Car Registration Years

You can use the charts below to quickly identify the original year of issue for the three main registration formats.

Please remember when choosing a registration that you can only assign it to a vehicle of the same age or newer than the registration itself. So, for example, if you selected a 17 series New style reg (2017), you'd only be able to display it on a vehicle first registered on or after this date. You couldn't put it on a 55 reg (2005) vehicle.

The golden rule is that you can't make a vehicle look younger than it is!

Suffix Letter Age Identifier

Year of release	Suffix
1963	A
1964	B
1965	C
1966	D
1967	E
1967	F
1968	G
1969	H
1970	J
1971	K
1972	L
1973	N
1974	M
1975	P
1976	R
1977	S
1978	T
1979	V
1980	W
1981	X
1982	Y

Prefix Letter Age Identifier

Discover the perfect number plate by using our convenient prefix number plate builder

Year of release	Prefix
1983	A
1984	B
1985	C
1986	D
1987	E
1988	F
1989	G
1990	H
1991	J
1992	K
1993	L
1994	M
1995	N
1996	P
1997	R
1998	S
1999	T
1999	V
2000	W
2000	X
2001	Y

New Style Number Age Identifier

Year of release	1st March - 31st August	1st September - 28/29th February
2001/02		51
2002/03	02	52
2003/04	03	53
2004/05	04	54
2005/06	05	55
2006/07	06	56
2007/08	07	57
2008/09	08	58
2009/10	09	59
2010/11	10	60
2011/12	11	61
2012/13	12	62
2013/14	13	63
2014/15	14	64
2015/16	15	65
2016/17	16	66
2017/18	17	67
2018/19	18	68
2019/20	19	69
2020/21	20	70
2021/22	21	71
2022/23	22	72
2023/24	23	73
2024/25	24	74
2025/26	25	75

How to Buy from a Number Plate Dealer

Read our DVLA guide on how to buy number plates from a private registration dealer and the benefits of buying from a CNDA registered number plate dealer.

How to Sell a Personalised Registration

Are you looking to sell your number plate? National Numbers are here to make the process as simple as possible. Read our guide and get your plate valued.

How to buy from a Private Number Plate Seller

How to buy a private registration from a private seller. This article explains what to expect and how to conduct the transaction in a safe way.

DVLA Auctions

Find out the process to registering for an auction as well as how to buy a number plate at an auction. We have a dedicated team who can also support you.

Retain a Registration Number

If you are looking to take a number plate off a car or HGV, you can click here to go to the DVLA gov.uk website where you can transfer a registration number fro...

Foreign Vehicle Registration Check

Identifying foreign number plates on UK roads is easy to achieve, as the UK has established patterns for registration formats (suffix, prefix, dateless, Norther...