How does the mainland UK car reg system work? For instance, whats the difference in a 53 plate & a 04 one?

havanadig

6 Months, 53 plate is oct 03 and 04 is march 04

thatmadlass

50 means it was registered in the 2nd half of 2003

04 means it was registered in the 1st half of 2004

james.houghton

The number refers to the year, a 53 or 03 plate means that the car was sold (brand new) in 2003. The first two letters refer to the town/city in which it was registered.

stdaveuk

Right...We used to have a new registration letter/number once a year, but now we have it every 6 months. So 03 comes out first in 2003, then 6 months later you have 53. Then 6 months later 04 then 6 months after that 54, and so on !

BloominEck

The first letter refers to the registration district, e.g. S for Scotland, L for London, Y for Yorkshire etc. The next letter then refers to a DVLA office within that district; in Scotland A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H & J represent Glasgow. The numbers reflect the year in which the car was registered, but they change every six months in March and September, so 06 is for cars registered between March and August 2006. For cars registered between September and February, 50 is added to the year number. So, in July 2012, for example, the number will be 12 and then from September 2012 to February 2013, the number will be 62. The next three letters are sequentially assigned and mean nothing.

Come 2050, the system will reverse, and we will have three sequential letters, two numbers (but this time you will subtract 50 from the year number for plates between September and February) followed by the two regional identifiers. So a car registered in Glasgow in July 2076 will be something like ABC 76 SH, and if registered in November 2076 will be ABC 26 SH.

It's a reasonably complicated, but clever system that will last 100 years, far, far longer than the four previous numbering systems we've had.

Adam T

The second digit is the year i.e 04 means the car was first registered in 2004. The first digit means which part of the year. 0 means it was registered in the first six months of the year and the 5 means the last six months

fred405

Two dates of registration are represented by 0 as 1st March and 5 as 1st September. The next part of the number refers to the year i.e. 03 = March 2003 and 54 Sept 2004 and so on. Gets confusibg when a car registered on say 28 February 2004 would still carry a 53 plate. So it's between ! Sept and 28/9 February and 1st March and 31 August.
Got it or still confussed. We have been for years

I have a 53 plate - 53 means the car was first registered between August 2003 & February 2004. In April 2004 it becomes an 04 then in August it becomes 54 .. eg sh53 *** (SH means the car was registered in Glasgow ) Hope that makes some sense..

srracvuee

cant add to what you have been told

Michael I

New registration prefixes are issued twice a year 6 months apart.
For the first 6 months it is the year eg 03 and then for the latter six months it becomes 53. Consequently 53 represents the last 6 months of 2003 and 04 represents the first 6 months of 2004.

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