N-reg

Gene S. Park ( snipped-for-privacy@comcast.net) gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying :

British plates stay with the car for life, unless somebody wants to have a "personal" number on. Between 1963 and 2001, one character (initially the last, later the first) showed when the car was first registered.

So - N-reg would be :-

N123ABC - the N shows that the car was first registered between 1/8/95 and

31/7/96.

Alternatively

ABC123N - the N shows that the car was first registered between 1/8/74 and

31/7/75

Always three letters, up to three numbers.

Now, they're AB06CDE or AB55CDE - "55" shows the car was first registered over Sept 05-Feb 6, 06 shows it was first registered over Mar-Aug 06.

The "AB" shows where in the country it was first registered.

Hi Adrain

Thanks for the explanation.

If the US were to give a license plate for life for each car, that would put a lot of cons out of work. What with an amalgamation of 50 states, commonwealths, districts and territories, it is impractical because each of them issues their own plates and they try to be artsy-fartsy. Each of them has their own little quirks on driving regulations. In some states, you cannot make a right turn (in your case it would have to be a left turn) on a red light. Most states in the west, it allowable to make a right turn on red light, traffic permitting. On my Honda, I had plates depicting Crater Lake and a part of my fee went to support the arts. Some have a salmon, others a Conestoga wagon to commemorate the invasion by the whites and the killing off of all of the Native Americans. My current plates is the everyday run of the mill with pine trees on it.

The current numbering system started out with AAA000 and when they got to ZZZ999, they switched and started with 000AAA. When I spent 2 years living in CA I had to turn in my OR plates and pay a whole bunch of money for fees and sales taxes and then when I returned to Oregon it cost me about $120 to get the special plates and transfer the title from CA to OR. After I moved back I was constantly being dunned by the CA DMV for not paying my renewal fees. It took forever to get through to them that I had moved out of state and now longer registered in CA. It was like when I called my cable TV and internet service to transfer my service to OR. The customer service rep was at loss because she couldn't find Oregon, CA. I had to explain to her that Oregon was a separate state. Then I was told, even though the company services both states that I had to call another 800 number to transfer my service.

When I bought the Citroen, the seller had taken the Idaho plates off of the car believing that since they were Idaho plates I wouldn't need them. Fortunately the OR DMV let get away without having to turn them in. I had a signed bill of sale from the seller. I had to have the car run through the DEQ for smog (it failed). My mechanic took it through and it passed. DEQ is done by the state, not some jacked up service station and it cost $22 or there abouts and the license tabs are good for 2 years. I won't have to pay for new tabs until Feb. 2008. They have gotten a little expensive, I think I had to pay $30 for the two years. Used to be $12 for the two years.

"Gene S. Park" haute in die Tasten:

In Germany we also have a system of local license plates. Whole of the country is divided into hundreds of licensing districts and each district has its own letter code. A one letter code stands for a big district like "B" for Berlin or "M" for munich. In addition to this, each license plate gets a combination of one or two letters and up to

4 digits. If I take the plate number M-FK 3033, one can see that my car is registrered in Munich. If you are an expert, you can also see, that this car is registered in Munich City, as the Munich County area always issues license plates with only one letter behind the M.

If you move to another city (i.e. leave your licensing district), you are required to report to the local licensing authority and get yoursef a new plate. Cost are roughly 70 Euros for that, including the new plates (in Germany it is mandatory to have plates on front and rear of your car). Many people try to avoid this, because the cost for insurance depend on the licensing district you are registered in. Most countryside disitrcts are cheaper than the metropolitan districts. Many people, who move away from their parents to join University or have a job in the city, keep their country licensing plate as long as possible. If they catch you, you are fined, but the fine is not very high. Other than in the U.S. all german licensing authorities exchange their data in real time. So if you decide to de-mobilize your car over winter, you just have to go to your authoriy, where they remove the official seals from your plates. Some weeks later you get a notice from the tax authority telling you how much money you get back (for the car taxes which are not used up). Your insurance company is also notified and pays you back some money. This more or less runs automatically and flawlessly.

OTOH the german licensing plate system has some drawbacks. One drawback is the fact that you need one set of pates for every vehicle you own (which includes paying car tax and car insurance for the vehicle). In Austria for example it is possible to use one set of plates for several cars, so you can use the subcompact for commuting to work during the week and the Corvette Convertible for weekend fun

- with just one set of plates and one insurance fee.

Frank

Frank Kemper ( snipped-for-privacy@gmx.de) gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying :

I dunno about a Corvette (my hair's my own still), but I *like* the sound of that idea. Maybe it's something to do with having seven cars...?

snip

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Is there any other regular charge or tax? In the UK we have to pay an annual 'vehicle excise license fee', commonly referred to as 'road tax'. The amount depends on the vehicle, but for my car it was 120 pounds last time. We get a paper 'tax disc' to show that we've paid, and that has to be displayed on the vehicle at all times or risk a fine or even criminal charges. Some local councils have the power to remove 'untaxed vehicles' from public roads and crush them if not claimed. (We also have to provide evidence of statutory vehicle insurance and a 'current' road-worthiness certificate in order to get the tax disc).

If a vehicle is permanently removed from one EU country to another, it has to be registered, licensed, and taxed, in the new country, but within the UK a vehicle normally keeps its original registration number for ever. It is possible to transfer a 'cherished number-plate' from one vehicle to another though, so there's a lucrative market in numbers such as COM 1 C and A 1 and CAR 99.

Whiskers ( snipped-for-privacy@operamail.com) gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying :

And - rather bizarrely - GAZ4536 and X5GIT other such plates that scream "I'm VERY VERY SAD!"

Adrian ( snipped-for-privacy@gmail.com) gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying :

For the benefit of non-UKers...

It seems I could have the plate with my initials followed by the number 1 for *only* £19,000. They don't even quote a price for 1 followed by the initials.