The UK has used a numbering system to record and identify vehicles since 1904. Those 6 or 7 letters at the front and back of your car can tell you more about the vehicle than you may realise. What year was my car first registered? It’s easy to find out how old your car is. From 1963 until 2001, the age of a vehicle could be determined by the first letter of the number plate. Traditionally, numberplates were issued on March 1st, but to combat the sales patterns and encourage more people to buy cars later in the year, in 2001 the system changed giving two registration issues per year. These are launched in March and September. The first issue of the year is the number of the year, i.e. numberplates issued in March 2016 will be XX16XXX. The following issue, in September, will carry on from the previous years September issue number, which started in September 2001 with 51. Numberplates issued in September 2016 will feature number 66. From 2001 onwards, you can find the age of the vehicle from the middle two numbers. So now you can telll that ‘JPC629C’ would be 1965, and ‘VK51UAC’would be 2001. What if my car is on a Q plate? Q registration plate cars are vehicles where the original age is undetermined. Typically, these apply to kit cars (which can be built from scratch or built from a number of different vehicles). The Q stands for ‘Query’ or ‘Questionable’. There are other vehicles that may be designated the Q registration… More on that soon. UK Number Plate Registration Vehicle Age Chart: Suffix System – ABC 123 A: Letter Year Release Month A 1963 February B 1964 January C 1965 January D 1966 January E 1967 January F 1967 January G 1968 August H 1969 August J 1970 August K 1971 August L 1972 August M 1973 August N 1974 August P 1975 August R 1976 August S 1977 August T 1978 August V 1979 August W 1980 August X 1981 August Y 1982 August Prefix System – A 123 ABC: A 1983 August B 1984 August C 1985 August D 1986 August E 1987 August F 1988 August G 1989 August H 1990 August J 1991 August K 1992 August L 1993 August M 1994 August N 1995 August P 1996 August R 1997 August S 1998 August T 1999 March V 1999 August W 2000 March X 2000 August Y 2001 March Current System – AB123ABC: 51 2001 September 02 2002 March 52 2002 September 03 2003 March 53 2003 September 04 2004 March 54 2004 September 05 2005 March 55 2005 September 06 2006 March 56 2006 September 07 2007 March 57 2007 September 08 2008 March 58 2008 September 09 2009 March 59 2009 September 10 2010 March 60 2010 September 11 2011 March 61 2011 September 12 2012 March 62 2012 September 13 2013 March 63 2013 September 14 2014 March 64 2014 September 15 2015 March 65 2015 September 16 2016 March 66 2016 September 17 2017 March 67 2017 September 18 2018 March 68 2018 September 19 2019 March 69 2019 September 20 2020 March 70 2020 September