The number plate market

[Mike Stubbings]

Hi Ian, Yes there is a first reg date shown as 25.10.85 that was the date that the previous owner purchased the car and the v5 was issued. In a special note on the v5 it states the car was registered and manufactured in 1932. When I purchased it I checked with B.L.Heritage and they confirmed that this was true and that all the numbers matched . Yes the number is transferable. Mike.

[Toby]

my letter has not been published in the MR mag. Have written again to ask if it was passed on to club officials or if it will be published in the next mag! I still think that its the owners choice to sell a number but that a register of historic vehicles should not receive support from any company that deals in numbers...

[Toby]

The letter will appear for discussion and the question will be asked at the committee meeting. The editor has suggested that this company doesn't strip numbers but deals in un issued numbers...

[Ian Grace]

Hmm. That's clearly not true. Enter 'MG' in the search window and see what you get.

http://www.capeplates.co.uk/

[Toby]

Several clubs no longer allow adverts mentioning the reg. No. as people were getting calls from dealers. There is talk of trying to lobby DVLA to make numbers on historic cars nontransferrable

[Ian Grace]

Tony,

Yes, Simon forwarded me the Automobile letter. Interesting. DVLA will be hard to lobby as individual clubs, but the FHBVC might get somewhere.

[Highlander]

There are Irish Numbers for sale in every Sunday Times Mororing page - I see MU1 342 for £450. Could this read MU 1342? I legal, and I doubt it, it would be a cheap 'look alike' number. In fact I would go for it. Any experts out there? Is 289 UXG worth anything? Hi9ghlander. I am away for a week in Aberdeenshire with my brother for the next 7 days in my F Reg Ford Escort Sports . Alister.

[Ian Grace]

Excellent idea for UXG Alister - I'd go for it. Nice 'S&A' number!

[Toby]

I have had a reply from the MR, although not published it appears that the company involved does not remove numbers from cars but just sells unissued/new numbers....

[Highlander]

My e.mails now OK. I have been out of action for a week. I see the MU numbers are still in the Sunday Telegraph. I have had no feed back as to spacing of letters and numbers being an MOT failure i.e.
MU1 687 to read MU 1687. Can anyone help? I see such strange numbers and letter made to read names I cannot think it would be an MOT failure. Highlander.

[Ian Grace]

I have had a reply from the MR, although not published it appears that the company involved does not remove numbers from cars but just sells unissued/new numbers....

I find that difficult to believe. Just go to their website and type in MU, MG, etc. and plenty of numbers come up that look like numbers issued long ago.

Perhaps someone should contact them and 'offer' them a number from their car - and see if they refuse it...

[Ian Grace]

My e.mails now OK. I have been out of action for a week. I see the MU numbers are still in the Sunday Telegraph. I have had no feed back as to spacing of letters and numbers being an MOT failure i.e.
MU1 687 to read MU 1687. Can anyone help? I see such strange numbers and letter made to read names I cannot think it would be an MOT failure. Highlander.

My guess is that it is strictly not allowed to re-space numbers, but I bet this is open to interpretation/flexibility by different MoT stations, and probably would be overlooked by the sort of stations we use to MoT our sort of cars.

Here in the US, there is no MoT or anything equivalent to it, and I am not aware that any more accidents are caused here by 'MoT-related' issues than in the UK. It is usually the nut behind the wheel that causes most accidents - particularly when that nut it texting while driving! The UK MoT simply seems to be a license to print money for the garages and the Government.