I'm about to place an order for an elegance hatchback - the dealer has said it's about a 20 week wait on factory builds but I should expect it end of Jan sort of time.

As this is close to the March plate change I've said I either want it earlier than end of Jan or wait for it to be a 15 plate.

Question is.... are the residual values between a late "64" and a 15 plate going to be that much different or am I worrying about nothing??

Yes, they will be different.

So it'll be worth a bit more come resale time, but you'll miss out on having it for 8 weeks or so.

 

Depends what's important to you.

Makes very little difference to be honest....Other factors such as model, engine choice, mileage and general condition, maybe optional spec to a lesser degree will affect the value more so than the plate.

Let's face it, 6 months later it's an old reg again anyway....I faced a similar situation wait another two weeks for a car I'd already waited two months for or have the car immediately, I chose to have it immediately.

It is of course down to what your preference is....I've had three new cars in three years TBF so the plate thing is no a little lost on me anyway.

I'm about to place an order for an elegance hatchback - the dealer has said it's about a 20 week wait on factory builds but I should expect it end of Jan sort of time.

As this is close to the March plate change I've said I either want it earlier than end of Jan or wait for it to be a 15 plate.

The dealer has little control over the wait time so telling him you want it earlier will probably get you nowhere. If you order & want a 15 plate and it arrives in January do you want the dealer to store it until March & if you are taking finance or have a p/ex then what????

I agree with "pipsyp" after 6 months it's an old reg. If you want the car get it ordered & when you get it enjoy it & forget what's on the reg plate.

Newer plate will always be worth more for the same car. Assuming you keep the car for 3-years a 65 will be worth ~£500 more than a 15. If you sell it sooner the difference will be greater, keep it longer and differences will reduce.

 

If delivery is within a month or so of a new plate then wait for the new plate.

Sorry for slightly hijacking the topic / going off topic, but what is this 'plate' thing in the UK I hear you guys about so often? 

 

I get that you are referring to the license plate(s) but why would anyone care what plates a car has? Can anyone explain this to me?

the united kingdom number plate system donates the 6 monthly period the car is registered from new.

 

??64???  is 1st of September 2014 to the 1st of march 2015

??14??? is 1st of march 2014 to the 1st of September 2014

Ok so basically plates 'show' the registration period of the car, meaning you can see what year it's from?

 

How does this influence the value of the car?

Ok so basically plates 'show' the registration period of the car, meaning you can see what year it's from?

 

How does this influence the value of the car?

Yes

 

a newer plate has more desirability than an older one for some people

 

Unlike in Nederland where you need to be in the know to figure out how old a car is

Vanity. That's basically it. People want others to know that their car is newer than yours.

Ok so basically plates 'show' the registration period of the car, meaning you can see what year it's from?

 

How does this influence the value of the car?

 

If you take two identical cars, made one after the other in the factory,  registered a week apart, one on each side of the number plate change over then the 14 plate car will appear 6 months older then the 64 plate car. People will look more favourably on the apparently younger car. 

 

It's nowhere near as big a thing as a face lift or new model of the car though. That instantly wipes a good deal of the value of any of the older cars. 

I wouldn't care at all what number plate my car has and how new it looks.    The car you buy is instantly old and a few £thou less when you drive out of the showroom.  If you are keeping it a number of years, the compared value of the  64 & 15 reg plate is not going to be of any significance but the condition of the car will.

OP, it'll depend greatly on how you intend to sell-on the car, a dealer will price the car by the Glasses valuation and therefore, Jan15 is Jan15 price, private buyers will be swayed by a plate though.

 

On the good news side, I think your dealer has mis-quoted you the estate lead-time whereas the hatchback I believe is currently 13 weeks, I saw it posted on here very recently, should help with your decission.

I ordered mine sept last year,refused to pick it up till march 1st so its a 14 to sell,although it wears a personal plate,i cant be doing with this plate nonsenense,the dealer then in my case put down a need by date, so it was delivered mid feb and that got him round the 10 day thing,hoping il get a bit more for it next year when il buy an l&k

Sorry for slightly hijacking the topic / going off topic, but what is this 'plate' thing in the UK I hear you guys about so often? 

 

I get that you are referring to the license plate(s) but why would anyone care what plates a car has? Can anyone explain this to me?

 

To add a bit more to the explanations you've had it works as said in March and September

 

So plates go from what we are on currently with 64 since September to

15

65

16

66

17

67 and so on.

 

Basically the half year one in September adds 50 to the actual 2 digit year.

 

UK plates have a very rigid structure in their layout and have always had a set structure in all the various layouts that have been used. They have done for decades for original plates (vanity plates are a whole other issue).

 

EA14WFB would be a car registered in the county of Essex from the first 2 characters, registered between March and August 2014. The final 3 characters are just randomly assigned.

 

The wikipedia article is quite a good read of how it works.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vehicle_registration_plates_of_the_United_Kingdom,_Crown_dependencies_and_overseas_territories#Current_system

 

As others said, it's a vanity thing, just like the reason we have 2 plate revisions a year that it is entirely for small minded showing off to people who think a few weeks newer means a car is going to be much better. As a result we have this annoying plate snobbery and that identical cars can find one is less valuable than another if registered even just 24hours apart. I'd personally prefer if we did one change a year.

They brought in the twice yearly plate change because of delivery issues, shortages of components, the stockpiling of vehicles at dealerships, PDI's not being carried out correctly due to the volume of cars waiting for the 1 St August.

The way round it is if you were issued a plate which you have for life. No plate snobbery, no excuse for forgetting your VRN either.

Fin

to add my 2p,

 

I bought my van nearly 4 years ago...

 

I do 20k a year in in, it arrived end of Jan, dealer was happy to wait until March... but I took it on 7th Feb....

 

1) I thought that the fact it seemed a bit older meant that the perceived mileage was actually less come resale

 

2) My previous van lunched its turbo 2 weeks into the 14 week order, and I was running around in a 15 year old transit (but mostly point 1)

 

 

van is a VW T5GP 4motion 140 with a few extras and I think it will sell ok regardless of whether it is Sept '10 or March '11....

 

I think mileage, spec, condition are much more important unless you are changing under 3 years

 

John

 

 

(And I'm expecting to collect my octavia about the start to middle of Feb too, hopefully..... but tried to use it as a way of getting discount and let them put it in Februarys sales)

Edited 19 October, 201411 yr by johnthesparky