A guide to foreign license plates

[Granadaman72]

Interesting read, thanks

[colnerov]

Hi, UK plates don't only tell you when they were registered, they tell you where they were registered.

Colin

[paulmakin]

in Trinidad/Tobago we have a combination of (nowadays) 3 letters and then 1, 2, 3 or 4 numbers.

every plate starts with either P (private), H (private car but licensed and insured for hire), R (rental) or T (trade vehicle). Lettering runs PAA-PAZ, then PBA-PBZ, PCA-PCZ and so on.

the next two letters give you date of registration (not manufacture or import) but are no real guide to anything as there are multiple issues per annum. the number is simply the mathematical order in which vehicles are registered.

we just buy on condition rather than age (as frequently the age will be indeterminate !!). i bought an older cherokee that had been owned by an embassy in Port of Spain and exempt from registration. when i registered it Licensing just allocated it the next available number despite it's being ancient. plates are offically silver on black but, frankly, anything will do.

there aren't many Licensing Offices and it just gets registered in the one nearest to where you buy it (one south, one north and ours on Tobago). and yes, no computerised records, everything done in person including handing over the cash (at Licensing) and getting the certified copy of ownership and having it's identity inspected and physically producing your insurance cert etc etc etc. This, of course means that the seller and the buyer have to be in attendance for the entire process as the seller needs his copy of the transfer papers. which are issued at the very end of the process. in practice, this will turn into buyer, seller, various accomplices and hangers-on, a couple of spare drivers (one to bring the buyer and another to take the seller home), some beer, etc. took me two days to complete the purchase on that cherokee

theoretically, vehicles should be inspected annually (a bit like a mini MoT) but, erm, that's never gonna happen. if you do go for inspection and have some wheels, a bit of brake effort, a light or two and some other bits and pieces then you will earn a little sticker for your screen.

paul

[georgeb]

Ah yes, annual registration. One of my favorites this.

I think we fall more into the Trinidad and Tobago camp than Germany here. See what you think.

Up until recently, all private vehicle plates were 3 letters and 3 numbers, that's now changing and new vehicles get three letters and four numbers, unless they only get two letters and four numbers.



In addition, historically plates were green letters on a white background now they will all be black letters on a white plate, unless they are black letters on a yellow one. This is called 'standardisation'

Your plate number tells you when you have to register. Mine is 111 so it needs to be done in the first week of January. Simple? Well, not really as with the holidays, number coding days (I can't drive between certain hours on a Monday for example) and weekends falling wrong, you can have a little as two days out of the seven to go at.

You arrive at the Land Transport Office around 07:30, if you've got any sense, where they stick an emissions tester up your pipe, The pass certificate for this is PHP400. If you don't fancy the test, then the certificate is around PHP900, but varies depending on the tester's immediate financial and/or nutritional needs.

Then there's the roadworthy-ness test. If you go to one of the big LTO offices, they actually ask you to do weird stuff like turn your lights on. At mine, they take pencil rubbing of your VIN, tick a load of boxes and you've passed.

You then go any buy your 3rd party insurance. It doesn't matter that you are covered fully comp, you just go and buy the third party insurance. This is PHP1000.

Take all this paperwork into the office where a little chappy, or girly, will assess that you have everything you need. If so, you go to Window 7 behind which sits Belen, the Harridan from Hell who looks at you like you're a glob of snot and sticks your paperwork at the bottom of a large pile. You then sit down and sometime later (take your Kindle or other entertainment medium), you get called to another window to pay. This time, because they are 'standardising' the plates, you pay an extra PHP450 for the new ones you don't want.

After parting with your hard earned, you then trot up to window ten to collect your plates and registration sticker. Except you don't and now, nearly seven months later, you are still waiting. Mine last had a registration sticker in 2013 and it's looking fair to stay that way.

There's now a debate in the Senate, no less, about whether all the number plate change malarkey is necessary at all. It also transpires that the DoT didn't actually allocate any budget for the new plates, so they have to save up the PHP450s until they have enough to place a contract.

Good 'ere innit?

