how does the numberplate work in your country

[Ford Capri 2.8i]

Once we see around people from all over the world, and once i registered as a member in order to gain some knowledge about cars in general from other cultures, markets.....Its interesting for me to see how the numberplates work in each country with some examples....there you go my example.....the Spanish numberplate

5555-GTY.....they doesnt mean anything special such as the county that the car belongs to, the year of the car purchase.......for instance...the first numberplate started as 0000-AAA...and after getting the 9999-AAA, the numberplate continues as 0000-AAB...and so on...........
Moreover Spain had got already some different numberplate which explained the province that the car that belonged to...such as SS-4654-AS(always the first two letters meant the province, each province was coded with one or two letters depending on the case), and the rest of the numbers and letters worked in the same way as the current numberplates.....but this numberplate was banned due to the political reasons in Spain

there you go how the spanish numberplates works...ill be waiting to your explanations, i hope you see an interesting topic

[abbor]

In norway, we have two letters, and the five numbers, like this: LL NNNNN
The letters are for the different regions..

[TT]

Switzerland, two letters, then numbers. not a fixed amount of digits.. coule be anything from two to 6.. most common ones are two letters and 6 numbers (modern ones) but vintage ones are lower (my grandma's) is TI followed by 4 digits and it was owned by her dad before.

Mine is TI 172173

the two letters indicate the region, TI beeing Ticino. Here in Lausanne it is VD, Vaud for instance.. and then again the 6 digits wich means absolutely nothing.

the only vanity shields we can have here are very low numbers like TI 10 or such... but it depends.. here in Lausanne for instance all the 1, 2 and 3 digits plates are assigned to Taxis (probably easier to identify them like that)

[bmagni]

depends on the state which u are. the ones in mexico city are 3 numbers and then 3 letters, if u want to have privileges u can buy plates like with just one number and one letter like 111 AAA... also there are diplomat plates, with that ones there are virtually no restrictions, and demo license plates which are for new cars, or u can get them illegaly too...

[possessed_beaver]

this is how it works here, a speed camera see's you're licance plate, takes a photo the plate is matched to the person it is regstered to then you get a fine!

[gbg]

this is how it works here in Brazil:

http://img83.exs.cx/img83/6049/placa.jpg

on the top (DF-BRASILIA) is the name of the city and the state

below, the first letter (J) also indicates the state, but some states use the same letter

the other letters and number are just aleatory

[schnell318]

In my country there is just one letter followed by numbers (anyone from 1 to 999999) for example P-125643. New cars have the highest numbers. The problem is that now we are running out of numbers cause the newest cars already are like 960 000 so we only have like 40 000 to go and there is no room for another digit.
New numberplates with a totally different system are supposed to be on the way though...

Oh, and letters are
P = Personal (almost all cars)
A = Rent (Taxis)
TC = Commercial Transport
MI and CC = International Affairs
U = Urban public Transport and so on...

[topgeartom]

In the UK there are two systems. The regular old one that jas been running for years, and the new system. The old one started {[I THINK]} in the early 80's with the prefix of A so the plate would look like this A123 XYZ the A is the only letter that gives anything away - the year the car was made, but the Y&Z also denote roughly where the car was registered. That system contiunued for a while, for example our car number plate is P4xx HWH the P means it is a 97' car.

Recently however that system expired - simply because it ran out of letters so now we have a new system, that has been in business for a couple of years, but i still dont understand the fucking thing. There are two letters at the beggining that denote where the behicle was registered. The first being the county/area, the second is the office at which the car was registered. Then there are two numbers this is the year the car was registered, but the system is odd. I think ot started at 51, then it goes to 02, then 52, then 03, then 53 and so on.... Then there are three digits which dont relate to dhit. So. A new style plate may look something like this:

YB04 GTY
^^^ ^^^
| | | |
| | | |
| | | These are just random three letters.
| | This is the year the car was registered - i think in this case it is 2004
| This is the DVLA office - in this case Barnsley
This being the area code. In this case Yorkshire

[stracing]

In Australia, the style of the plates tells you which state you're from. In NSW you can have anything from 1 to 6 alphanumerics. however personalised ones incur an annual fee

[Ford Capri 2.8i]

Right....the numberplates started in Spain like 1213-FGT due to the reasons that dani explained already ...because in Madrid the numberplate reached the ZZ letters...in addition, the numberplates continued in this way...1213-FGT(with no special meaning at all) because of the politican reasons as far as i know, otherwise the new numberplates would get some way to identify the region that the car belong to

[geekdiggy]

random rant:

yesterday a friend and i were stuck behind a van at a traffic light and this is how the conversation went.

me: that license plate says manitoba on it

him: where the fuck is manitoba?

me: idunno. there's a sillhouette of a buffalo on there too so maybe it's one of the northern states or canada

him: .............canada has license plates?


:P

[TT]

Side question:

in your country, does the plate follow you for the whole life? Or every car has its own and you keep changing?

Here if you don't get bored, you keep it forever

[bmagni]

Side question:

in your country, does the plate follow you for the whole life? Or every car has its own and you keep changing?

Here if you don't get bored, you keep it forever

haha, funny, here u have to change it with every new car u buy... why ?? to pay more taxes :) recently they made this new license plates and u had to change the ones u had, and it took them forever to deliver...

[T-Bird]

In the states you can keep your same plates for as long as you want on as many cars as you want but there is a transfer fee so it is easier to get new plates when you buy a car.

[corvette97]

Side question:

in your country, does the plate follow you for the whole life? Or every car has its own and you keep changing?

Here if you don't get bored, you keep it forever

if you get a new car, you get a new numbre plate, if u buy a preowned car, you keep the original number plate of that car, but in some cases i have seen realtively new cars with number plates like p-35 or something like that, and for the year is suposed to be like a higher number, maybe schnell can explain..

also the president is P-1 8) somebody told me this, i dont know

also O = for official, military or equal

[racer_f50]

in South Dakota its 6 total characters divided by a space like the rest of hte country it seems.
the first 3 characters depend on what county you live in (ranked by population).
so if you're county is in the top 9 population, then you have a number and 2 letters for the first half.
the 2nd set of characters seems to be all numbers.

[Fleischmann]

Pretty simple really...two letters concerning the city/district the car is registered at and 5 numbers to go along with it.

[tanelvali]

estonia: 123 ABC

i.e. 3 numbers and then 3 letters

[Wutputt]

In Belgium new numberplates consist of 3 letters followed by 3 numbers, like: ABC-123. Old plates consist of 5 characters, like 1.ABC.2
The numberplate isn't linked to the region were you live. The plate follows you not the car. But you can change plates, but than you have to pay your registration fee again.

Plates starting with M are reserved for motorbikes
Plates starting with O are reserved for oldtimers
Plates starting with Z are reserved for dealerships
Plates starting with ZZ are reserved for test cars

And then there are the special plates for the European Community, EuroControl, NATO, Diplomates, Ministers, the King and his family, etc.

There is a possibility top buy personalised numberplates:
6 characters: € 620
5 characters: € 874

[oldsnail]

for cars:
combination of 3 letters and 3 numbers:
ie.
ABC 123 and 123 ABC
for trucks
combination of 4 numbers and 2 letters
ie:
1234 AB
and for custom plates, must consist 6 letters/digits
ie:
SUX2BU
and veternes from the war gets special plates as well, same as the above, with an unique plate

[jakaracman]

We have (but it's about to change in a year or so) 2 letters (depending on city/area you live in), then 5 letters or numbers.
You can get personalized plate (2 letters depending on city/area you live in, thzen up to 6 numbers/letters of your own choice).
You keep the plates when you change the car.