars will gave SX or SY as the first letters. A car registered in March-August 2012 would then have 12 as it's numbers, one registered between September 2012 & February 2013 would have 62 as it's numbers. The other three letters are unique to the car for that registration area and time. However if you have a desire for a certain combination such as CL10 for Clio, you can purchase these from the authorities (or at least purchase the right to display the number). The number normally stays with the car throughout it's life, however there is a market for desirable numbers and you can sell the right to display a number to anyone who wants it though they cannot use it to make a car appear younger. I.e. You can't put a 12 number on to a car younger than March 2012.
People sometimes reserve number plates before they are issued to put on future cars.
There have been other registration systems before with a single letter as a prefix or a suffix denoting the year of registration. These can be quite valuable.
Before then we had plates with no year displayed. The 1st number plate issued was A1 & that would cost you serious money! I did used to regularly see D1 & that would be very valuable particularly as it spells the name Di (short for Diana as in Princess Di).
On my 2013 Merc I have J1 JON, which dates from 1992, and is quite valuable because the lower the number the more it will cost you. However if it did not have the J prefix it would probably be worth 10 times what I paid. I have CL10 JON on my 2012 Clio.
Complicated isn't it? I hope I have explained it clearly.

Very interesting details, thanks!

 

[Benno]

Yep. Anything beginning with B is Birmingham area and anything beginning L is London.

 

[Johnny 99]

It's not as simple as 'L' for London sadly. I think most London plates will start with an L though. Cars registered in the county of Kent start with 'G' as Kent is known as the garden of England. All Scottish plates start with S & Welsh with C (Cymru being the Welsh language name for Wales). Until the latest system was introduced in 2001 only Northern Irish plates had Z in them, but now all UK plates can.
On the subject of value, the most desirable numbers can go for well into six figures sterling. Makes Clio plates look cheap!

 

[-Eddie-]

Usually the 3rd letter in the NI plates are ‘Z’ so for example my previous Clio was DFZ.

More recent plate arrangements are; BSZ, OIG, YJZ etc. Just depends on the county here as to what the prefix is.


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[Marsch]

Must be quite confusing for your cops sometimes.

I understand that certain numbers or combinations have to pe quite valuable. Of course old ones will have a certain one and I also saw some sick combinations on some super cars and these plates presumably cost as much as my Clio.

I wish we could have real personal and "multiple car" plates like they've in Austria for example. There you can have an B-CLIO 1 for example which you can use on multiple cars IIRC.

 

[Chris]

Its a bloody crazy system to be honest.

 

[Benno]

It's not as simple as 'L' for London sadly. I think most London plates will start with an L though. Cars registered in the county of Kent start with 'G' as Kent is known as the garden of England. All Scottish plates start with S & Welsh with C (Cymru being the Welsh language name for Wales). Until the latest system was introduced in 2001 only Northern Irish plates had Z in them, but now all UK plates can.
On the subject of value, the most desirable numbers can go for well into six figures sterling. Makes Clio plates look cheap!

All L plates LA-LY are London area registered!

 

[Marsch]

Its a bloody crazy system to be honest.

It seems to be, indeed.

Here you can normally get from the first part were the car is from as it's always city, town or county. At least if you know a bit about German geography. There are some exceptions with the Hanseatic cities which have an H in front of their letter like HH = Hamburg or HB = Bremen for example. Some more strange combos are existing but not that many actually.
Single letters are normally always given to the largest city starting with the same one here like B = Berlin or M=Munich. If a larger city like Hamburg has a different one already it gets assigned to the next city like in this case H = Hannover. Hence one letter basically always is a larger city, combinations with three letters are always counties while two letters can be both.
Some letters or combinations are also assigned to governmental bodies like plates of the "Bundeswehr" start with an Y or the combination THW is reserved for vehicles from the "Technisches Hilfswerk" (disaster relief).
The second part normally always consists of a combination of one or two letters plus one to four numbers for private owners.
Deviating combinations like only numbers are basically only possible for vehicles from the government, diplomats and in some other special cases. For example car dealers can have one or multiple "business" plates they can use and swap to different cars or so called "short time" plates which are mainly used to just transfer a car from A to B for registrations but these are all specially marked at the right sight.
It's also possible to register a car for just a couple of months a year and keep the plate. These plates will have a extra 04/10 at the end for example which indicate the car is only registered from April to October.
An H at the end of a plate indicates an "approved" historical vehicle (30+ y/o) and an E is assigned for full electric drive vehicles.
Additionally some vehicles like for example ones used in agricultur can have special colored plates (in this case they're green on white).
We normally always have the modern plates with the EUR sign on the left but some people have kept their old ones without and keep driving them.
We've a stamp on the back plate that indicates the car has passed TÜV (MOT) and when the next check has to be done.

 

[Johnny 99]

All L plates LA-LY are London area registered!

I was more meaning that things like Kent being G not K occur! My Clio was originally LT, bought in Dunstable so London plate.

 

[Benno]

I was more meaning that things like Kent being G not K occur! My Clio was originally LT, bought in Dunstable so London plate.

Ahhh fair enough I get what you mean now!


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[Glenn_Adam_Doble]

Must be quite confusing for your cops sometimes.

I understand that certain numbers or combinations have to pe quite valuable. Of course old ones will have a certain one and I also saw some sick combinations on some super cars and these plates presumably cost as much as my Clio.

I wish we could have real personal and "multiple car" plates like they've in Austria for example. There you can have an B-CLIO 1 for example which you can use on multiple cars IIRC.

Our traffic cops have ANPR (auto number plate recognition) which flags up any issues, regarding tax and insurance and any other markers tagged to that car for example, known for criminal activity,

My CL10 GAD plate was only £250

But my brothers CL10 JAD plate was £750 for one letter difference can’t really understand why it was so much more, it doesn’t really make any more sense than mine

Our s4 plate was only £200 iirc

makes no sense how standard layouts cost more or less

Possibly changing the Audi in the new year so will need a new plate been looking at this one for my sons name, I’ll let you guess the car

 

[Marsch]

A 197 from 2006?

Just kidding. I already know. Don't forget to replace its RS badges with these.

 

[Glenn_Adam_Doble]

A 197 from 2006?

Just kidding. I already know. Don't forget to replace its RS badges with these.

Haha good idea might even get a CL10 plate for it for ultimate confusion

 

[Marsch]

Than it definitely needs chrome Renault badges and C L I O letters on the back.

 

[nathan-burgess]

It's not as simple as 'L' for London sadly. I think most London plates will start with an L though. Cars registered in the county of Kent start with 'G' as Kent is known as the garden of England. All Scottish plates start with S & Welsh with C (Cymru being the Welsh language name for Wales). Until the latest system was introduced in 2001 only Northern Irish plates had Z in them, but now all UK plates can.
On the subject of value, the most desirable numbers can go for well into six figures sterling. Makes Clio plates look cheap!

Where would SJ be in Scotland Johnny? That's where mine originated and I've seen a few different Scottish garages within the service history.

 

[Cossers]

Here's a good thread for you! Problem with people here is that they try and manipulate the plate to make it read something it's not, some shockers in here!

https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&f=23&t=1534373