New registration plate numbers

Rob Graham gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying:

You are correct.

Summer period, Mar-Sep - two-digit-year. Winter period, Oct-Feb - two-digit-(start)-year + 50.

The current scheme can continue until xx00xxx expires in February 2051 without any modification (unless a fourth letter becomes required due to volume).

Just out of interest I calculated the permutations. There are 20 possible first area code digits, 23 possible second digits (it varies a bit) and also

24 for each of the final three letters. This gives a possible total of just over 6.3 million new registrations every 6 months compared with annual vehicle sales of about 2.5 million. Looks like the system will work just fine unless the population of the UK increases by a factor of five.

That also possibly explains why they thought it necessary to change the age code every 6 months rather than annually to create more headroom although it would be most unlikely that over 6.3 million new vehicles would ever be sold in the UK in a single year, never mind in 6 months. God forbid that by the year 2050 which this system is supposed to cope with there are over 150 million people in the UK but at least it won't be one of my problems.

Thus spake Adrian ( snipped-for-privacy@gmail.com) unto the assembled multitudes:

I suspect most of us reading here will be expired by then anyway :-)

snipped-for-privacy@DENTURESsussex.ac.uk gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying:

I'll still be in my 70s. Not exactly outside of the realms of possibility.

God forbid that by the

You never know. You know the old adage 'freeze a jolly good fellow'.

Rob

Thanks Adrian. First time I've ever known more than my wife.

Rob

In message , Adrian writes

I'll be 111, but I'm not sure I'll still be driving.

In message , Rob Graham writes

Ideal solution: buy her a new car in October and then you can really take the piss out of her.

I'm a bit thick when it comes to number plates. I don't understand or get what happens in the second half of the year.

E.g It has been going 02, 52, 03, 53, 04, 54, 05, 55, 06, 56, 07, 57,

08, 58, 09, 59, 10, 60? It's weird. What has the 50 and 60 got to do with the years 2000-09 and 2010-on? If its meant to signifiy half a year I just dont get it, I think they should just do something like they have in the US with the year printed below or above in full, with the state - here it would probably be England, Scotland or Wales etc. Or you could also break it down by counties e.g. Yorkshire, Lancashire, Oxfordshire etc. Then just have a name with a few numbers as the plate.

Add 50 in July

That's essentially what the area code does

"Duncan Wood" gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying:

September, even.

But, yes, it's that simple. Just a way of differentiating the two half- years from each other, but retaining a link to the actual year.

It doesn't "signify" anything more than that.

No, not really.

In the US, the plates are issued and managed completely by the state. If you live in Texas, your plate is issued by the Texas DMV. If you move to California, you hand your Texas plates back and get a set of Californian ones.

In the UK, they're all managed by Swansea, and they stay on the car for it's life. So the fact that the car might've been sold by a dealer in Yorkshire means it gets a Yx99xxx plate, even if the car's owned by somebody in Hertfordshire or wherever.

Thus spake Adrian ( snipped-for-privacy@gmail.com) unto the assembled multitudes:

They have essentially the same system in Germany, but it's by district/city rather than state.

snipped-for-privacy@DENTURESsussex.ac.uk gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying:

And France has just moved from a similar departmental system to a UK- style national.

35 going on 80, Adrienne?