[sb]

Ooo, Ill try and write a little something about J plates, however my limited knowledge comes from:

www.licenseplatemania.com/landenpaginas/japan.htm

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vehicle_registration_plates_of_Japan

So the standard J plate goes as so:



So starting at the top, the two characters are where the car is first registered.

Then you have a three digit number, this denotes the vehicle class.

300 (300-399) is for private vehicles over 2000cc

The left most character is 'hiragana', which I believe is essentially the equivalent to a random letter.

Then you have four random digits.

You do not however need four digits, as such:



Also older vehicles and I believe motorcycles under 2000cc use a two digit class:



The plates are colour specific too.

Green text on white is a private vehicle
White text on green is for commercial vehicles
Grey on yellow for private Kei cars
Yellow on Grey for commercial Kei cars

There are a couple others as well.

They also place a seal over one of the screws at first registration which is never removed and the gov. takes a lot of car to track these seals are returned when the vehicle is retired.

Theres also these which you may have seen:



Which are sort of the equivalent of a trade plate, you will notice them on heavily modified cars at shows that cannot be registered normally and these plates allow them to drive them under certain conditions.

Then there are the different and very J ones.

They are introducing the option for local gov. to offer different colours and shapes:



and they also offer plates with clear green text that you can light up from behind:



Side note, I apologise if any of this is incorrect, my understanding is a bit limited but I thought it would be fun to share one of the most interesting plates! If it needs correcting let me know.

[timmy201]

Australia is a bit complicated as each different state has different rules! In NSW the number plate normally represents that registration period of the car. NSW traditionally has black text on a yellow background

All plates are property of the state authority, and should be returned if the car is unregistered. (so you shouldn't really see any hanging up in garages)
If you move a car to a different state you get a new plate
If your registration lapses you should hand in the plate and get a new one when you register again.
It is pretty rare to have an old car on the original plate, many have had the rego lapse and the plate handed in. Many others have been replaced by the reflective ones to meet current standards.
Each state has a different numbering system - you can have the same number combination in different states
Personalised plates are relatively common
Historic plates (suffix H) are for club events only and are technically unregistered (but a lot cheaper)
You can transfer your plate to another car or buy existing plates, and also keep one on hold.
You can pick pretty much any combination of letters and numbers depending on how deep your pockets are.
The current random issue plates are:
Black on yellow xx-00-xx
Black on white xxx-00x

There are many different styles for them to take your money too
m.myplates.com.au/static/products.html

Every 12 months you need a "pink slip" which is a vehicle inspection (rego check). It's under $50
Once you pass the rego check you get a "green slip" which is the compulsory third party insurance (normally $5-600)
After you pay both those you pay the registration fee/tax, which changes depending on the weight of the car (normally under $200). You used to get a sticker to put on the window but they have phased them out now.
You have the option to get property/personal insurance on top (which most smart people do) which can vary. (my 2010 Mazda is under $500)

If your car is unregistered or from a different state you'll need a "blue slip" which is a more in depth test to check vehicle ID and road safety.

[rod6e]

All this makes the UK system sound sensible! Wow, never thought I would say that.

[surprisingskoda]

This thread is interesting and useful and should probably find its way into the useful threads section eventually.

to that end, although reasonably straightforward, here are the NI and RoI plates:


In Eire, "down south", "the Republic", or "the Free State", it works like this nowadays (since 1987):
Year/Year-County/County-Number/Number/Number/Number/Number

So 94-D-34621 would represent the 34,621st registration in Dublin in 1994.
99-SO-1382 is Sligo, 1999, car number 1,382.

All the counties have a two letter identifier which is the first and last letter of the English county name - apart from the cities of Cork-C, Dublin-D, and Limerick-L.
Recently, Tipperary has been changed from TN/TS (Tipp North, Tipp South) to T, and Waterford has changed from WD to W.
The county name in Irish is written in small letters above the reg mark on the plate.
So 90-WH-4399 will have "An Iarmhí" written in small letters above it.

