New style DVLA Licence Plates

Choosing DVLA licence plates is a quite simple exercise. Just like when choosing a prefix style registration, the most important thing to consider is the age of the car you are buying for. The reason that this is so important when choosing DVLA New-style number plates is because you cannot make a vehicle look newer than it actually is. It’s not quite so simple just knowing what year the car was manufactured as the DVLA have now made things very complicated.

For example, if you have a car made in 2003, it could be a “52" plate car or a “03" plate car or even a “53" plated car. It is now more important than ever to know the precise date of first registration so that the number plate dealer can assist you with your number plates without a problem.

When you have established the actual date of registration, the next step is to choose the letters to appear on the number plate. A very popular choice with this type of plate is to have both his and her initials. So for example, assuming the car was registered as XC03 VBF this would mean that it was registered between 1st March 2003 and 31st August 2003 and so John Smith and Mary Veronica Smith could have JS03 MVS to represent both their names on the registration plate. In fact, they could have any DVLA licence plates with the same letters providing that the numbers in the middle were issued prior to the “03" plate.

The order of the numbers issued in chronological order are 51, 02, 52, 03, 53, 04, 54, 05, 55, 06, 56, 07, 57, 08, 58, 09, 59, 10, 60, 11 and 61 extra. The change of number is made each March and September and it’s a simple calculation of adding 50 to the current release to determine the next in line.

Popular number plates
Popular combinations of new style DVLA licence plates letters and numbers include the OO07 plates to resemble the James Bond theme and lots of drivers plump for the MR or XX prefix part of the number plate as it is more striking. Some combinations have been withdrawn from sale by the DVLA so that they can be sold at auction where they attract much higher sums of money. Number plates such as XX51 NGH and DH11 LON have recently been sold for huge sums of money. Although the new number plates are not as popular with motorists as the prefix style, they will be around for the next 40 years so eventually, they will grow on us.