Transferring a Private Plate

[Aysedasi]

Hopefully someone in the know can answer this for me....

My wife has a private plate on her car. We are in the process of buying her a new (used) car. We've done the research, have test driven the model she likes and have put down a deposit on a car at a dealer some miles away. Although she hasn't seen it, it's been 'vetted' thoroughly by my son who is in the trade and lives close by the dealer. But as I'm off to Le Mans shortly, we won't be going up to hopefully finalise the purchase and part-exchange until 20th June, but I need to think about taking the plate off of her car ready to be transferred to the new one when we get the V5C for that.

Should I do this now? Bearing in mind that I no longer have the original plates (they disappeared in our house move a couple of years ago) we would have to continue to drive it on the private plate. Or should I wait until we get to the dealer, finalise the deal and then make the online application to retain the plate?

[VIVA GT]

Originally Posted by Aysedasi

Hopefully someone in the know can answer this for me....

My wife has a private plate on her car. We are in the process of buying her a new (used) car. We've done the research, have test driven the model she likes and have put down a deposit on a car at a dealer some miles away. Although she hasn't seen it, it's been 'vetted' thoroughly by my son who is in the trade and lives close by the dealer. But as I'm off to Le Mans shortly, we won't be going up to hopefully finalise the purchase and part-exchange until 20th June, but I need to think about taking the plate off of her car ready to be transferred to the new one when we get the V5C for that.

Should I do this now? Bearing in mind that I no longer have the original plates (they disappeared in our house move a couple of years ago) we would have to continue to drive it on the private plate. Or should I wait until we get to the dealer, finalise the deal and then make the online application to retain the plate?

This is not something I've done myself, but 'believe' that you can put your private plate onto a retention certificate and then still drive the (old) car with it on (presumably for a limited amount of time), then transfer it onto the replacement vehicle when you get it.

[Aysedasi]

Yeah, I've heard conflicting stories about this. It's certainly what my lad thinks. Having said that, the process appears to be really straight forward and could (I think) be left until we actually do the deal on the day. I haven't found anything anywhere which officially refers to any 'grace' period.

[Mike Harte]

Andrew, don't know if any of these links would help: https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=wh...t=gws-wiz#ip=1

[Aysedasi]

Thanks Mike, I have had a look at that stuff. I now have it on reasonably reliable authority from people who have done this that the DVLA are actually very quick at sending out the replacement V5Cs - as little as 3-5 working days - so I'm going to do the retention application on Monday morning. I'll leave my wife with documents showing the original number plate and the authorisation for the private plate just in case some over-zealous bobby decides to pull her over while we're away!

[Mike Harte]

Good stuff!

[Adam43]

Has everyone been getting special “24” plates this year?

I would imagine Ayse has LM24SUN. Be worth buying a new car for.

[Aysedasi]

Originally Posted by Adam43

Has everyone been getting special “24” plates this year?

I would imagine Ayse has LM24SUN. Be worth buying a new car for.

I would have loved to have LM24 HRS, but I'm still making do with this.....

[broadrun96]

Man, all I did was tell the dealer I was moving my plate and they did everything AND got the driver out to take it off and put it on the new truck and left with the new reg already printed. But US plates are crazy easy and some states cheap as chips to have custom

[JHamilton]

Originally Posted by Aysedasi

I would have loved to have LM24 HRS, but I'm still making do with this.....

That's really cool!

Dumb question... do you have to buy the physical plate from a third party or will the state provide you with one?

[Mike Harte]

Originally Posted by JHamilton

That's really cool!

Dumb question... do you have to buy the physical plate from a third party or will the state provide you with one?

No such thing as a dumb question; just dumb answers!

In the UK you don't physically buy the plate; you purchase a registration number with letters. And nowadays that can be either from a third party that is willing or wants to sell one (plus there are companies that buy and sell what are sometimes called cherished numbers) or you can buy one from the national licencing authority.

This is a fairly recent innovation and you can select from a list of numbers that they make available. They will not issue any numbers that can be "altered" to make rude words, PEN 15, or that may be inflammatory.