Very newly, you have the year marked as 141-D-xxxxxx or 142-D-xxxxxx. The year has been split into two and the numbers increased to allow for six, because of more new registrations these days.
Size of the plate remains the same as there is no defined law on fonts, so anything goes so long as its legible and the spacing has to be right. It's black on white, front and rear, and can be metal or plastic.

Back in the old days, pre-87, the plates were black with silver writing, or sometimes you could have black on white front with black on red rear.
There was a two digit code always with "I" in it and they were assigned to counties, and then you just had some numbers. Then when those ran up the 26 letters were ran through before the two letters (so you had three letters, but reduced to three numbers to keep it six-digit). When those ran up, they were reversed in the two letter format with the numbers first, and then after that the 26 letters ran before the two. Example:
Cavan used ID 1 to ID 9999. Then AID 1 to ZID 999. Then swapped round to 1 ID to 9999 ID. Then 1 AID to (theoretically) 999 ZID, although the new system came in before they got using all of that sequence.
Every county had a two digit identifier to begin with but they sometimes changed them, or used other ones, or reversed them in different ways. Cork used up it's IF reg, following IF 9999, started ZB 1. So they get very hard to follow. Look it up on wikipedia if you need to follow.
Northern Ireland still uses that system. This was the UK & Ireland system implemented before Ireland became independent. All the Irish boroughs/counties had a Z or an I in the reg and plates were transferable so many of the super old reg numbers being transferred for megabucks were originally from over here.

The registration stays on the car all its life. If you move county, or sell the car to another county, it stays on. So you cannot tell where the car is from, only where it was first registered. There is a slight tendency towards D (Dublin) reg cars (on modern system plates) and a slight prejudice against cars from Cork (C) or Donegal (DL) or even Galway, Sligo or Mayo (G, SO, MO) as they're seen as being poorer area and the plate reflects that. Not that the car is poor, but all the rich people live in Dublin. Or something silly like that, but it is real. I've seen people say, I want such and such a rare car from the 90s - no Cork cars. You can re-reg but its pricey.

When importing a car in, after the VRT (Veh. Reg. Tax) which is many, many Euros no matter what it is, you can choose a current style or old style registration (if the production year allows) - so you could have 67-WX-99021 for example. There are certain number slots set apart for this, but that's not common. Usually people get a age related plate, again there are certain sequences set apart for this.

So, current system is good and clear, old system is a minefield.

Northern Ireland, "the occupied six counties", Ulster, or "Nor'n Ir'n", are still using the system initiated in 1903.
Two letters then 1-4 numbers. In theory this was then reversed to 1-4 numbers then two letters, but most counties grabbed another pair of letters and used those, before then switching back to reverse format.
Enniskillen, county town of Fermanagh, began with IL**** then turned to ****IL.
After that they went to three letters, first one being A-Z in sequence. Nobody has reversed that yet, any county reaching the Zs has then grabbed some new letters.
So Enniskillen followed on with AIL**** to YIL****. Z isn't used as a sequence letter because it's an identifier letter - as mentioned above, Ireland was designated with two digit codes with I or Z in them.
Then when they ran out of YIL, they grabbed IG and started at AIG**** - thus began some of the most sought after numbers produced. BIG 1 anyone? Loads of codes weren't used, notably NIG, and others like ARZ and FUI.

Ballymena (county town of Antrim) used IA****, then DZ, KZ, RZ, then swapped round and did ****IA, DZ, KZ, RZ. Then they started AIA**** to YIA****, then ADZ****-YDZ****, AKZ-YKZ, BRZ-YRZ (no ARZ as it's naughty). They're still on that sequence.

Mainland UK registrations are perfectly acceptable here. Many cars have them, old and new style. When registering a car here that was brought from England, you have the choice of a current NI reg or keeping the UK one. You can also get age related plates and there are so many incomplete sequences from the past, that isn't hard.

Typically NI reg marks are called "dateless" or "Irish". Neither are strictly true - they are a UK legislated mark and Irish (as in Ireland, Republic of) marks cannot be transferred across to UK registered cars, and as for the dateless thing, it's only that it can't be figured out at first glance, but the issue dates for each sequence are no secret so the date is easily known. What is true is that they can be put onto any age vehicle as there is no age identifier on the mark, so they hide the age of the car they adorn.

