More Re R plate car 1st reg 99

In news:441abee8$1 snipped-for-privacy@mk-nntp-2.news.uk.tiscali.com, Capt T wrote something quite bizarre, possibly in an effort to confuddle the world. It went like so;

Yup.

Sort of, though for some reason I thought that the reg letter of a UK plate related to when it was first registered in the UK. I'm wrong though, by the looks of it!

The Reg plate relates to when the car was made NOT registered, My Legacy's V5 shows 1st registered as 2005 but it's an M reg....

My neighbour had aquired a brand new Maestro a few years after the factory stopped making them, iirc it was1997 but he had to have it as an N plate.

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

One of the CKD ones that'd been to Bulgaria and back before being assembled...

Right, ok, you've got this theory (probably truth, I dunno....) about the reg plate reflecting the actual year of manufacture, but what about these cars that sit out in fields for 18 months or so unregistered? They normally get on the latest plate, or nobody would buy them as new. Or am I missing something here???

AstraVanMan ( snipped-for-privacy@whataloadofforeskinbollocks.co.uk) gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying :

It reflects nothing more than the date of the vehicle's first registration.

If it's an import to the UK, it goes by the foreign paperwork.