spot the difference?

[rwb]

Why can only grasmere remember pre-2001 registration plates? Are none of you lot out of short trousers yet? Or have you been drinking too much booze?

In the ABC 123 D and D 321 CBA formats, D is the year, and BC resp. BA (i.e., the last two of the bunch of three letters) is the location. I certainly remember that VH and CX are Huddersfield

You can look up the location at oldclassiccar.com. Astonishingly, Wikipedia doesn't list area codes for the pre-2001 system, and I haven't yet found a canonical listing.

[grasmere59]

I can remember all the years though,D would be 1966 or 1986.The funny thing is my Honda has M on the end and is 1974 and my Kawasaki has M at the beginning and is 1994.My head is full of totally useless information, i used to be a toolmaker and i have all the metric to imperial conversions in my head,11/16ths equals .687 etc etc,very usefull ...............................not!

[scotty73]

Mine is from Shrewsbury, found it by googling my reg and it took me to this page.
http://regarchive.com/

[scotty73]

For some reason the search bar in that link i posted finds the plate but you cant get any futher but if you google your plate and look for an answer with that website in it works.

[Sonia406]

Mine is from Shrewsbury, found it by googling my reg and it took me to this page.
http://regarchive.com/

Ohhh good website...........

I'm from Reading

[scotty73]

I'm from Reading

what are you reading? sounds like 50 shades if the vibrating phone is anything to go by.

[Sonia406]

I'm from Reading

what are you reading? sounds like 50 shades if the vibrating phone is anything to go by.

50 shades of bullshit? I rather flush my head down the loo looking for lost iPhones I never did finish the first 50 shades book, it bored me to tears..... I much rather want that 50 tractor book Hammond was on about in one episode of Top Gear........

If it was you that posted that link - I could kiss you What a gooooooooooood link

[highlander]

V822 FSU was my old 1999 V-Reg 1.8 saloon, and according to that site, it was first registered in Glasgow.

The car had one previous owner before me, it was a fleet car for Britannia Insurance, and the guy who owned it must have only ever driven it to and from work every day - because when I bought it in 2008, it'd only done 27,000 miles, a figure I doubled in just 2 years before White Van Man killed her on the day I agreed to buy the Coupe

[Sonia406]

V822 FSU was my old 1999 V-Reg 1.8 saloon, and according to that site, it was first registered in Glasgow.

The car had one previous owner before me, it was a fleet car for Britannia Insurance, and the guy who owned it must have only ever driven it to and from work every day - because when I bought it in 2008, it'd only done 27,000 miles, a figure I doubled in just 2 years before White Van Man killed her on the day I agreed to buy the Coupe

Nawwww

[V6Exec]

haven't yet found a canonical listing.

Try about halfway down on this page -> http://www.kingkong.demon.co.uk/where/gb.htm

[highlander]

I was fuming

I had parked the saloon up by the side of the main road (this was in Earlston, near the border), perfectly legally, and with other cars in front and behind. Not near any junctions, or driveways, or anything.

Yet while I was out test-driving the Coupe, some arse in a white van managed to graze all the (otherwise immaculate) bodywork all down the driver's side of the car, from the front wing right down to the back of the rear door, leaving all sorts of dents as it went.

The van had hit the front of my car first and worked his way down to the back - in order to do this, he would have had to either have been trying to reverse park into a space behind my car, or he'd have been driving the opposite direction and crossed into oncoming traffic in order to hit my car.

I would guess he was f*cking about on a mobile phone. But either way, he f*cked off before I got back from the test drive, without leaving his insurance details.

I had informed the local police at the time; they came out to see me while I was still parked up. WVM had committed a criminal offence by leaving the scene of an accident, but despite witnesses having seen the guy hit my car, none of them had taken any note of the registration plate, and being a teeny town in the middle of nowhere, there's no CCTV anywhere, not even the main road. So unless the guy came forward, there was no chance of any recompense. In short - I was f*cked.

I tried going through insurance to get the car repaired into sellable condition - but they would have written it off as a Cat D, as it'd have cost them too much to replace the two doors and the front wing. Plus, the insurance company were trying to wriggle out of paying me anything at all because I hadn't told them about the stainless exhaust I'd had fitted (my fault, I thought I had told them, but it turns out I didn't). Not that it should f*cking matter considering my car wasn't bloody moving at the time. So by the time they'd worked out the difference, it worked out I'd only be getting about £300 from them, from the £1000 they'd valued the car at, AND it'd would have removed my no claims bonus.