That's not comprehensive and I'm no expert, but hopefully it is in some way helpful.

[The Doctor]

The Dutch system is very simple, the RDW (dutch DVLA) gives every new car a reg number.
Up untill 1978 it used to be white on blue and a combination of 2 letters and 2x2 numbers.
After that, they changed to different combinations 2x2 letters and 2 numbers) and black on yellow plates. In recent years they ran out of the 2 - 2 - 2 combinations, so they switched to 1 number 3 letter 2 numbers combinations.


Showing the pre 78 blue plates and the normal yellow ones:


the 3 letter plate:


As you can see, there's no age related plates on imported classics, unless it's pre 1978, then it gets a YA, YB or YC plate and you can run blue plates, like on my imported car:



There is a special line of plates specially made for work vehicles, designed to transport max 3 people and a load of stuff (vans/trucks etc. etc.)
They run a V as the first letter.

There's also a light blue type of license plate, especially for Taxi's, to make sure that people don't use illegal taxi's, because they won't have the blue plate.




In the end, there's no real way to tell when a car was first registered in the Netherlands, unless you know which combination was handed out when (and believe me, a LOT of people can tell the month when a combination was handed out, i'm not in that category )

[jonw]

I'll try the English system, but I expect to get shot down in flames.

Ok the original system was up to 4 numbers and 2 letters (eg: SV1234), White numbrs on a black background at both ends. The Letter pairs represented the area the vehicle was sold in (SV is Scotland) and a sequential set of numbers. This was changed to increase the pool of numbers to three letter, and up to three number (e.g. ASV123) The A is a random letter, SV is the registing office and 123 is the incremented number set. In both cases to double the available numbers these could be reversed (e.g. 123ASV).

As a fixed number of registrations was issued to the local offices each year based on the maximum sold in any one district, many offices never used thousands of numbers. These now form the age related plates. SV is common in age related plates for this reason.

Post WW2 the licences offices were re-arranged and the letter pairs changed to suit, but the three letter, three number system was retained. This was not universal as many offices still had spare plates to use up.

from the 1st January 1963 the annual suffix was introduced (EG ASV 123A). This started at A but was not made compulsory until 1965 (C). Up to that date the offices could use up old three letter, three number plates in the usual manner. The three numbers and letters were made up in the same was as described above. Form 1965 onwards they had to use the annual plate. In 1967 the changeover date shifted from January 1st to September 1st, meaning that suffix E only lasted for 8 months before shifting to F. This lasted until 1973 when the plates shifted to black text with a white plate at the front and yellow at the rear. In 1975 the front motorcycle plate (nicknamed the bacon slicer) was outlawed on new machines on pedestrian safety grounds.

In 1984 the number plate did an about-face and became the prefix plate. (e.g. A123 ASV) As before, the A is the year from september 1st, 123 the incremented number, A the random letter and SV the area code. In 1999 the prefix letter was incremented six monthly (March 1st and September 1st) in an effort to spread out new registrations through the year.

The exception is Q. This is for vehicles of unknown or uncertain origin or imports awaiting an age related plate.

In 2001 the system changed. The new system is (AB 02 ABC or AB 52 ABC) AB is the issuing office, 02 or 52 the six month date and ABC the random letters. The date code is the year from 1st march to 31 august or 50+ the year from the 1st September to 28 February. The issuing office codes changed with more being added.

Age related plates are made up from un-used plates from each year. As the DVLA issues the same number of plates for each office based on the highest consumers, there are a lot left over. The most common area codes for age related are the Scottish codes.

The Armed forces have their own system, and any vehicle de-mobbed is registered from the de-mob date, not the build date. The State cars used by the Queen have no registration plates as, not being private vehicles, they do not need to carry a registration plate.

The registration plate stays with the vehicle unless transferred. A vehicle cannot carry a registration plate which is newer than the vehicle. Northern Irish plates are accepted and commonly used on prestige vehicles to hide age.

