A Conversation for Car Numberplate Spotting Game

What the letters mean

Post 1

Cheerful Dragon

The article says that, where the number is 'ABCnnnX' or 'XnnnABC', the 'ABC' denotes where the vehicle is manufactured. This is nonsense! smiley - sorry, but it is. The first letter is random, the second and third letters denote where the car was *registered*. None of this has any bearing on the playing of the game, but I just thought I'd set things straight! smiley - bigeyessmiley - geek


What the letters mean

Post 2

Bright Blue Shorts

I think you'll find that the 2nd/3rd letters denoting place of registration on the ABC 123x and X123 ABC formats stopped some years ago. It has though restarted with the new formats. Mention of this was made in the Vehicle number plates entry ...


What the letters mean

Post 3

The Apprentice

I must hold my hands up and say smiley - sorry as sub-ed... information on registrations, while being one of the most interesting subjects in the world, is like truffles - much sought after but you can only stomach so much before the novelty wears off (um... is there a sarcasm Smilie...?).

Anyway... sorry about that (again). I have slapped my wrists and hope that this will suffice by way of recompense!

smiley - biggrin

The Apprentice
smiley - scientist
Sub-Editor


What the letters mean

Post 4

Cheerful Dragon

Blue (You don't mind if I call you 'Blue'?), I agree that the article mentions that the vehicle number format has changed. But it also described the meaning of the letters and numbers in the old (and even older) format, and that's what I was correcting. Interestingly, the article gets the meaning of the letters right for the new format.


What the letters mean

Post 5

The Apprentice

I checked the new registration stuff very carefully - the DVLA had a lovely big page with a big picture and very thorough information.

smiley - cheers

The Apprentice
smiley - scientist
Sub-Editor


What the letters mean

Post 6

David Brider

> The article says that, where the number is 'ABCnnnX' or 'XnnnABC',
> the 'ABC' denotes where the vehicle is manufactured. This is
> nonsense! , but it is. The first letter is random, the second and
> third letters denote where the car was *registered*

Um. As author of the piece, mea culpa regarding the manufactured/registered boob, but you're misreading it slightly; I didn't say "ABC" *denotes* where the vehicle is...whatever, simply that it *contains information* denoting where the vehicle is...whatever. I always knew it was only the last couple of letters (round our way, in Chelmsford, there are a lot of plates ending in "TW"), but I didn't state that explicitly in the piece. I didn't want it to get bogged down in technicalities. It's meant to be a *fun* piece, after all!

David.


What the letters mean

Post 7

Smij - Formerly Jimster

I've amended this slightly to take into account what's been discussed here. Is this okay?

Jimster


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