I ran into the same queary when I was shopping for my series Rover in
England. Everything was referred to as a "W Reg" and such. When I went over
to the UK to pick up the Rovers, I found that people are very big on the
year of their car, so they all just know the year when looking at the plate.
The guy who I sat next to on the plane to England had just spent two weeks
in Breckenridge skiing with friends. He asked how we determined the year of
the vehicle from the letters and numbers on Colorado plates. When I
explained that there is no rhyme nor reason to the letters and numbers, and
that a vehicle gets new plates every time it changes owners, he was quite
perplexed. "Then how to you know the year of the car by looking at it?" he
asked. I replied that you couldn't. He said that what year your car is in
the UK is a big deal and that some people even put off purchasing a car
until the next year's reg comes out, just so they can have the latest reg.
He was also quite enthralled with the number of types of plates we have here
such as Veteran, Firefighter, CSU Alumni etc. I mailed him the firefighter
plates that came off my Passat so he could show his friends.
Cheers,
Todd Vess
1972 SIII 109" CSW "Effie"
1969 SIIA 109" Pick-up "Annie"
1971 Mini "Minnie"
1990 Range Rover
1993 EuroVan "The Mystery Machine"
PS: here are the regs for 1963-1983. I also have a list (on paper, not
electronic yet) that tells where a vehicle was originally registered in
England. If anyone knows their Landy's original license plate number, I can
look it up, just email me.
This table shows the year letter SUFFIXES - where the year letter is the
LAST letter of the registration number - e.g. "TBX182S" - the letter "S".
A 1963
B 1964
C 1965
D 1966
E 1 Jan 67 - 31 Jul 67
F 1 Aug 67 - 31 Jul 68
G 1 Aug 68 - 31 Jul 69
H 1 Aug 69 - 31 Jul 70
J 1 Aug 70 - 31 Jul 71
K 1 Aug 71 - 31 Jul 72
L 1 Aug 72 - 31 Jul 73
M 1 Aug 73 - 31 Jul 74
N 1 Aug 74 - 31 Jul 75
P 1 Aug 75 - 31 Jul 76
R 1 Aug 76 - 31 Jul 77
S 1 Aug 77 - 31 Jul 78
T 1 Aug 78 - 31 Jul 79
V 1 Aug 79 - 31 Jul 80
W 1 Aug 80 - 31 Jul 81
X 1 Aug 81 - 31 Jul 82
Y 1 Aug 82 - 31 Jul 83
Note that the year suffixes I, O, Q, U, and Z have not been issued. This is
because the letters I and Z are not used in the British numbering system as
they are reserved for Northern Ireland which uses a different system, Q is
not used in the British system ("Q" prefixes are used to show vehicles of
indeterminable age), and O could be mistaken for the number zero. The reason
for the omission of the "U" suffix and prefix remains a mystery!
> From: Rick Grant <rickgrant@telus.net>
> Reply-To: lro@koan.team.net
> Date: Mon, 03 Mar 2003 19:54:49 -0700
> To: "lro@koan.team.net" <lro@koan.team.net>
> Subject: [lro] OT - British Registration Letters
>
>
> This has nothing to do with Land Rovers (oh damn, forgot the hyphen). . .
> Land-Rovers, but there are people who can probably explain this.
>
> Tonight I was reading in the Telegraph about a young policeman who had gone
> off with a very much younger school girl. The newspaper referred to the
> fact that he had left his "K-registered Volvo" behind.
>
> I know that Britain uses letters to designate the year when a vehicle was
> registered or manufactured, I can't remember which.
>
> My question is, why refer to some cryptic letter instead of saying for
> example, a 1989 Wonder Car Supreme?
>
> I also know that the lettering scheme has had many changes over the years
> and does not always follow logic. If so, how does the average person get
> by when newspapers in Britain, and I have noticed the same thing on the
> BBC, refer to letter registrations?
>
> And come to that. Just what year is Doctor Who's runabout? WHO1
>
>
> Rick Grant
> 1959 SII 88"
> VORIZO
>
> Calgary Alberta
> www.rickgrant.com
> _______________________________________________
> LRO mailing list
> LRO@land-rover.team.net
> http://land-rover.team.net/mailman/listinfo/lro
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