I hope that makes sense and is correct.....

[MrSpeedy]

Just to add that the letter 'O'and 'Z' were also never used for dating suffix or prefix

I believe because the 'O' could be easily confused with zero (0) and the 'Z' was reserved for Northern Ireland (?)

[georgeb]

Who's have thought this would make an interesting thread?

What could be an little addition would be what are the differing country procedures for replacing a plate (like for like) in the event of loss or damage.

Here, of course, it's an object lesson in mindless bureaucracy!

1. Documentary Requirements (complied with the wellbeing of impoverished lawyers in mind)
Certified  True Copy (by a lawyer) of Certificate of Registration/Original Certificate of Registration (CR)
Certified True Copy (by a lawyer) of Official Receipt/Original Official Receipt (OR) of latest payment of MVUC and other fees 
Affidavit (by a lawyer!) of Loss/mutilation. You tell him it's fallen off and he writes this down and signs a bit that says he's known you 30 years or so. Must all be true then.
Duly accomplished and approved Motor Vehicle Inspection Report (MVIR)
Certification from the LTFRB that MV plates have not been surrendered, in case of for hire MVs
Secretary’s certificate in case MV is in the name of a corporation or DTI certificate of registration in case of sole proprietorship

2. Procedure in LTO:
Proceed to the transaction counters and submit all the required documents to the Evaluator for evaluation and computation of fees. And there'll be lots - take a good wedge of cash.
Actual inspection of motor vehicles with duly accomplished MVIR. This is the one where they take the VIN rubbing. Oh, and you'll probably need another emissions test as well
Proceed to the Cashier when your name is called for the necessary fees and obtain an Official Receipt (OR). Problem is you won't know your name has been called for one of three reasons; 1) you've died of old age, 2) you've fallen into a comatose, vegetative state or, 3) the PA system is so old it'll take half a dozen repeats before anything close to intelligible comes out as you try to pick out and piece together individual sounds each time. Past experience as a code-breaker would help here. 
Proceed to the Releasing Counter when your name is called to obtain the Certificate of Registration (CR), plates, stickers, and other requested documents. Oh no you won't!

That's the best part of a day, right there.

3. If you still have the will to live, you can now order and use improvised plates (in reality a sheet of paper, a felt tip pen and sticky tape) while waiting (way beyond your lifetime) for your LTO plates to be made.

4. If my experience with new plates is anything to go by, the vehicle will be long scrapped before anything is ever issued.

Simples!
  

[surprisingskoda]

Jul 6, 2015 15:23:59 GMT MrSpeedy said:

Just to add that the letter 'O'and 'Z' were also never used for dating suffix or prefix

I believe because the 'O' could be easily confused with zero (0) and the 'Z' was reserved for Northern Ireland (?)

Wouldn't be reserved for ni in that case as we never were issued with suffix or prefix plates, were still on the 1903 system. The pre63 UK plates didn't have z in them though as that was solely used in Ireland as an identifier.

[berendd]

Jul 6, 2015 10:06:28 GMT The Doctor said:

The Dutch system is very simple

as long as you forget about half the stuff...

plates are issued by the RDW and remain in posession of the state. You can not buy official plates without giving back the old set (when plates are damaged) this is first started with the EU plates in 2000 any yellow plates without NL in blue are older than 2000 and not valid anymore.

As long as there has been a central registration of licence plates it has been a combination of numbers and characters in 3 sections. the first licence plate was issues in 1951. The following series have been issued over the years:

Series​ Year​ Combination​
1​ 1951​ XX-99-99
2​ 1965​ 99-99-XX ​
3​ 1973​ 99-XX-99​
4​ 1978​ XX-99-XX ​
5​ 1991​ XX-XX-99 ​
6​ 1999​ 99-XX-XX ​
7​ 2005​ 99-XXX-9​
8​ 2009​ 9-XXX-99​
9​ 2006​ XX-999-X ​
10​ 2008​ X-999-XX ​
​11 ​2015 ​XXX-99-X
X = Character, 9 = Number

