How to understand UK car registrations
Many of our customers, family and friends get confused when trying to work out an age of a car, so we thought we’d put together a guide to use to work out a vehicle registration year to help impress your friends.
Current Registration System (2001 onwards)
The current registration system came into force in 2001, it is made up of letters at the beginning denoting the area in which the vehicle was registered, 2 numbers which are the year of registration and the last three letters are random.
Jump to: How does the new registration system work
What year is my car?
To find out what year your car falls into (excludes cherished plates), please use our table below:
| A reg year | 1963 |
| B reg year | 1964 |
| C reg year | 1965 |
| D reg year | 1966 |
| E / F reg year | 1967 |
| F / G reg year | 1968 |
| G / H reg year | 1969 |
| H / J reg year | 1970 |
| J / K reg year | 1971 |
| K / L reg year | 1972 |
| L / M reg year | 1973 |
| M / N reg year | 1974 |
| N / P reg year | 1975 |
| P / R reg year | 1976 |
| R / S reg year | 1977 |
| S / T reg year | 1978 |
| T / V reg year | 1979 |
| V / W reg year | 1980 |
| W / X reg year | 1981 |
| X / Y reg year | 1982 |
| Y / A reg year | 1983 |
| A / B reg year | 1984 |
| B / C reg year | 1985 |
| C / D reg year | 1986 |
| D / E reg year | 1987 |
| E / F reg year | 1988 |
| F / G reg year | 1989 |
| G / H reg year | 1990 |
| H / J reg year | 1991 |
| J / K reg year | 1992 |
| K / L reg year | 1993 |
| L / M reg year | 1994 |
| M / N reg year | 1995 |
| N / P reg year | 1996 |
| P / R reg year | 1997 |
| R / S reg year | 1998 |
| S / T / V reg year | 1999 |
| V / W / X reg year | 2000 |
| X / Y / 51 reg year | 2001 |
| 02 / 52 reg year | 2002 |
| 03 / 53 reg year | 2003 |
| 04 / 54 reg year | 2004 |
| 05 / 55 reg year | 2005 |
| 06 / 56 reg year | 2006 |
| 07 / 57 reg year | 2007 |
| 08 / 58 reg year | 2008 |
| 09 / 59 reg year | 2009 |
| 10 / 60 reg year | 2010 |
| 11 / 61 reg year | 2011 |
| 12 / 62 reg year | 2012 |
| 13 / 63 reg year | 2013 |
| 14 / 64 reg year | 2014 |
| 15 / 65 reg year | 2015 |
| 16 / 66 reg year | 2016 |
| 17 / 67 reg year | 2017 |
| 18 / 68 reg year | 2018 |
| 19 / 69 reg year | 2019 |
| 20 reg plate | March to August 2020 |
| 70 reg plate | September 2020 to February 2021 |
| 21 reg plate | March to August 2021 |
| 71 reg plate | September 2021 to March 2022 |
How does the new registration system work?
The old system used gave a letter either at the beginning or the end, this indicated the year the vehicle was registered. You can use our table above to work this out.
The numbers and the letters that either followed or were shown before were randomly generated, however, two of the letters denoted where the vehicle was registered in the UK.
The new system is made up of the following:
Local Memory Tag
The first two letters show where the vehicle was registered, the first letter denoting where the vehicle was registered and the second letter is specific to the DVLA office in that area.
Age Identifier
The following two numbers denote the year in which the vehicle was registered. This is rounded up to the nearest 6-month period.
For example, September 2002 would be a 52 plate and March 2002 would be an 02 plate. March 2020 would be a 20 plate and September 2020 would be a 70 plate.
Random Letters
The final 3 letters are randomly generated by the system and along with the other digits, makes up the unique registration number for that vehicle.
When do the new number plates come out?
New plates come out twice a year on the 1st March and the 1st September. In the old days plates used to come out every August and was changed to help car dealers have an even sales year with twice-yearly releases.
Are you looking for a car on a new plate?
If you’re looking for a new car or van on the latest plate, then here at Cocoon Vehicles we have a range of products and services to help. If its something short-term, we’ve got our fantastic car subscription and short term fixed car leases.
If you’re looking for a deal on a contract hire or lease, then we’ve got the Find a Car Lease service where we do the hard work for you, providing you with quotes from a panel of car leasing funders.
How about just buying one with good old money or Hire Purchase, we can help on this as well.
In fact, if you’re looking for a new or nearly new car or van, then get in touch with the team at Cocoon Vehicles by completing the online form below or calling the team on 01332 290173.
