Stupid Forgienors like me!

[DRTDVL]

Any chance you guys could let me know what year a "x" plate is or a link to what the different plates mean?

I have no idea what year car you guys are referring to with when you talk in terms of plates...

[mandelbug]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vehicle_re ... ed_Kingdom

Good information there including new plate layout

[steve_earwig]

The UK are completely different to everyone else as the plate stays with the car its whole life.

In case you're still confused, the older plates are to the bottom of the page, so you'll see an "x-plate" (or X reg) means it's either a car registered 1 August 1981 – 31 July 1982 or 1 September 2000 – 28 February 2001. If we're talking 406 then it's probably the latter.

I have a similar problem in that I lost interest when I was a teenager, so I have to look them up too

[swiss]

And if it's Q reg then the guvment doesn't know when it was made. Mystery car ^_^

[teamster1975]

And if it's Q reg then the guvment doesn't know when it was made. Mystery car ^_^

Fair game for getting pulled over by the rozzers all the time as well

[DRTDVL]

Yeah it makes it interesting for me when you start talking about whatever plate car... i end up sitting there going what year is that????

thats all good

[Welly]

I thought Q-reg's used to be reserved for long-term off the road cars which had usually been in a bad accident and 'fixed' years later weren't they?

That's how I remember them and a Q-plater was always approached with caution I recall, in fact the Q was a bit like today's CAT C/D register. Although I think kit cars had Q plates at some stage?

Gees, when you think back at how cars used to be fixed and put back on the road it's frightening

If you ever see a car with a plate like.....478 D 620 then steer clear as these are diplomat/embassy cars and drive like nutters

[steve_earwig]

Just when they couldn't determine the year of manufacture - we had two of them, an 850 Mini and a Mk2 Corset estate, both ex-RAF that had spent a few years chugging around an airport sans numberplates.

[sirwiggum]

Yeah it makes it interesting for me when you start talking about whatever plate car... i end up sitting there going what year is that????

thats all good

I'm like that too. I have to go off reference of previous GB imports I've owned - K '93, R '97, V '99.

Doesn't help that they changed it at some point from yearly to 6-monthly.

The 0x/5x -> 1x/6x system is a bit easier to age, but still need to remember that it starts in March / September!

NI is still on the original 1910 system:

ABZ 1234 - within ABZ is always an 'I' or a 'Z' (or sometimes both eg. ICZ). xxZ is usually co Antrim / Belfast, xIG is Fermanagh, xUI is Derry etc.

Totally ageless, a new plate can be put on an old car.

RoI age their cars explicitly - eg. 10 - D - 1234 is a 2010 car from Dublin. Bit strange though was that I saw a vintage car with a numberplate 14 - D - 123. They may need to turn their system round as 100 year old cars and brand new cars start to clash!