If a new series is started, this does not mean all vehicle types get a new combination, the series are filled first before a new series is used. In the next overview the specifics are given for each vehicle type:

​ ​
Scooters and mopeds​
from 01.09.2005 serie 7

from 11.08.2006 serie 9

from 11.12.2008 serie 10

from 16.01.2015 serie 11

Licht utility vehicles (min 1m3 load space max 3500kgs) ​
from 26.02.2009 serie 8​

from 12.12.2012 serie 9

Passenger Cars​
from 20.01.2000 serie 6

from 19.05.2008 serie 7

from 05.03.2013 serie 8

from 30.03.2015 serie 9

heavy utility vehicles (trucks)
from 03.01.1994 serie 5

from 20.07.2012 serie 7

trailers (W-series) ​ from 13.03.2008 serie 6
Motorbikes (50cc +)​ from 19.08.2011 serie 6​
trailers (O-serie) ​ from 01,10.1988 serie 4


category designated characters
Every category uses a unique first character to ID its category;
Mopeds and scooters (up to 50cc) D of F
Trailers (heavier than 750 kg gross) W
semi-trailers O
light utility (up to 3500 kg) V
Heavy Utility (above 3500 kg) B
Bikes M
Passenger cars: G, H, J, K, L, N, P, R, S, T, X and Z.

Forbidden combinations
Since series 4 no vowels are used anymore in the combinations, this excluded the semi-trailer category where this is still used. The characters C and Q are not used as these resemble a 0 and could cause misunderstandings. besides the abbreviations of political parties the following combinations arent used as well: GVD, KKK, NSB, PKK, PSV, TBS, SS and SD.

The above all are yellow background with black inlay:

(the small number is the issue number, a 2 means that this is the 2nd copy, so the first 2 plates with this combination have been lost/stolen)

corps diplomatique use the abbreviation CD


the army uses series 1 plates starting with a K or an L

the royal family uses plates with a short combination AA-99 these plates are the only transferrable plates:


judges and international personell from the high court in the hague uses a combination starting with CDJ


very special vehicles (one-off registrations) without type approval get a ZZ plate, these are MOT exempt as well but are rarely issued

Bikes use a standard yellow plate but are allowed to use a double row, all bike plates use M combinations like:

mine has MF as first characters

taxis use passenger car combinations but are blue with black characters:


Trailers up to 750 kg use a white plate with the same combination as the towing vehicle, so your car needs an extra white plate if a towbar is fitted, weight is gross so deadweight+vehicle weight


temporary (export) plates are white as well, this is an example of a temporary CD plate:


and there are green plates as well, these are trade plates and are for traders (you need a registration with the RDW as a car trader and a pricy insurance on the plate itself. then you can use the plate on any car and drive it or have it test driven by customers.


american cars can get an exemption from the standard size plates, no alternative numberplate surround must be available then the exemption is registered in the papers an a smaller plate can be used:




then mopeds, these are bikes up to 50cc

the ones with a limiter set on 25kmh are issues with blue plates (taxi model) and don't require an helmet, the ones without limiter (maximum speed allowed 40kmh) are issued with a yellow plate. Both have tiny plates:





more?
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vehicle_registration_plates_of_the_Netherlands

Then tax

simple said this is based on weight and fuel

petrol is the standard fuel, lighter vehicle is lower tax, tax bands are 100kgs and start at about 400kg at 8 euro a month for every 100kg 5 euro is added roughly (my 1640kg W210 is 75 euro a month), diesel tax is roughly twice the petrol tax and LPG is roughly twice the petrol tax as well (slightly more than diesel). LPG-G3 or LPI LPG injection which is supposed to be clean is twice the petrol tax -317 euros a year, which works out cheaper than petrol for some smaller cars and doesnt really help with heavy cars.

with new cars a lot of differentiation is made for CO2, basically i have not a clue how this works and it changes about every year as well

cars older than 40 are tax exempt, older than 1987 (will get rolling 30 yrs in 2017) petrol cars are 75% tax exempt (max 121 euro per year) if used only march-november (not allowed on public road DEC-FEB) otherwise full tax, 1975-1987 year old diesel and lpg cars pay full tax.

trailers are not taxed, have to be insured though if issued with their own plates, mopeds are not taxed, bikes cost 8 euro a month (lowest tax band) other vehicles not a clue....

oh and the biggest problem, as a Dutch resident you are not allowed to drive a foreign registered carin the Netherlands at all, you can be sued for tax dodging with very high fines, driving foreign vehicles in other EU countries is not an issue obviously.

complicated? neh...

