Bit of a brain-numbing one this, well to me anyway!

My Dad has bought a new car, comes with a private plate. Dad has current car that's up for sale, with his private plate on it. Picking up new car on Sat, going to PO to get it taxed etc. His current car might possibly be sold by early next week, if the interested buyer comes up with the cash.

So what needs to happen is his current car to go onto its old plates, my Dad's plate to go on the new car and the new car's existing reg to go on retention :confused:

Does this process seem right - and can it all happen in one go? As I can see problems here, if the guy wants to buy and drive away in my Dad's current car next week - which will have to have the old plates back on it.

What's the current cost of a year's retention anyway? He already knows it's gonna cost him

You only need to put the new car's plate on retention if you want to use it again later. I you don't want it, just let it go back into the pool. Otherwise if I remember correctly you pay a transfer fee to get it to retention as well as the retention fee (correct me if I'm wrong someone!)

When you transfer the private plate from his old car to the new one the old car will be assigned a plate from the pool - usually its original one if available.

It should be do-able in a day as long as you go to the DVLA local office and queue for hours with ALL documents! Don't forget tax discs and MOTs which need changing over

(I forgot my MOT when I did mine - caused lots of hassles at tax renewal time)

It is do-able at the same time, in one fairly swift transaction.

I took for MOT's, Insurance, Driver's License, Tax Discs's for BOTH Cars down to the local DVLA office here in Manchester when i did this last year. (nothing like belt and braces, as they say)

Reading the forms, it looked like I had to do it twice - hopefully they've simplified the paperwork since then....

I only queued up for twenty minutes - the advantages of turning up ten minutes after opening - and out of there in twenty-five......

The chap looked at the paperwork, stamped it, only charged me for one service (what??!? a civil service employee using common sense?!!?.

Bit of a brain-numbing one this, well to me anyway!

My Dad has bought a new car, comes with a private plate. Dad has current car that's up for sale, with his private plate on it. Picking up new car on Sat, going to PO to get it taxed etc. His current car might possibly be sold by early next week, if the interested buyer comes up with the cash.

So what needs to happen is his current car to go onto its old plates, my Dad's plate to go on the new car and the new car's existing reg to go on retention :confused:

Does this process seem right - and can it all happen in one go? As I can see problems here, if the guy wants to buy and drive away in my Dad's current car next week - which will have to have the old plates back on it.

What's the current cost of a year's retention anyway? He already knows it's gonna cost him

Thanks guys - will pass the info on. Fingers crossed for a simple process!

Steve

One problem!

When your dad transfers his plate from old car to new car the dvla takes upto 6weeks(usually 2 weeks) to issue a new reg to your dads old car.In this time they(dvla) don't like you to sell the car.

If you can try to transfer the plate thats going on the new car(the car he is selling) and change the owner to the new one(if he buys the car) at the same time.Your dad might have to wait a couple of days or even weeks for the new paperwork,but will save you time.

Hope you understand this(not sure if i do).

When you transfer a plate to retention cert. it will cost about

Thanks for that Jay - he's going on Monday to the same DVLA office as Gwilo (it was the Stretford one you went to wasn't it mate?) so hopefully his positive sounding experience can be repeated....

I'll report back with progress

Steve

I only queued up for twenty minutes - the advantages of turning up ten minutes after opening - and out of there in twenty-five......

You did well - I turned up 30 minutes before opening and still queued for over an hour - in Leeds