Does anyone have experience of purchasing a used Skoda where the registration is not "local" to their area?. I've found an old post in the Superb forum which goes a long way to explaining how to identify registrations belonging to Skoda Head office (manangement) cars, press/test cars etc, but I am particularly interested in anything starting with a D. The DVLA web site says that D plates will be registered in Chester or Shrewsbury, but can someone please let me know the relevance of this? There was a brief mention in the old article that D plate cars are probably "lease" vehicles, but I am not sure exactly what was meant by the comment. Any help would be very much appreciated. Thanks

Here you go, should help a bit

https://www.newreg.co.uk/dvla-number-plate-identifiers/

Skoda do not have that many in Management, or Press cars etc in the UK.

They Register vehicles to go to Fleet, Lease. Demonstrators etc etc

So ask the Seller who the Registered Keeper was but also who the people driving were, like Driving Schools, Utility Companies, Security or even Police use, 

or just Hire cars or Leased to an Individual or Family.

 

1 Keeper does not mean one Driver, but the term Management Vehicles mean nothing and it is unlikely a Senior Manager of the Volkswagen Group in the UK 

was given a Fabia as a Company car.

 

Buy on Condition and price and if you ask a salesperson about a vehicles known history have them put it in writing if they know, 

and still in writing if they do not.

Does anyone have experience of purchasing a used Skoda where the registration is not "local" to their area?. I've found an old post in the Superb forum which goes a long way to explaining how to identify registrations belonging to Skoda Head office (manangement) cars, press/test cars etc, but I am particularly interested in anything starting with a D. The DVLA web site says that D plates will be registered in Chester or Shrewsbury, but can someone please let me know the relevance of this? There was a brief mention in the old article that D plate cars are probably "lease" vehicles, but I am not sure exactly what was meant by the comment. Any help would be very much appreciated. Thanks

I believe D is linked to 'Deva' as Chester was known in its early days as a Roman settlement. Officially it's down as 'Deeside' which is nearby to Chester but I'm fairly sure it's the reference to 'Deva'. Mine's a D. They definitely aren't lease vehicles - all of my cars post 2001 have had a D identifier and none of them have been leased.

Edited 27 October, 20169 yr by Octy09

Skoda do not have that many in Management, or Press cars etc in the UK.

They Register vehicles to go to Fleet, Lease. Demonstrators etc etc

So ask the Seller who the Registered Keeper was but also who the people driving were, like Driving Schools, Utility Companies, Security or even Police use,

or just Hire cars or Leased to an Individual or Family.

1 Keeper does not mean one Driver, but the term Management Vehicles mean nothing and it is unlikely a Senior Manager of the Volkswagen Group in the UK

was given a Fabia as a Company car.

Buy on Condition and price and if you ask a salesperson about a vehicles known history have them put it in writing if they know,

and still in writing if they do not.

Many thanks for the reply. So even though the registered keeper on the V5 may say Skoda Uk, it could quite possibly (probably) be that the car has not been provided to, or been driven by, Skoda UK employees if it has a " D" registration plate ( I am in an "H" registration plate area). Thanks..

Edited 27 October, 20169 yr by ted1888

The Registration plate does not matter it just shows they use a Licencing Office there.

Lots used to have a Milton Keynes registration be it Skoda or VW's.

 

Lots of Leased vehicles will have Scottish Registrations & not just ones that stayed in Scotland long.

There are Locations where vehicles arriving in the UK are prepared and Registered near the ports of entry.

Edited 27 October, 20169 yr by Offski

I had a  " D " reg Skoda MKII Octavia Vrs TSi DSG ( FL ) Reg number DA11HYL. I bought it at 6 months old with less than 5K miles on the clock. The V5 stated the first owner was Skoda HQ. The dealer told me it was a Management car, probebly sent to get the sarnies for Lunch.

 

I rang Skoda CC and they told me the same story

 

Might be true, might not but it was a cracking motor, well looked after...............

 

 

My local dealer had a list of Reg numbers on his computer with all the starting letters, it told him which ones were owned by/leased to etc etc and which ones to steer clear of 

Edited 27 October, 20169 yr by Auric Goldfinger

A lot of the VW and Skoda UK cars seem to be on G prefix plates these days, Kent.

Maybe there is a prep centre at Sheerness in Kent where a lot come in on the boat.

You'll see hire cars and vans on these G plates and also a lot of skoda uk used cars on G also at dealers.

