Newish cars with number plates of far old cars?

[Grahamr123]

I've noticed quite a few clearly newish cars that have far older number plates. I saw Mercedes today that looked only a couple years old maybe, with an 02 number plate.

Whats the deal with this? I've seen quite a few about similar to this in the past.

[mad4amanda]

normally private plates with initials mine has RH --GRH former owners but also my dad was an RH so quite nice for me.

[gregpot2000]

private plate. although I don't see the point of them. I have a private on my 2008 car. it's the old type though, and as my car clearly isn't an 1988 car it's clear it's a private plate.

putting the new type on though just ages the car, as to most people it won't be obvious it's a private plate, they will just think the cars a few years older than it actually is

[mad4amanda]

mmm what happened here then lots of posts moderated away including many decent posts there was a nutter loose for a while but did it all have to go?

[Vyse]

It masks the age, my cars a 11 year with a 55 plate.

[kiethton]

dad has an '04' plate with his initials (same as my mum's) on a silver 2008 BMW 318d - typically seen around Orpington/the M25

[B17NNS]

mad4amanda said:

mmm what happened here then lots of posts moderated away including many decent posts there was a nutter loose for a while but did it all have to go?

Chill out and have a Big Mac.

[mad4amanda]

what was that all about?

[eldar]

Vyse said:

It masks the age, my cars a 11 year with a 55 plate.

You can't put a plate on that makes a car look newer, supposedly?

[Grahamr123]

eldar said:

You can't put a plate on that makes a car look newer, supposedly?

That is what I thought. I guess it doesn't apply the other way round.

[RobM77]

Someone I know has an old plate on a brand new car. As others have said, the old plate simply meant something, in this case the person's late mother chose it.

[aw51 121565]

, (for example) a car registered in September 2006 will have had a 56 plate when new, and a private plate on that car can be anything from 56 or older (56, 06, 55 etc then through the single letter prefixes and suffixes and even 'dateless' from the early '60s and before) but nothing newer (07 or later) .

'Dateless' registration marks are arguably "the best", whereas Northern Irish registration marks ('dateless' on mainland UK but there is info on the 'net to 'date' them nowadays) used to be recommended but I think they're less popular nowadays??

Not that I dabble with private plates (I just change my name to match my car's registration mark, it's a new Deed Poll and a LOT cheaper ).

[Vyse]

A 55 plate is older than 11 plate.

eldar said:

You can't put a plate on that makes a car look newer, supposedly?

[beko1987]

My dad drives a 2012 s-max with a 52 plate on, stepmum has a 13 'i think' plate touran with a 54 plate on.

When they got the plates (have each others initials on - they had 52 and 54 plate cars respectivly, and it was cheaper to do it that way.

[Dog Star]

RobM77 said:

Someone I know has an old plate on a brand new car. As others have said, the old plate simply meant something, in this case the person's late mother chose it.

I've got a 1930s plate on my 2012 car - it'll be going on my new one in May. It's not my initials but it's a "local" plate to where I live and I like it. I get quite a lot of old people remarking on it.

[Alfahorn]

I have a 2012 car with a J-plate.

[FRA53R]

I've seen the number plate B8 on a newish Touran, and B9 on a Disco 4 I reckon there's quite an age difference. My Dad has had 8DCD since the seventies, but a bit of research suggests it's originally from some point in the 30's.

[Dog Star]

FRA53R said:

I've seen the number plate B8 on a newish Touran, and B9 on a Disco 4 I reckon there's quite an age difference. My Dad has had 8DCD since the seventies, but a bit of research suggests it's originally from some point in the 30's.

It might be a bit later than that; DCD8 would date almost certainly from 1932, however they started off in 1932 with ABC1 and then ran to ABC999. They then swapped round and did 1ABC, 2ABC etc etc. I think (and this is from memory, so I might be wrong) that this reversal happened in 1953 (which is why ABC357 is worth more than 357ABC), so I think your dad's plate is a '53. This ran until the suffix format appeared (ABC123A) in either 62 or 64.

ETA: I was correct... 3 letter marks as of end 1932, first reversed issued Staffordshire, April 1953.

This is quite interesting ...

http://www.metadyne.co.uk/pdf_files/CarReg.pdf

Edited by Dog Star on Monday 13th January 09:17

[r11co]

My father's car is a year old but has a plate that was originally issued in Lanark to an early 1920's BSA motorcycle (2 letters, 4 digits).

It has always been this way for number transfers. Well done for just noticing.

Edited by r11co on Monday 13th January 10:27