Which countries use age revealing number plates?

Honest John Back Room » Motoring discussion
View Threaded
Fri 2 May 2008 16:25
Which countries use age revealing number plates? - movilogo
.. other than UK

Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Fri 2 May 2008 17:36
Which countries use age revealing number plates? - Lud
Ireland does. I imagine most west European countries do surely? Don't know because I have never been a number plate nerd. It's like train spotting to some people.
Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Tue 6 May 2008 01:37
Which countries use age revealing number plates? - Bilboman
AFAIK only GB (twice yearly change, currently 08, 58 in September, and so on till 2051) And the Irish Republic (08, 09, etc in January each year). Some Irish coach operators now register their fleets over the border to hide their vehicles' real age, having found that foreign tourists were reluctant to travel on "old" (2 years old!!) coaches!
Europe-wide, some countries (Italy, Spain and soon France) have abolished regional identifiers, meaning that, erm, nerds can work out the age but not the origin of a newish car. (Makes life easier for Catalans and Basques travelling around rural Spain.)
The French system requires re-registration of all cars on change of hands or as their MOTs fall due, so within 4 years all cars on French roads will be "clocked" forwards to the 21st century.
Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Tue 6 May 2008 10:02
Which countries use age revealing number plates? - colinh
In Spain even the nerds struggle to work out the age precisely, as the first letter just changes when they've run out of the proceeding one. There doesn't seem to be the "number plate" industry here, but having said that my next door neighbour seems to be hanging on to her old style registration plate - LU 0000 OO.

Surely the UK obsession with things like number plates, and the price people will pay for them, is one of the reasons why the government looks on the car industry there as a "cash cow".
Reply | Report as offensive | Link