Lots of BMWs are on Y prefix as they have a prep centre at Grimsby where the cars come in.

Trouble is when the v5 says skoda uk or vw financial services how can you tell if its a management or employees car or an ex daily rental?

Anyone remember the good ol' days when you knew a car was out of area by the number plate? People didn't travel so much in those days and  a Devon plate,for example,in Lancashire stood out.

 

Of course I'm an ancient trainspotting anorak so maybe I'm on my own here?..............I'll get my coat.

Lots are not used that hard.

The Manufacturers are getting them Registered in a Quarter of the year so they can say they have been a sales success, they are out on the roads to get miles on with favoured fleet users and then changed over for newer models.

Its a game the UK registration system allows where vehicles are first registered and some Manufacturers boast of top ten vehicles on a list 

and then the vehicles sell 2nd hand and the Manufacturers / Dealers say how good residuals are yet they were there cars and returned to themselves so they are theirs to sell used.

So, a Fabia SEL on a "D" plate, aged about 9/10 months old with (say) 3000 miles on the clock is most likely to have been used for what purpose/driven by what type of person?

You'd have to ask and look at the v5 to see who owned it.

Likely to be a dealer demo or courtesy car or maybe (unlikely) a rejection from a customer?

Edited 28 October, 20169 yr by glosrich

Dx was probably from the Bentley employee car scheme given the age and miles, Kx is from the Skoda VW scheme in Milton Keynes, Gx is an ex hire car. (x means any letter basically). Dx is actually local to me, my Superb being DF locally registered at Robert Eardley in Stoke. But I had plenty of Dx cars when I worked at Bentley. Our recent Fabia 3 purchase is KX which is ex Skoda / VW UK.

 

I wouldn't (and didn't) hesitate in buying an ex Bentley or Skoda / VW UK car because I know how exacting the return standards are. Returning a car was worse than a dentist visit or MOT.

 

BTW in case its not clear, those reg numbers only mean the above, if the previous owner was VW UK or Skoda UK. Those area letters are in general use too.

Edited 28 October, 20169 yr by lowedb

Anyone remember the good ol' days when you knew a car was out of area by the number plate? People didn't travel so much in those days and  a Devon plate,for example,in Lancashire stood out.

 

Of course I'm an ancient trainspotting anorak so maybe I'm on my own here?..............I'll get my coat.

 

Yep I remember. Cars from Leicester used to end in BC, JF and FP amongst others.

 

 

BTW in case its not clear, those reg numbers only mean the above, if the previous owner was VW UK or Skoda UK. Those area letters are in general use too.

 

Although a Skoda and although on a KE plate - it's nothing to do with Skoda UK. Our fleet company and supplying dealer are nr Watford.

Yep I remember. Cars from Leicester used to end in BC, JF and FP amongst others.

 

 

 

Although a Skoda and although on a KE plate - it's nothing to do with Skoda UK. Our fleet company and supplying dealer are nr Watford.

I thought BC was coventry or `nuneaton. Not sure really.

 

And yes That's kind of my point. KE could be loads of other things, but if previous owner was Skoda UK or VW UK then it's a management car. The guy at our local Skoda dealer seemed to think he had one up on us when he said that the cars available from Skoda stock were all ex hire cars, until he found out I knew about he Bentley and SUK / VWUK schemes. After that he was happy to sell us one of those, and the dealer system, confirmed the exact source.

The term Management car has no guarantee that the person driving is an employee of the Volkswagen Group only that the Volkswagen Group were the owners & Registered Keepers because the Vehicle was at Franchised Dealerships or those Leasing.

 

Tens of thousands of VW Group Management cars in the UK every year and only hundreds of VW UK, Skoda UK etc employees, as the CEO told the Westminster Committee 

he appeared in front of to answer questions on the Defeat Device Emissions Scandal.

 

Edited 28 October, 20169 yr by Offski

I thought BC was coventry or `nuneaton. Not sure really.

 

And yes That's kind of my point. KE could be loads of other things, but if previous owner was Skoda UK or VW UK then it's a management car. The guy at our local Skoda dealer seemed to think he had one up on us when he said that the cars available from Skoda stock were all ex hire cars, until he found out I knew about he Bentley and SUK / VWUK schemes. After that he was happy to sell us one of those, and the dealer system, confirmed the exact source.

 

AC was Coventry and I had a Citroen XZ ending VAC.

