Can anyone clarify the difference in the use or whatever of the two types of number plate in a given year - so this year it'll be LL15 LLL or LL65 LLL.

 

I'd always understood that the number of that year - so this year 15 - was used from March - October, with the 50-year-higher number running between October of that year and March of the next.

 

However, the DVLA are advertising 65 plates as being available to buy from June, which seems to blur the lines...

 

Also, what happens in 2050/51? New format of numberplate?

 

 

15 runs March to September.  

If you buy a 65 Plate you can have it on a vehicle being first registered in September 2015, not before.

 

2050 is too far on for me to worry about as i am unlikely to be driving.

Edited 26 May, 201511 yr by goneoffSKi

As George says, you can buy the right to display a specific 65 reg plate in June, but you can't actually put it on a car until September 2015. Which must be new.

Read somewhere it will be like this after 2050:

ABC 51 AB

At the moment:

AB 15 ABC

/\ cant wait to find that one out

Logical choice, considering they did the same in 1983 going from ABC 123A to A123 ABC.

As above, you cannot make a car look newer than it actually is, so a 65 plate cannot be displayed on a car first registered before September 2015.

Why can yez not just adopt the rep of irl number plate system? So much less confusing and incredibly (the biggest shock of it given how over complicated we tennd make thngs..) simple 151 T 1234 is the 1,234th vehicle registered in Co.Tipperary in first half 2015. 152 will be all vehicles regged after july 1st of 2015. Each of the 26 counties has a letter designation. It makes guesstimating ghe exact age of a vehicle easier, higher the numbers bit the later in the yr it was first registered..

Probably because the current system works rather well, and because just last year UK Car Registrations was near 2.5 Million,

then there were all the other first registered vehicles, Bikes, HGV's, Light Goods etc.

Lots of Registration Numbers / letters required annually compared to Ireland.

Why can yez not just adopt the rep of irl number plate system? So much less confusing and incredibly (the biggest shock of it given how over complicated we tennd make thngs..) simple 151 T 1234 is the 1,234th vehicle registered in Co.Tipperary in first half 2015. 152 will be all vehicles regged after july 1st of 2015. Each of the 26 counties has a letter designation. It makes guesstimating ghe exact age of a vehicle easier, higher the numbers bit the later in the yr it was first registered..

A, we have more cars.

B, confusing? Really?

Anyway, to answer the OPs questions, you can buy number plates before they are valid on the road to allow you time to get a new car, and yes the format will change after fifty years, quite possibly by being flipped back to front.

As George says, you can buy the right to display a specific 65 reg plate in June, but you can't actually put it on a car until September 2015. Which must be new.

Why would anyone actually Buy the plate several months before it can be used?

He who hesitates is lost.

 ie,  so that you get it and do not lose the Registration Number you want to buy, and you know you have it, some people might not put it on

even in the first year after they buy it, but it is on retention for when they want to put it on a vehicle.

People might be buying more than 1 Registration Plate, just a couple or several in a Series of Letters or Numbers for Family or Business Vehicles.

Edited 27 May, 201511 yr by goneoffSKi

Why would anyone actually Buy the plate several months before it can be used?

 

To stop someone else buying it, and because it takes a lot longer to buy a car and wait for it to be built, so you need time to sort out the vehilcle to put it on.

Why would anyone actually Buy the plate several months before it can be used?

 

It's also worth noting that if you purchase a Reg Number it still isn't yours. the number is still owned by the DVLA and you are paying for the privilage to display the number. If you alter the number,  i.e  mis-space, wrong font etc you may have it taken off you, No refund

You brits are crazy :p

But we a bit of the same here. Some people will register their car in an other region just to get the right letters on their plate.

I'm still looking for BA11BAG

 

Anyone got it?

I waited 15 years to get my 15 number plate (my name is Kris... easy to guess what it is!)... was just gonna keep it on paper, but gave in very quickly and purchased a new car to stick it on hehe. Purchased it the day it was released just in case someone else wanted the same one as me (slim but didnt want to take the risk)