It would have cost me at least £400 in paintwork repairs alone to get the car back into presentable condition, and try as I might I couldn't find anyone selling two right-side doors and a wing in China Blue. So I scrapped her, and got £150 plus my exhaust and alloys back. Sold the alloys for £75 and sold the exhaust to someone on here for about £100, and got to keep my NCB.

A sad end - I really loved that car; the only reason I traded up was because the 1.8 was fairly gutless - no good for overtaking on twisty Scottish A-roads, as she had no "get-up-and-go" beyond 50+ MPH.

[Sonia406]

I was fuming

I had parked the saloon up by the side of the main road (this was in Earlston, near the border), perfectly legally, and with other cars in front and behind. Not near any junctions, or driveways, or anything.

Yet while I was out test-driving the Coupe, some arse in a white van managed to graze all the (otherwise immaculate) bodywork all down the driver's side of the car, from the front wing right down to the back of the rear door, leaving all sorts of dents as it went.

The van had hit the front of my car first and worked his way down to the back - in order to do this, he would have had to either have been trying to reverse park into a space behind my car, or he'd have been driving the opposite direction and crossed into oncoming traffic in order to hit my car.

I would guess he was f*cking about on a mobile phone. But either way, he f*cked off before I got back from the test drive, without leaving his insurance details.

I had informed the local police at the time; they came out to see me while I was still parked up. WVM had committed a criminal offence by leaving the scene of an accident, but despite witnesses having seen the guy hit my car, none of them had taken any note of the registration plate, and being a teeny town in the middle of nowhere, there's no CCTV anywhere, not even the main road. So unless the guy came forward, there was no chance of any recompense. In short - I was f*cked.

I tried going through insurance to get the car repaired into sellable condition - but they would have written it off as a Cat D, as it'd have cost them too much to replace the two doors and the front wing. Plus, the insurance company were trying to wriggle out of paying me anything at all because I hadn't told them about the stainless exhaust I'd had fitted (my fault, I thought I had told them, but it turns out I didn't). Not that it should f*cking matter considering my car wasn't bloody moving at the time. So by the time they'd worked out the difference, it worked out I'd only be getting about £300 from them, from the £1000 they'd valued the car at, AND it'd would have removed my no claims bonus.

It would have cost me at least £400 in paintwork repairs alone to get the car back into presentable condition, and try as I might I couldn't find anyone selling two right-side doors and a wing in China Blue. So I scrapped her, and got £150 plus my exhaust and alloys back. Sold the alloys for £75 and sold the exhaust to someone on here for about £100, and got to keep my NCB.

A sad end - I really loved that car; the only reason I traded up was because the 1.8 was fairly gutless - no good for overtaking on twisty Scottish A-roads, as she had no "get-up-and-go" beyond 50+ MPH.

That must of been a heart breaking decision

[scotty73]

My first ever vehicle, Y reg Escort van 1.3l in chocolate sh*t brown fully kitted out fiberglass and airbed optional extras.
SGL 465y

This registration was first registered during the period August 1982 to July 1983.

The registration was first registered in Truro.

Now how the hell did that fooking heap get all the way up the coast to Tredegar?

[waue1978]

My first ever vehicle, Y reg Escort van 1.3l in chocolate sh*t brown fully kitted out fiberglass and airbed optional extras.
SGL 465y

This registration was first registered during the period August 1982 to July 1983.

The registration was first registered in Truro.

Now how the hell did that fooking heap get all the way up the coast to Tredegar?

It probably got dumped in the water off the coast of Cornwall & drifted up to Pembrokeshire where somebody fished it out, left a hair dryer in front of it & flogged it at Merthyr auctions!

[Sonia406]

My first ever vehicle, Y reg Escort van 1.3l in chocolate sh*t brown fully kitted out fiberglass and airbed optional extras.
SGL 465y

This registration was first registered during the period August 1982 to July 1983.

The registration was first registered in Truro.

Now how the hell did that fooking heap get all the way up the coast to Tredegar?

It probably got dumped in the water off the coast of Cornwall & drifted up to Pembrokeshire where somebody fished it out, left a hair dryer in front of it & flogged it at Merthyr auctions!