On these familar old-style plates, the first letter identifies the age of the car - 'R' in the example above. The other numbers and letters were random.
The age identifier letter changed just once a year, every August. So an 'R' reg car was registered between August 1997 and July 1998.
Letters used and the year of manufacture they correspond to are shown below.
Letters never used as part of the standard system were: I, O, U and Z, as they were too easily confused with numbers and other letters. The letter Q was reserved only for use on vehicles whose age couldn't be properly identified, like kit cars built from parts or cars imported without proof of age.
| V / W - 1980 W / X - 1981 X / Y - 1982 Y / A - 1983 A / B - 1984 B / C - 1985 C / D - 1986 D / E - 1987 E / F - 1988 F / G - 1989 G / H - 1990 H / J - 1991 J / K - 1992 K / L - 1993 L / M - 1994 M / N - 1995 N / P - 1996 P / R - 1997 R / S - 1998 |
In 1999, new letters started being issued at the new times of year - March and September.
| S / T / V - 1999 V / W / X - 2000 X / Y - 2001 |
Once all letters had been used up, the first plates in the new format were issued in September 2001.