[The Doctor]

like i said, it's simple

[scimjim]

Jul 6, 2015 14:55:39 GMT jonw said:

The Armed forces have their own system...

In addition, military trailers have their own registration plate unlike the rest of UK where the trailer carries the number of the prime mover.

Until the 80s, private vehicles owned by members of the military in Germany had a unique "BAOR reg." Unfortunately this made them stick out like a sore thumb and eventually the IRA cottoned on and started targeting the occupants. So they switched to standard UK style registrations, issued by DVLA to the BFG office (for RHD - if you owned a LHD car you were issued German plates).

[jonw]

Jul 6, 2015 21:50:27 GMT surprisingskoda said:

Jul 6, 2015 15:23:59 GMT MrSpeedy said:

Just to add that the letter 'O'and 'Z' were also never used for dating suffix or prefix

I believe because the 'O' could be easily confused with zero (0) and the 'Z' was reserved for Northern Ireland (?)

Wouldn't be reserved for ni in that case as we never were issued with suffix or prefix plates, were still on the 1903 system. The pre63 UK plates didn't have z in them though as that was solely used in Ireland as an identifier.

U wasn't used because it could be confused with V and I wasn't used because it could be confused with 1.

Post 2001 letter codes XA to XF (e.g XB 52 ACB) are temporary export plates. Pre 2001 this was signified by the area code XP.

[varelse]

To add to Australia, in Queensland, you need a roadworthy certificate to register a car for the first time, and then providing your rego doesn't lapse, you can carry on as if your car isn't rusting to pieces or that horrible grinding sound isn't your snapped ball joints until you happen to injure someone, at which point all the fingers get pointed at the most convenient scapegoat!
Rego prices in theory go down the longer you have the car registered, but as road taxes and what not are always going up, I don't think I've ever come across a cheaper bill than the year before!

There is one style of plate in Queensland for normal use, which follows a 3 number - 3 letter system. Any numbers and any letters as our transport officials can tell the different between a 0 and a O?
Then there are personalized plates which can run up to about $AU 6,000 for a 7 character one off the shelf, but you often see someone on gumtree trying to palm off something clever for $AU 15,000. There are 'moral' restrictions on plates so A NU START as per Flight of the Concordes probably wouldn't get through. However today I noticed a ute at work that had SH117 which I am surprised got through.

There are historic reg plates which also start with a H for cheaper fees with appropriate restrictions, such as having to show up to a certain percentage of club meets, but you can get around this by registering a personalized plate to your historic club rego and then no one is the wiser unless you do something wrong and give them a reason to look your number up!

Taxi's, buses, trucks and limousines all have their own plates, starting with T, CB, L, that sort of thing.

All non-commercial plates can be done in a variety of flavours and colours for a bit of extra money, so if your black and red camaro needs black and red plates, done! Also, you can usually get a plate in your favourite sportsball team colours with their logo on it somewhere, or all sorts of ridiculous ones like Betty-Boop and Tweety Bird.

Oh, and in Queensland you don't really have to turn in your plates unless the car is written off. So you can lapse it for 5 years with your clever 35C0R7 plates while you figure out where all the rust came from and then just get another roadworthy and register it to those plates.
And you don't change plates when ownership changes. A mate of mine has a car registered in another state under his aunts name still as rego is cheaper there, and we don't think the LPG conversion would clear a roadworthy here in Queensland.
Insurance company is happy to have it's address in Queensland, still.

I think that about covers it. As mentioned earlier, each state is different.