Dx was probably from the Bentley employee car scheme given the age and miles, Kx is from the Skoda VW scheme in Milton Keynes, Gx is an ex hire car. (x means any letter basically). Dx is actually local to me, my Superb being DF locally registered at Robert Eardley in Stoke. But I had plenty of Dx cars when I worked at Bentley. Our recent Fabia 3 purchase is KX which is ex Skoda / VW UK.

 

I wouldn't (and didn't) hesitate in buying an ex Bentley or Skoda / VW UK car because I know how exacting the return standards are. Returning a car was worse than a dentist visit or MOT.

 

BTW in case its not clear, those reg numbers only mean the above, if the previous owner was VW UK or Skoda UK. Those area letters are in general use too.

Many thanks for this detailed explanation. Believe it or not, I didn't even know where the Bentley factory was! Looks as though I should not be too concerned about buying a D plate car (with Skoda Uk named on the V5). All we need to do now is decide between new and used. Also thanks to everyone else who has contributed to my original thread.

Bear in mind you can get up to 20% off list price and 0% finance. So the used cars have to be a fair bit cheaper than that to be viable.

A lot of the VW and Skoda UK cars seem to be on G prefix plates these days, Kent.

Maybe there is a prep centre at Sheerness in Kent where a lot come in on the boat.

You'll see hire cars and vans on these G plates and also a lot of skoda uk used cars on G also at dealers.

Lots of BMWs are on Y prefix as they have a prep centre at Grimsby where the cars come in.

Trouble is when the v5 says skoda uk or vw financial services how can you tell if its a management or employees car or an ex daily rental?

Presume BMW register these cars in Hull, as Grimsby is south of the Humber and not in Yorkshire. Thought they would be F reg, for Lincolnshire.

Anyone remember the good ol' days when you knew a car was out of area by the number plate? People didn't travel so much in those days and a Devon plate,for example,in Lancashire stood out.

Of course I'm an ancient trainspotting anorak so maybe I'm on my own here?..............I'll get my coat.

You can still do it to a degree, I guess, but cars also travel around the country a lot more now simply to get sold. My previous car (a DS3) was registered with a D prefix, but at the end of its PCP, got taken to somewhere in the Midlands for its auction - so who knows where it is now. It is less interesting now, though... Definitely agree on that front.

You can still do it to a degree, I guess, but cars also travel around the country a lot more now simply to get sold. My previous car (a DS3) was registered with a D prefix, but at the end of its PCP, got taken to somewhere in the Midlands for its auction - so who knows where it is now. It is less interesting now, though... Definitely agree on that front.

I'm still a bit of an anorak and look at number plates - I seem to have my own in-built ANPR - you're right about cars moving about more when they get sold - I see a lot of non-'S_' plates in Glasgow, 'N_' and 'P_' probably being the most common (unsurprisingly). My 'SE'-plate MKI Fabia ended up in Cheshire (buyer travelled up from Nantwich) and my 'SG'-plate MKII surfaced in Sussex.

I'm still a bit of an anorak and look at number plates - I seem to have my own in-built ANPR - you're right about cars moving about more when they get sold - I see a lot of non-'S_' plates in Glasgow, 'N_' and 'P_' probably being the most common (unsurprisingly). My 'SE'-plate MKI Fabia ended up in Cheshire (buyer travelled up from Nantwich) and my 'SG'-plate MKII surfaced in Sussex.

I'm the same. Down here around Merseyside, pretty much anything with an Arnold Clark sticker on the back has an 'S_' prefix. I guess because they're all registered from AC's HQ perhaps...

I`m a bit of  a number plate nerd and in the good days prior to the new registration system, vehicles in East Kent had K as the second letter on the 3 with the third being between E-P. There is a mass of evidence of this with East Kent Buses on google images. Another popular East Kent reg was FN! 

 

So my ideal modern number plate would be something like (G being our prefix) GJ66 KKE. 

 

https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=east+kent+buses&espv=2&biw=1259&bih=886&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiduYLjoLDQAhWKL8AKHXWdDBcQ7AkIQQ&surl=1#imgrc=fStBLfxY9fg0pM%3A

I have always assumed that all sensible dealer chains moved trade-ins away from their original registration area - maybe to avoid any nasty history being aquired by the next owner, just a thought!

 

Certainly when I bought my secondhand S4 buying it from its original selling garage was a bit different - I'd never had that before when buying secondhand.