The UK has used a numbering system to record and identify vehicles since 1904. Those 6 or 7 letters at the front and back of your car can tell you more about the vehicle than you may realise.

What year was my car first registered?

It’s easy to find out how old your car is. From 1963 until 2001, the age of a vehicle could be determined by the first letter of the number plate. Traditionally, numberplates were issued on March 1st, but to combat the sales patterns and encourage more people to buy cars later in the year, in 2001 the system changed giving two registration issues per year. These are launched in March and September.

The first issue of the year is the number of the year, i.e. numberplates issued in March 2016 will be XX16XXX. The following issue, in September, will carry on from the previous years September issue number, which started in September 2001 with 51.

Numberplates issued in September 2016 will feature number 66.

From 2001 onwards, you can find the age of the vehicle from the middle two numbers.

So now you can telll that ‘JPC629C’ would be 1965, and ‘VK51UAC’ would be 2001.

What if my car is on a Q plate?

Q registration plate cars are vehicles where the original age is undetermined. Typically, these apply to kit cars (which can be built from scratch or built from a number of different vehicles). The Q stands for ‘Query’ or ‘Questionable’. There are other vehicles that may be designated the Q registration… More on that soon.

UK Number Plate Registration Vehicle Age Chart:

Suffix System – ABC 123 A: