The new 05 plate has been out for two days now - as far as I can see there has not been a mention of it on here and nobody I have spoken to has even mentioned it. I haven't seen one on the road yet.
I know the change was made to even out car sales a bit, but don't you miss the excitement of the days of the annual letter change? Hearing schoolboys excitedly shouting "Wow, look, an "R" reg!!!"? And even counting the number you could spot on the first day yourself.
Apart from new car buyers and us petrol heads I doubt if most of the population these days even knows or cares when reg numbers change or even what they mean. God, I never thought I would be getting nostalgic about number plates, the original bling!
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Have not seen one, having said that not even looking and i'm in the car biz.
A great none event for private buyers too according to Autocar. They prefer to buy in September which means a trip to the dealer on a warm sunny day to order rather than a cold grim winters day.
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i agree with you..
many times i shouted as a kid,,,"look "
now it dont matter a monkey... :)
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Happened to vist the local beemer dealership on 1st March and they were churning 05's out as fast as they could go. But this is one dealership on one day. It'll take time for them and others to register a visual 'effect'.
Oz (as was)
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I have seen 3 so far, 2 were on Peugeot 307CCs and 1 on a MINI Cooper. Even though I noticed them I can't say I "cared" that they were out.
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Ive seen 1 05-reg bus, 2x Hyundai Getz, thats it so far. As you get older i dnt think you re bothered bout new regs now!
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Its not what you drive, its how you drive it! :-)
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I've seen lots - mind you i do work in a dealership! ;-)
I personally have seen out 21 cars in the past 3 days with another 30 to go out in the next fortnight. February was a very slow month for registrations as everyone wanted to wait for 1st March.
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You had best care, if people stop buying them new you dont get:
A: New cars at cheapish prices
B: second hand depreciated cars at even cheaper prices
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You had best care, if people stop buying them new you dont get: A: New cars at cheapish prices B: second hand depreciated cars at even cheaper prices
C: Any commision for me
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Only interest for me is, how long before I see the first pranged one.
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Best place to wait for that is outside a hire car depot at an airport!
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Even the press have lost interest. The tabloids used to take it in turn to wheel out the story about the old boy who picked up his new reg car and backed it off the forecourt and into an approaching vehicle, writing it off. The article was never attributed to anyone, no names or location details but it used to appear every 2nd August without fail.
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That was today for me - an on site contractor reversed into a car i had just had valetted prior to the customer coming to pick the car up.
New drivers door was needed and very quickly a door was swapped with a vehicle we had in the compound awaiting preparation and the customer was none the wiser.
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New drivers door was needed and very quickly a door was swapped with a vehicle we had in the compound awaiting preparation and the customer was none the wiser.
That's the sort of thing that gets car dealers a bad name, you wonder why we have such little respect for some of them.
Thoroughly shocking. Hang your head in shame.
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>> New drivers door was needed and very quickly a door was >> swapped with a vehicle we had in the compound awaiting preparation >> and the customer was none the wiser. >> That's the sort of thing that gets car dealers a bad name, you wonder why we have such little respect for some of them. Thoroughly shocking. Hang your head in shame.
But if the only damage was to the door, and the door was replaced with one exactly the same, what harm is done?
It's certainly saved the customer the hassle of having to wait for the parts.
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Options were
A) Let the customer arrive having travelled a fair distance to get to me to be told his car has been damaged and he can't take it away.
B) Play musical doors with an identical one off a brand new car thereby letting the customer take his new car home as planned
Which one would you prefer if you were buying a new car? the car that donated it's door will be replaced with a brand new one as soon as it is in stock and will be as good as new.
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Isn't there usually a vehicle indentity sticker (build code/date etc) on the door?...or is that the door jamb?. Probably makes no real difference but I wouldn't want a car that a dealer mechanic had hurridly swapped doors on.
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Yes there is a security etching on the window - glass was swapped over as was the lock barrel in the door.
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"and the customer was none the wiser."
until it gets light in the morning and he spots a red door on his blue car.
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Saw an 05 reg Mini (sorry that should be MINI) Cooper on the M8 this morning. What made me notice it?
It was doing 40mph whilst every other vehicle was doing minimum of 55mph causing a bit of a traffic jam!
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Yeh, I aggree the ethos of having a new registration car has gone with the new registration numbers, I don't think the average person even knows how they work. I saw an 05 reg s-class in london today. I didn't think people bothered running their cars in nowadays, how important is it with modern engines?
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Vast majority of cars no longer have a running in period - also no interim service after 1000 miles/1 month.
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just looked outside.
05 plate clio sport 182 in inferno sitting on drive.
wow, look, an 05 plate
not the same ring to it as wow, look, a v reg !!!
but its new, 2miles on clock and my wife's very first brand new car at 32.
she is happy, and...
so was i on tuesday morning at around 7.50 ;-)
nudge nudge, wink wink.
like santa, comes once a year. ho ho ho.
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I think the only time i was genuinely excited over a new registration date was the 1st of August 1983. Great fun spotting the new cars with the reverse plates.
Sadly them days are over.
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Think unless your company is buying the car for you you've got to be mad buying a new car these days when there are so many "nearly new" ones around with delivery mileage for thousands of pounds less.
Just can't see the point in buying new - money down the drain ???
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For many people a new vehicle just feels special. As for money down the drain, how many people lie on their death beds congratulating themselves on all the money they saved during their lives?
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The wow factor is now on the internet.
TWENTY SIX posts in just over three and a half hours on the new 05 plate.
Sad, very sad......
DVD
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>> As for money down the drain, how many people lie on their deathbeds congratulating themselves on all the money they saved during their lives?
Well I guess that depends on how much they care about who they're leaving behind and what their dependents needs are.
Also, they might not be on their death beds if they'd used all the money wasted on new vehicle depreciation on stuff like decent health care, screening etc., etc.
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The availability of delivery mileage vehicles depends on what vehicle you are looking to buy. Run of the mill Fords, Vauxhalls etc very easy to get what you want and I would never contemplate buying one of these new. More prestige marques with long option lists can prove a little trickier as ex demos rarely come with the specs you want.
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I have made the point before that 02. 03, 04, are more attractive than 52, 53, 54 etc to the extent that I would prefer, for instance an 03 than a 53. The exception will be 55 which I think people will wait for thus effecting new car registrations over the summer.
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'The exception will be 55 which I think people will wait for thus effecting(sic) new car registrations over the summer.'
How sad is that? Do any other EU countries have the same hangups about reg'n nos.?
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Take the point re spelling "a" rather than "e".
Sad, no, it is simple many people will prefer the neatness of a number such as MN55RST instead of MN54RST so will wait a month or more for 55 reg numbers, conversly there will be some at the other end of 55 in early 2006 who will prefer a 2006 55 that a 2006 06. Taking both into account I expect that the symetry of a 55 plate will skew the reg figures somewhat in summer 2005 and to a lesser degree in early 2006.
Regards.
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Hopefully some people will be interested in the 05 reg to make up for the 15.7% fall in February, sales have been so high the last few years it had to happen some time. Even Kia lost 2% last month (first time for years ?).
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Think the fall in New Car sales must also be due to the vast amount of "nearly new" vehicles around & the rise of the car supermarket.
Days are long gone when you have to go to several Main dealers to choose your car - a visit to a couple of car supermarkets & you could have test-driven every car available !!
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Think the fall in New Car sales must also be due to the vast amount of "nearly new" vehicles around & the rise of the car supermarket. Days are long gone when you have to go to several Main dealers to choose your car - a visit to a couple of car supermarkets & you could have test-driven every car available !!
Nearly new cars still had to be registed as new at some point they don't just become second hand automatically.
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Are you on shift work, VTiredeyes or is THAT the reason for your non-de-plume ;) ?
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Roger. (Costa del Sol, España)
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Whatever it was, he certainly will have now with a Clio 182 in Inferno on his drive. One would imagine that Inferno is some kind of hellish vivid orange.
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My wife and I - shall we say - get on quite well - if you know what I mean, now I know why, it is her '98 1.6 Clio!
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Are you on shift work, VTiredeyes or is THAT the reason for your non-de-plume ;) ?
What? i dont do bathrooms?
or something to do with my plumbing?
lol, no just been together for 14 years.
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Only interest for me is, how long before I see the first pranged one.
Reminds me of an incident a few years ago. Sales guy picked his brand new 520 up on 1st August and within 10 hours he had written it off. He collected it in London and did the damage hitting a "deer" in Scotland. It took him a while to live that one down in the office.
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It's funny really, but it is the reverse of "I bought a rose pink Austin Allegro, and do you know what? everyone else on the road seemed to have one" Ever had that? Just bought a car and then you spot loads of the same one?
Having said that, I got a Forester last June, live near a Subaru dealer but haven't seen another Forester in my area at all! Drove to East Sussex for the weekend last week and there were loads there.
I haven't seen a new 05 plate car yet, but know a bloke who collected his at 6pm that evening. He even put on a suit, collar and tie for the occasion. He was disappointed when the sales rep said to him "You don't need me to show you where everything is do ya? Ta ta then"
When I bought a BMW a couple of years ago, it was introduced to me with a shower of spotlights flashing away and a silk cover was whipped off the car. Nice, but the effect was spoiled when I noticed that it had the incorrect vehicle registration number.
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Ah (and DVD this is mega-sad) who remembers the short-lived "E" reg in 1967? Only lasted Jan-Aug when the "F" came in and the month was changed.
Now then, I have some pictures of my old man's Cortina MkII somewhere......
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who remembers the short-lived "E"reg in 1967?
Seeing an original E plate is rarity enough let alone a MK2 Cortina with it on. Come to think of it I can't remember when i last saw an '87-88 E either!
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can't remember when i last saw an '87-88 E either!
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My dad has one, 1988 Granada.
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>> can't remember when i last saw an '87-88 E either!
We have one, a Mk 2 Golf for the kids to practise in. Maybe it's having one that makes you more aware but there are three or four within a couple of miles that I can think of.
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There is an immaculate looking C suffix ( not prefix) plate Ford Corsair parked in the car park of the local body shop.
That makes it 40 years old - Not quite the same as Growlers Dad's MK 11 Cortina but pretty near.
Just reverting to the original thread , I don't care for an 05 plate.
Although I have had brand new company cars and could pretty much afford any motor I want , I would not waste my own money on new when the second hand market is awash with ex demonstrators, pre registered etc. Why pay list?
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