Alot of FD prefix Toyotas in marketplace now- ideas?

[Hugo Stiglitz]

Google says that they are registered in the Dudley area and are ex Toyota owned cars however I need to discount that they are leased on to hire or business lease to the likes of taxi/commercial use.
Anyone know anything about said cars?

[Chris_i8]

If memory serves me right the GU/GV prefix are HQ cars and the FD/FE are what are punted out to hire companies and insurance companies etc.
ERAC (Enterprise) used to appear on the logbook - it was 20yrs ago that I worked at a dealer so could well have changed in that time.

[ThingsBehindTheSun]

Bound to be hire cars. Don't forget Zipcar closed down at the start of the month so will no doubt be disposing of their cars soon.

I am seeing tons of 25 plate MG3 Hybrids registered in London with 12K+ miles on the clock coming up for sale which I am certain are ex Zipcar cars.

[drmike37]

F is the prefix for East Mids (etc). Massive Toyota factory in Derby. They'll be a big fleet order (hire, big lease co maybe).

[Hugo Stiglitz]

I suppose if its 1yr old/less than 10k miles it's not a biggie is it if its an auto.

[SteBrown91]

If its F* and higher spec its a pretty good chance its an ex employee lease car.

I live near the factory and its sometimes a bit like that Fiat 500 skit from Top Gear years ago they are everywhere.

Edited by SteBrown91 on Thursday 29th January 19:09

[Hugo Stiglitz]

Yes confirmed there's been a big influx of FD prefix 'Toyota approved' vehicles hitting the showrooms. Alot of those that Ive seen dont seem to match their <10k mileage.

[sixor8]

FD was the area for cars registered in the Dudley area (2nd and 3rd letters on the reg.) up until the change of format in 2001. Anything starting with an F* since 2001 is now Forest and Fens:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vehicle_registration...

[codenamecueball]

A quick look on BCA shows F* cars coming from Kinto, Toyota's finance arm, so employee cars?

Though a lot of those Yorkshire plated C-HR's are ex-United, so ex daily rental.

Basically if it's a year old, it's got a higher chance of being ex-Enterprise/Europcar/etc, because who else is buying transporters worth of cars and disposing of them at 10,000 miles? It means it's been cleaned every few days, might have been ragged, might not have, same as any other car.

[Dal3D]

When I put my GR86 for Sale and took the private plate off, it went to a FM72 plate. I assumed it was because they all got registered by Toyota in Derby HQ before distribution in late 2022.

[SteBrown91]

Dal3D said:

When I put my GR86 for Sale and took the private plate off, it went to a FM72 plate. I assumed it was because they all got registered by Toyota in Derby HQ before distribution in late 2022.

No if it’s had a private plate on from new (and never issued a normal plate) then I think it gets a plate that corresponds to your “area” at the time it’s issued.

My girlfriend’s car had a private plate from new, and when she got it it was issued with a “BF” prefix plate. I don’t think I’ve ever seen another car with a BF prefix.

[Deerfoot]

My old MINI had a BF prefix, bought new in Solihull.

[sixor8]

BF is Birmingham, unsurprisingly, (BA to BX).

[Maxym]

SteBrown91 said:

No if it s had a private plate on from new (and never issued a normal plate) then I think it gets a plate that corresponds to your area at the time it s issued.

My girlfriend s car had a private plate from new, and when she got it it was issued with a BF prefix plate. I don t think I ve ever seen another car with a BF prefix.

When I took my personal plate off a car owned from new, it got a Manchester reg. I live in Bucks. Go figure…

[blue_haddock]

drmike37 said:

F is the prefix for East Mids (etc). Massive Toyota factory in Derby. They'll be a big fleet order (hire, big lease co maybe).

I used to work at Toyota in Burton on trent and we basically did all the servicing for the burnaston plant.

All our cars and those from the factory were registered with an F prefix under forest and fens area.