Conference terri::cars_uk

    Has April 1st come early this year?

    I heard that too.
    
    Chris

    How on earth is this going to "improve" things? I would have thought
    that it we do quite the opposite.
    
    			Stretch.

    re -.1 (if it's true) it will remove the current rush for new cars to
    be delivered on August 1. At worst the demand will be spread to 4 dates
    over the year, but my gut feel would be that if reg letters change that
    often the pose value of getting the latest reg on the first day will
    eventually wear off.
    
    An enormous peak in demand at one point in the year is difficult for
    any manufacturing industry. They either have to try and vary their
    production rates through the year or stockpile, both of which cost
    money.
    
    Tony I

    I heard about this. Apparently the go P,R,S etc every three months,
    when they get to Z they go back to P and start using some more.
    
    Get a car in august and in two years it will have a current plate
    again, fair all round!
    
    		Jon.

I heard that after Z they will then use a new system. One suggested was 
using [part of] the post code.

Simon

    why not register Drivers, not vehicles ? Then, when a Driver gets a
    license they also get a number which is then put on any and every
    vehicle they own/have responsibility for. Okay, the license plates
    might have to be a bit bigger than they are now but so what ?
    
    G.

    	Isn't that what they do in Switzerland now?
    
    				Malcolm.

    .8�    	Isn't that what they do in Switzerland now?
    
    True. Plus, same individual can own 2 cars. Since he/she can only drive
    one car at once, the same set of plates can be mounted on the chosen
    car. Insurance covers both cars, price set for highest. 

    That system must be well confusing for company cars.
    
    Royston

    Couldn't we start a campaign for 64-bit car numbers. Solve the problems
    of the planet at a stroke?
    
    At last the killer app for Alpha.
    
    Andrew

    Maybe there are moves afoot to adopt the Europlate when we have
    (artificially) reached Z ?
    There could be blue plates for environmentally clean cars,
    red plates for diesels etc.
    
    Perhaps we should have our Internet address on our Plate.
    
    Tony :-)

    Tony,
    	There aren't going to be many blue plate cars then?  I'm all for
    solar power - didn't they have a race for them across Oz some years
    ago?
    	What colour plates for all the petrol fuelled cars with all their
    Benzene, Carbon Monoxide and extra Carbon Dioxide outputs - especially
    those with Cats?
    
    	By the way, have they found an environmentally friendly way of
    disposing of all the U/S Cats yet?
    
    				Malcolm.

    I thought at the end of the piece on personal plates on Top Gear last
    night our Quentin was going to mention about this 'proposed'
    change to the number plate system.
    
    Remember that the reason the letter change was on Aug 1st was to
    take away the rush for cars on Jan 1st hence being registered in the
    new year. If the letter change occurs every 3 months as suggested then
    the rush will return to the first letter change of the year (IMO).
    
    If they do change it so the year of the car cannot be determined then
    the desire for personal plates will not be so great and values will
    drop accordingly (also IMO)
    
    Royston

    Why do we need red plates for Diesels ? You can spot them a mile off by
    the clouds of smoke %^)
    
    G.

Top gear was disappointing. Personally I think Quentin is a bit stuck 
up (and I hate his style of talking). But no mention of the new 
numbering system.

So, is it still in the myths of time ?

Alan

    In the Isle of Man, the prefix/suffix letter simply changes as all the
    other numbers and letters are used up. Eg the next car registered after
    M999 YYY would be NAAA 001 (or whatever you currently use in the UK -
    Manx reg's are slightly different). So the prefix letter has nothing to
    do with the year. Also, the next sequential number will be given to the
    next vehicle applying for registration regardless if it is a new car,
    an older car being imported, or someone re-registering their old car to
    retain their "cherished" number for their replacement car. Advantages ?
    1. No rush to buy a car at particular times of year;
    2. Easy to administer;
    3. No new car number cudos. 
    Disadvantages ? Depending on your personality, you may see 3. above as a
    disadvantage !
    
    		Regards, Ian 

Hi Ian,

I thought IOM plates all had MAN in them somewhere? Has that disappeared 
now?

Personally i don't give a cods what they do with registration numbers... A 
unified solution across Europe would be 'interesting'.

Stu

    Stuart,
    	I think they were all originally MN, when they exhausted all the
    combinations of numbers they prefixed MN with another letter, eg AMN,
    BMN etc. When they got through all those they went to MAN. Those have
    all been used up too now, so they wnt back to AMN with a letter tacked
    on the end, eg CMN 477M. We are up to DMN xxxG at the moment, and then
    they can be turned around as in the UK at present (A111 AMN), which
    should last a good few years, or until we all have Europlates ! 
    
    		Ian

	I read last week that the car manufactures' association have made a 
	proposal to the Dept Of Transport concerning a scheme of registration 
	numbering. If they are accepted, there will be new numbers twice a year
	in the format AAAA NN Y (A being a letter, N a number and Y the issue 
	letter). There were no more details about the rational for this scheme.

R.