What is a Reg?

Korr · 30 Dec 2002, 09:59 (Ref:459990)

Every now and then I will see someone refer to their car as K reg or some other such.

What does this mean? Miles? Condition of the vehicle? Tax code?

Thanks.

Carrie · 30 Dec 2002, 12:08 (Ref:460031)

I'm sure someone will give a better explanation than me. But here goes for starters.
Full title - registration plate.
The type of reg you're referring to was introduced in the 1960s and started with the letter A. The plate was changed annually (In August (?) I'm hopeless on dates) so that the letter actually signifies the age of the car. Some letters weren't used, like Q (I believe that's used on cars that have been an insurance write off or some other things), O because it'd get confused with zero and Z because it could get confused with a 2.
Initially car regs would be something like AAA 12A. The first series of letters used to identify the town, but don't ask me what all the town codes were

Two or three random numbers and then the reg letter. Once it had gone through the alphabet one way, things were swapped round and it ran through the alphabet with the reg letter at the front of the plate ie A12 AAA.
Just to confuse matters, for the last few regs under that system, the plate changed every 6 months.
Now, we've moved onto this system http://www.dvla.gov.uk/vehicles/regm...ent_system.htm

medler · 30 Dec 2002, 14:20 (Ref:460123)

When the letters came to an end last time Sept 2001 we started getting 51 and then 02 we are now at 52 until March when we get 03. See its easy to follow just like the rules of cricket.

TimD · 30 Dec 2002, 14:55 (Ref:460141)

Carrie said it perfectly, Korr. The one thing I'll add is that unlike most nations, British cars keep their licence plates for life (unless they are exported or have a vanity number fitted).

So describing an "S" reg is a handy shorthand, because most casual observers will have a rough idea what age of car someone's talking about.

And it has to be said, it's quite fun being able to read where a car has come from by its registration number.

To decipher a famous one, how about James Bond's Aston Martin DB5. It's registered number is BMT216A. This means it's an "A" reg 1963 model, registered in the County of Middlesex, north-west of London, as denoted by the "MT" code. So the actual serial number is "B216".

I'm hoping I'm making sense here!

woodyracing · 30 Dec 2002, 14:58 (Ref:460144)

heres a rough guide of reg plates, this style went upto Y reg (2001) after that it got silly.

E reg 1988
F reg 1989
G reg 1990
H reg 1991
J reg 1992
K reg 1993
L reg 1994
M reg 1995
etc..

note, since each plate runs from August to July the year could be one less than specified.

TimD · 30 Dec 2002, 15:10 (Ref:460152)

At the risk of muddying it further....!

When the letter system came in - in 1963, it was actually January-December, but that was changed in 1967 because manufacturers and dealerships were complaining about the spike in demand for new cars right on top of the Christmas-New Year holiday.

So the original "E" reg eg TUR975E only ran from January-August 1967, before being replaced by "F" eg HSR941F.

The last suffixes were "Y", as in ALF544Y and these ended in July 1983 - the "A" prefixes A895OYE commenced in August 1983.

Phew!

**Aysedasi** · 30 Dec 2002, 15:15 (Ref:460158)

That's our wonderful British logic for you......

Korr · 30 Dec 2002, 15:18 (Ref:460160)

Thanks for the info.

You Brits did crack the Enigma device, yanno.

Didn't have to turn around and use it on your cars, tho.

marcus · 30 Dec 2002, 22:44 (Ref:460509)

LOL, pearler

Ive always wondered that myself , I guess every country has some strange stuff wehn it comes to car rego, thankfully I think here in Australia we are pretty straight forwar.

**Craig** · 30 Dec 2002, 23:12 (Ref:460534)

Oh, and certain letters were not used either... I, O, U, Z

And Q was reserved for special registrations such as kitcars. Obvious really... what a silly topic!

**Craig** · 30 Dec 2002, 23:14 (Ref:460536)

Quote:

Originally posted by medler
When the letters came to an end last time Sept 2001 we started getting 51 and then 02 we are now at 52 until March when we get 03. See its easy to follow just like the rules of cricket.

I'm sure the 01 reg will make an appearance soon... the DVLA will make a nice little packet selling those