Once you have bought the registration you or the vehicle dealer, you or they have to go to a local registered supplier of the registration plates, of which there are loads in all areas of the country. In theory all one needs is the registration document (known as a V5C or a Log Book in old money) that the supplier is supposed to ask to see.

[broadrun96]

The log book makes me wonder what the American public would do in revolt. Read a little on them but couldn't tell exactly what was required in it beyond MoT record but it seemed like maintenance was supposed to be entered. But it's that required, and do you still get a real book or a link to an MoT site?

If you're LUCKY you get a guy like JHammy who can probably tell you date, time, weather, color and condition of oil for each change and all maintenance. I had to order a roll of those oil change window stickers to remind me as neither the wife or I put with miles on a car to warrant mileage change and I'm not willing to wait for her car to tell me. I'm about to do a 1200 mile oil change cause it's been a year

[Adam43]

Nah, it’s just a piece of paper that tells you the vital statistics of the car. Class, engine, body, color, emissions, that kind of thing. So you know what to tax that kind of thing. And who currently has it registered it and from when.

You used to be able to get old copies of a cars log book. To see who owned it and where. Rightly they stopped that due to the personal information on it. Although before that I did do it for the one you’ve seen.

You can look up any car and see if it has an MOT and if it is taxed. If you have the log book/V5 you can us the reference number on it to see all its previous tests and what it failed on. Which to my mind is a great thing to combat fraud.

It had eleven owners before I knew it and one of them lived coincidentally just a few miles from my University house. Also found out it was a demo at a dealership for a bit.

[JHamilton]

Originally Posted by Mike Harte

No such thing as a dumb question; just dumb answers!

In the UK you don't physically buy the plate; you purchase a registration number with letters. And nowadays that can be either from a third party that is willing or wants to sell one (plus there are companies that buy and sell what are sometimes called cherished numbers) or you can buy one from the national licencing authority.

This is a fairly recent innovation and you can select from a list of numbers that they make available. They will not issue any numbers that can be "altered" to make rude words, PEN 15, or that may be inflammatory.

Once you have bought the registration you or the vehicle dealer, you or they have to go to a local registered supplier of the registration plates, of which there are loads in all areas of the country. In theory all one needs is the registration document (known as a V5C or a Log Book in old money) that the supplier is supposed to ask to see.

I think I understand this process or can at least wrap my head around it. But what about those 3-dimensional plates or other customized plates? After the registration is issued, do you have to go to certain suppliers to buy those? Are they even legal?

Does the registration number belong to the vehicle or the person? My state is unusual in that the registration number ("tag" as we call it) belongs to the person/owner, not the vehicle. In most other states, it is the other way around which can make interstate selling difficult and confusing.

Sorry to be a dork, but these are questions I have had since I started watching Top Gear 20+ years ago.

[JHamilton]

Originally Posted by broadrun96

If you're LUCKY you get a guy like JHammy who can probably tell you date, time, weather, color and condition of oil for each change and all maintenance. I had to order a roll of those oil change window stickers to remind me as neither the wife or I put with miles on a car to warrant mileage change and I'm not willing to wait for her car to tell me. I'm about to do a 1200 mile oil change cause it's been a year

Mileage: 4,899 mi
Oil Type: Mobil 1 sythentic, 5W-20
Filter Type: Wix #57060
Date: This morning
Weather: Nice but it's getting hotter. Summer is coming.

Review: Oil was much dirtier than expected. The new filter is tiny compared to the last truck, I don't like that. They relocated the front sway bar behind the engine but didn't change the oil pan, so it pours all over it, I don't like that. The filter is only accessable from the front and is a gnats ass over the steering rack, this enraged me, I may relocate it.

Edit - And I'm getting 18.5 mpg (Amerigallons, that's like 22 mpg in the Queen's gallons) and that might sound absurd to many around the world, but it blows my mind. I can lift it and put tires on and still get over 17 mpg! My last truck wouldn't touch that even with a tail wind.

