British Car Registration Plates Quiz

Answer: 1903

The growing popularity of motor cars led to the Motor Car Act of 1903 in which the British government took various steps to introduce regulation and control. One effect of the Act was to require all vehicles on British roads to be registered and to display registration plates. The first car registrations were issued in 1903, even though the legal requirement for vehicles to display them didn't take effect until 1904.

Answer: The region where the car was first registered.

In England and Wales the area letter codes were assigned alphabetically according to the size of the population in each authority's area, hence London was allocated the 'A' designation.

In Scotland and Ireland (Ireland was part of the UK in 1903), registrations began with the letter 'S' in Scotland and 'I' in Ireland. These national identifiers would be followed by another letter which, like the English and Welsh versions, specified the local registering authority.

Answer: 1932

In 1932 the scheme was extended due to the shrinking number of available combinations. The extension consisted of three-letter/three-number combinations. By the 1950s, in more populous areas where the number of combinations were depleted, the format was reversed so that the number component preceded the letter component. In the areas of greatest demand, yet another extension was introduced a few years later, using four numbers followed by two letters.

Answer: The addition of a letter code to denote the year of registration.

Introduced in 1963, the suffix system retained the principle of the regional identification letters, and the sequential ID number. The innovation was the addition of a letter code at the end of the plate, which indicated the year of issue. January to December 1963 was signified by the letter 'A', and so on.

This had two major benefits: it enabled people to determine the age of a vehicle, and it meant that the number sequence used to identify individual vehicles could be re-used each year, as the year letter would change.

Answer: The start of the registration year changed from January to August.

Cars with an 'E' registration were only sold for the first seven months of 1967 before the new 'F' registrations started in August. My guess is that the change was partly to increase car sales (fewer people would be ordering expensive items like cars over the Christmas period) and to take the pressure off car dealerships and the DVLA staff over the Christmas holiday period!

Answer: The suffix system had run out of letters.

By 1982 the suffix series had run its course, and in August 1983 another reversal of format took place. The new system had the year indicator now coming at the beginning of the string of characters, followed by the unique ID number and the letter group containing the region code. Unsurprisingly, as the year letter came at the start, this became known as the prefix system.

Answer: All of these reasons.

Easier access to credit and higher standards of living had seen an acceleration in car sales throughout the 1990s. A bi-product of the age-registrations meant that August sales were always highest and this single major annual sales point was proving to be an increasingly cumbersome aspect of the car-selling business.

From 1999, two registration periods were introduced to even out the system: March to August and September to February.

Answer: 2049

The current number plate format consists of a two-letter regional identifier, a two-digit year code and finally a random three-letter combination which provides the specific identification for each vehicle. Beginning in September 2001 the 'age-identifier' changes every every six months with two sequences operating alternately. For example, '51' back in September 2001 started one sequence that continues every September, while 'O2' in March 2002 started the other sequence that continues every March.

Answer: Nottingham or Lincoln

'F' stands for 'Forest and Fens', hence Nottinghamshire and Lincolnshire. Car registrations from Kent and Sussex start with the letter 'G' (Garden of England). Less indirectly, Hampshire is 'H' and Essex is 'E'.

The DVLA must have run out of imagination when they got to Bedfordshire and Northamptonshire. This region was allotted 'K' which stands, apparently, for nothing in particular, except that it was a letter they had not used.

Answer: HW

As the Isle of Wight is part of Hampshire, the first letter is 'H'. Obviously, the 'W' stands for Wight.

Considering that Lancashire and Cumbria are signified with 'P' (Preston), Gloucestershire, Hereford and Worcester are signified by 'V' (Severn Valley), and Staffordshire and Cheshire have 'D' (Dee Valley), there is at least some obvious logic applied in the case of England's biggest island.