number plate check DVLA previous car

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For quite a while , three letters , preceded or followed by up to three numbers was quite normal , and in the fifties they brought out the format of two letters preceded or followed by up to four numbers . The implementation of these formats varied from one local authority to another ; and there could be different groups of numbers allocated to private cars and commercial vehicles ; plus authorities such as the forces also had ( and still have ) their own numbers .

all true - but nothing to with age of vehicle or time of registration....only type of vehicle and place of registration...
 
And build date can be very relevant ; if you import a car which was previously used abroad ; ex pats coming home for example , you will be assigned a plate appropriate to the age of the vehicle ; this happened to my sister who had her Mondeo registered on BFG plates while stationed in Germany , where the car was bought , and it was assigned a D prefix plate when she came home , to reflect the age of the car , although she came home around 1990 ( I know because I went out with my daughter aged about three for their last Christmas over there )

It was assigned a VRM appropriate to the time it was first registered (abroad) - not the build date

Unless your sister declared it a new car import and paid all the relevant new car taxes.....
 
My Stag was first registered on the Isle of Man, but was imported in 1977, so received an R-reg plate, although it would have been a P had it been first registered on the mainland. Just one of those anomalies.
The policy changed at some point : my Ponton was built in 1957 and first registered in Germany , came to the UK in 1964 , and received a B suffix plate . Correspondence with DVLA after I purchased it was quite cordial and , besides commenting that was no longer policy and now (1982) the car would be given an age related plate appropriate to 1957 , they sent on a photocopy of the old style logbook with the names of the three previous UK owners ; I of course knew the one I bought the car from , was able to contact the one before and , alas , the first UK owner was deceased as I found when I went to his address to enquire , but given he was down in the logbook as a Cpl Williams , it is safe to assume he was a British serviceman who bought the car in Germany and brought it back . I also spoke with Herr VonPein in the museum , both by telephone and by correspondence ; he sent me a copy of the build card which would have been on the windscreen in the factory ( not the same as the data card , which he also sent me ) , the consignment note to a dealership in northern Germany , to which the car would have been delivered ... alas the trail went cold there so the car’s first seven years were unknown .
 
It was assigned a VRM appropriate to the time it was first registered (abroad) - not the build date

Unless your sister declared it a new car import and paid all the relevant new car taxes.....
It was bought through some scheme run by the forces , but it was bought new and registered on BFG plates at the time . The car was ordered to her spec so the difference between build date and first registration would have been a matter of days , no more than a week or two .
 
This happens often in the classic car world.
A 1960s vehicle is rebuilt and give a current registration. Or even worse.....a Q plate.
There is a system of ‘points’ for so many original components, and as long as enough are achieved the vehicle retains its original identity and normally can get back its original VRM ; the difficulty arises if different parts of an historic vehicle are used in two separate restorations - suppose someone finds a chassis and builds up a car around it ; then someone else finds engine , gearbox , diff and other components and builds up another car ... which one is the original ? Such things do happen , hence the points system .
 
all true - but nothing to with age of vehicle or time of registration....only type of vehicle and place of registration...
I can’t remember all the details but , truly , it is possible to determine the period of a pre suffix registration , as well as the county and the type of vehicle it would have been assigned to .

A sadly deceased friend was a major nerd about this stuff and was able to tell within a few years when plates would have been issued , as well as where .
 
I can’t remember all the details but , truly , it is possible to determine the period of a pre suffix registration , as well as the county and the type of vehicle it would have been assigned to .

A sadly deceased friend was a major nerd about this stuff and was able to tell within a few years when plates would have been issued , as well as where .


now i think about it, that rings a bell.. as i had a book in the early 70s when i was a nipper which took on all journeys to spot where cars originate...albeit it was for post '63 ("A" Suffix") registrations...
 
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There is a system of ‘points’ for so many original components, and as long as enough are achieved the vehicle retains its original identity and normally can get back its original VRM ; the difficulty arises if different parts of an historic vehicle are used in two separate restorations - suppose someone finds a chassis and builds up a car around it ; then someone else finds engine , gearbox , diff and other components and builds up another car ... which one is the original ? Such things do happen , hence the points system .
My Westfield was on a Q plate. Great for me, no emissions on MOT, just visible smoke so not sure why folk dont like Q plates.
 
I drove a Q plate car for a number of years... it was a company car, Escort van. Apparently some people bought from Ford surplus body shells of the outgoing model, fitted them up with second hand parts, and sold the complete vehicle with Q plates for a quarter of what a similar vehicle normally cost. I believe that from the DVLA's perspective, it was registered as a self-assembled kit car. But apart for the Q plates, it looked just like any other Escort van on the road. I did quite a few miles in it... the 1.8L NA Diesel engine was ridiculously frugal, I once drove from London to Birmingham and back for a fiver (I think that Diesel fuel was 49.5p per litre back then). Eventually the engine went pop after the timing belt broke, and the car was converted to 1.6L petrol (the 1.8L Diesel engines were rarer than hens teeth). This was a major surgery involving new fuel tank and fuel pipes. Somehow the car was never quite the same after that... I left the company shortly after so no idea what became of it.
 
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