[omnipod]

Great idea for a thread which has re-wakened the 8 year old boy I was, once upon a time in England 1979. It was probably about this time I became obsessed fascinated with the number plate. The realisation that the number plate wasn’t just a jumble of numbers and letters but actually contained information about the car itself was to me, almost a secret code. It needed to be deciphered.
Obviously pre internet so books were the source of information. Yeah, I know. My companion for many a car journey was the David Bellamy I-Spy car numbers book. (Thanks mum!)

Looking back on it now, with three kids of my own in the back of the car on a long journey, I’m sure my mum, dad, brother and sister were pretty fed up of my running commentary of every car that we passed. Still my undeveloped 8 year old social antenna didn’t care and the highlight of the number plate year had to be the 1st of August, new registrations day.

Happily this often coincided with, at the time, the almost 4 hour journey from Manchester to North Wales for our summer hols. This engaged the whole family, probably due to the fact that a packet of Polo mints was the prize for the person who spotted the most brand new cars. Yeah OK, I know now that this was just my parents finding something to amuse us so we didn’t fight in the back of the car, but at the time it was so much more than that.

Ah, happy days and I digress, thought I would write what I could about the number plates in what is now my home, Norway.

As in most countries there have been many changes over the years so I will just concentrate on the current plates. It is possible to go into enormous detail but I’ll try to keep it short.

Firstly the plate follows the vehicle its whole life, it is just as much a part of its identity as the VIN plate. The plate itself is the property of the government and must be returned to the licensing authority when the vehicle is taken off the road. Of course this means that the manufacture of number plates is strictly controlled and if one or both plates are stolen from a vehicle it will be issued a new number and plates.

The current letter and number combination of two letters followed by 5 numbers came into use in 1. April 1971. It isn’t possible to choose ‘private registrations’

The current plate design came into use the 1st November 2006 and looks like this:



This style can be used on any petrol or diesel vehicle paying the full road tax.

Plates with specific letter combinations are issued for the following vehicles
• EL: Electric vehicles (fra 01.01.1999)



• GA: Gas driven vehicles, usually LPG or CNG (Compressed Natural Gas)



• HY: Hydrogen driven vehicles



The other most common type is the green ‘van’ plate. This, in simple terms, is used on light goods vehicles with no more than three seats. These vehicles also pay less road tax then vehicles with normal white plates.



From 1993 to 2012 a sticker was placed on the plates (a different colour every year) to signify that road tax had been paid for the vehicle. As with the British tax disc this system has now been discontinued.

Before the current system was introduced there were numerous variations of numbers or number and single letter systems but these were often reused or re-assigned to different vehicles so it isn’t unusual for classic cars to have had several registered numbers in their lifetime. It is still possible for owners of pre 1971 cars to choose their own combination of letter and up to 4 to 6 numbers as long as it hasn’t been used before.

My Austin has R-6418 which isn’t as far as I can tell not the original, it appears someone has re-registered it to include the year of manufacture ie. 1964

My Triumph being post 1971 has DB 73810 and cannot be changed.

I could go on but there are lots of different plates for different vehicle classes, this picture shows what the plates available for newly registered vehicles.

[bstardchild]

Jul 6, 2015 14:55:39 GMT jonw said:

I'll try the English system, but I expect to get shot down in flames.

I think you did a fine job - I had to explain the system to a French student a while back and whilst "we" think it's simple it's not the easiest system to explain because of the changes of format over the years.

Jul 6, 2015 14:55:39 GMT jonw said:

The registration plate stays with the vehicle unless transferred. A vehicle cannot carry a registration plate which is newer than the vehicle.

I'd like to add a little footnote to this - When "plate raping" started getting more common DVLA were caught out - Some cars with ABC 123 style plates had their regs transfered and as a result they had to have new plates allocated - frequently ABC 123A plates were issued (DVLA at the time were viewed as not having any value - of course later they did) - this actually contravened their own rules making cars appear newer than they actually were so eventually they had to issue replacement "dateless plates".

In order to comply with their own rules they issued ABC 123 style plates but made them "non transferable" so the vehicle couldn't be "plate raped" again.