[Aysedasi]

Originally Posted by JHamilton

I think I understand this process or can at least wrap my head around it. But what about those 3-dimensional plates or other customized plates? After the registration is issued, do you have to go to certain suppliers to buy those? Are they even legal?

Does the registration number belong to the vehicle or the person? My state is unusual in that the registration number ("tag" as we call it) belongs to the person/owner, not the vehicle. In most other states, it is the other way around which can make interstate selling difficult and confusing.

Sorry to be a dork, but these are questions I have had since I started watching Top Gear 20+ years ago.

I don't know about 3D plates but there are strict rules about size and shape of lettering and so on. You are issued with a certificate which shows that you own the right to use the plate and then when you want to put it on a car, you get authorisation for that - with another certificate. I was very lucky with my plate. I had been hankering for one for some time but having four names (three forenames and surname) my initials just didn't really work. I signed up to the DVLA (who issue registrations) and back in 2019 they sent me an email to say they were issuing some L-prefix plates that had never been issued (dating from 1993/94). I took a look and found one I quite liked which, when I used the numeral '4' I could just make work work as my 'A' for Andrew. Then I just scrolled on and found this one. I couldn't believe it. And it was at the DVLA's base price. The best moment for me was at Le Mans two years ago, arriving in the Arnage car park at around 2 am a guy asked me if I had made up the plate to put it on for the trip. He couldn't believe it was genuine nor what I'd paid for it! The French people I've encountered love it as they're not allowed to have personalised plates....

[Mike Harte]

JH, that's quite an interesting question about whether the reg. plate (what it's often shortened to) belong to the individual or the vehicle? I suppose it's a bit of both here in the UK, because you can buy and sell them. What is the most important thing is that the registered number must match the chassis number (VIN - like a bank/credit card's PIN we add number after which is tautology) and if an individual decides to change the reg number, this fact has to be notified to the authority (DVLA) so that records can be amended to match the VIN to the Reg number.

The start of the process is, or I believe it still is as I haven't purchased a brand new car for decades, that the new car is delivered to the dealer unregistered and it remains so until it is sold to an owner, whether that is corporate (which traditionally has been the largest purchasers of vehicles in the UK) or an individual. At that point, the dealer usually offers the purchaser a choice of numbers that he has available although this has probably changed because so much can be done online. It used to be that dealers were allocated certain numbers because part of the numbers referenced the area in the country where it was sold.

So, from that point of view, the number doesn't belong to the car because it's relationship is purely random; the vehicle purchaser has/had the ability to choose whatever number that is/was available. Plus, as Andrew has been asking about, he wanted to know the procedure for transferring a cherished number from one vehicle to another which we can do. And this process can be done even to a vehicle that has already been registered; all you need to do is notify the DVLA that you are changing the number, and they will amend the details on the system and issue you with an amended V5C. They, the DVLA, will then retain the old number and can possibly issue it again to another vehicle that needs another registration number that would match the original year of issue of both vehicles. An example would be the car that Andrew is selling will now need a new number because he is retaining the cherished number, so the DVLA will issue one that they have in "stock" from the same year that Andrew's old car was first registered.

Therefore, as I said before at the start of this novel, the ownership of the number is a bit of each. Hopefully you can understand the process and I haven't bored you to tears.

[Mike Harte]

Just to expand a little on Andrew's answer about the physical aspects of the plates. You have to use plates that meet specifications/sizes/colours as set out in the regulations. However, that doesn't stop certain individuals using plates that do not meet those requirements, usually to avoid being penalised for doing things that they shouldn't be doing.

Typically, a lot of motorcyclists will use a much smaller plate on the rear - they are only required to have the one, unlike cars and trucks, big and small, that have to have one on the front as well - because the smaller plates can not be read by cameras. The UK, after China, is one of the most surveilled countries in the world, and all police road crime (traffic) cars are fitted with automated number recognition systems (ANPR), plus there are thousands of static ANPR around the country, that immediately notify the police whether the vehicle is fully legal , i.e. is insured, has an up-to-date MOT and also road tax is paid.

None of this worries me any more, because I recently grew up and I'm now a good law abiding boy .