What would you buy & why?

[suffolkpete]

That purple Austin Somerset, how come, when it's a 1953 model, it has an A suffix? The suffix and prefix number plate system didn't start until 1963, by which time the Somerset production had long since ceased.

It's lost its original number to a cherished number transfer. Prior to 1983, when this happened, DVLA issued an A suffix, after that they issued non-transferable age-related numbers.

[JPB]

^^^ This, also this, edited massively since Pete posted:

I'm not 100% sure whether this is still the case, but that Somerset may well qualify for a free, (non-suffix for pre-1965 stuff as some areas only used up their allocation of four number, two letter issues as recently as 1965 (Kent, Bristol, etc.) age-related plate as it would now qualify for this retrospectively, as do all of these ex-forces Minors, 1969 registered Vauxhall PA Crestas and similar things, examples of which are all over the place, here's one:



NURSE! Bring me my shotgun please. I assume that Evans' Royce must be a pre-1973 specimen as he's allowed to display non-reflective plates on it, but it appears to have been reregistered in 1978 or '79. Many of these were registered when new with retained plates, so when they were sold on, the household would keep the plate for the next luxury car and the outgoing car would get the actual luxury of a split new identity. Result!

So anyway, the Austin would end up with something along the lines of 471XRD or similar, and would then lose the A.

[suffolkpete]

^^^ This, also this, edited massively since Pete posted:

I'm not 100% sure whether this is still the case, but that Somerset may well qualify for a free, (non-suffix for pre-1965 stuff as some areas only used up their allocation of four number, two letter issues as recently as 1965 (Kent, Bristol, etc.) age-related plate as it would now qualify for this retrospectively, as do all of these ex-forces Minors, 1969 registered Vauxhall PA Crestas and similar things, examples of which are all over the place, here's one:


So anyway, the Austin would end up with something along the lines of 471XRD or similar, and would then lose the A.

Quite correct John. Also prior to '83, cars that were imported, or ex-forces, were given a new registration, rather than and age related plate. For some reason, the age related plates being given out now all have the letters starting XU or YU, even though a lot of authorities (Radnorshire FO or Merionethshire FF for example) never used their numbers-first allocation at all.

[GHT]

Well you live and learn. My wife left an advert for me to see, it was by The DVLA selling off would be cherished number plates. The one I bought for her was A14 CET
It reads, a one for CET. My sister got snitchy about it because CET are her initials too. But the best ever was an unsolicited letter from The Coventry Evening Telegraph asking if she wanted to sell it.
In my ignorance I would have thought that the Somerset, it's number plate sold off, would have had a 'Q' plate.

[JPB]

....
In my ignorance I would have thought that the Somerset, it's number plate sold off, would have had a 'Q' plate.

They're generally only found on self builds and kits, but now these have to meet so many requirements for their IVA/SVA test that many such cars have enough new content to gain them a new plate! Or the car's owner back in the late '70s/early '80s may have forgotten to check whether the original plate had been on the computerised system at DVLA, hence its loss may not have been the result of "plate rape". This scenario was later address by DVLA's decision to allow requests for original plates to be considered if the plate was on its original car and the right to display it had simply lapsed during the database upheaval rather than by being sold on. An original plate obtained in this way would then be non-transferable, which I think is a good thing in some ways, not least because it is keeping some historic cars on the plates that they should - by rights - be displaying, such as that racing e-type in a canal as seen in another thread.
Where the Q plate really should be used is on something which fails to meet the minimum amount of donor car content for an age-related plate (many kit cars are ok this way if they're effectively nothing more than a few new body parts on an existing chassis with a correct engine and other major mechanical units and dimensions being those of the donor car), that Somerset, as it must have been changed to its Ford/BMC hybrid form in the days before IVA, is probably fine on its A suffix but if anyone built and tried to register that now, with so much non-original content, the car would present something of a conundrum to Swansea and then it could end up on a Q, but I'm not even certain that Qs are still issued so make your own search for the finer points of this complex area of car registration law, it'll have you asleep where you sit within the first minute of reading, guaranteed!

It's an unholy quagmire out there , so be careful when buying a "1959 MK1" Morris Mini Minor from an eBay vendor who says that we shouldn't worry about the fact - obvious to anyone who's so much as stood beside a mini before - that the "59" car is in fact housed in a 1990s shell, has a 1990s engine, 1990s interior and, oh look, it has all 1990s (for example only..) running gear from stem to stern, but that's ok, 'cos a 1959 mini in an original shell is worth loads, but a usable 1990s mini can be found for under a grand if you look somewhere that isn't eBay.

[rich.]

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/1965-Chevy-GM ... rmvSB=true

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/1991-Volvo-24 ... 3641.l6368

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Bugatti-Veyro ... 7675.l2557

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Classic-Vinta ... 0005.m1851

[JPB]

Wow! Rich, I enjoy a good "fried rice and chips" selection of eBay listings and that was one of these.

The van?



Aww, bless!

The Volvo? Why? OK, so it's an expression of an owner's eccentric taste and looks like a pretty straight car, but let us just play a wee game of "Spot the construction & use regulation abuse on an eBay listing page", shall we? Nah, I gave up as soon as I thought that probably, there's not anything massively bad about the thing.


Veyron gone, it's a Veyron gone, gone Veyron, whooshyabugger!

Caravan? OH MY DAYS! It's the two door model with a door on the continental side for those lazy, hazy, crazy days of summers spent dragging the thing behind you, along an otherwise unspoiled stretch of European road. If that had only had the left side front door and had extra cupboard or toilet space instead of that van's right side rear door, it would be on my front lawn (you can take the common bloke out of the council scheme but you never quite get all of the council scheme out of the common bloke ..) by now because I'm not in the "double door layout is good" camp I'm afraid. Not when you can have the extra toilet space instead and - shock horror - can get more exercise on the European jaunts because you have to walk around the van to reach its o/s/r corner.

[arceye]

Veyron gone, it's a Veyron gone, gone Veyron, whooshyabugger!

That Veyron was an absolutely ugly MGF thing I think with a bunch of mouldings thrown on it even I couldn't have loved that...... Some joking twunts had bid it up to £65k the last I saw it so the seller probably thought it wise to withdraw the listing. There was a very nice Vauxhall Nova Sport bid up to about the same level the other day, while a very nice restored motor I think it may have more to do with the school holidays than anything else.

Send the little buggers back back to school I say, or at least keep them out of mischief by sending them down pits to extract coal

[rich.]

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/1969-Cheltenh ... rmvSB=true

& something for you to tow it with

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/MERCEDES-300D ... 3641.l6368

[JPB]

keep them out of mischief by sending them down pits to extract coal

Agreed! Make them Eastern European pits while we're at it as that way, the wee devils can't get home every time their washing machine fails..

Rich, like the caravan lots, but it surely deserves to be mounted on a Bedford CA or early Transit chassis/cab. That way, it would look even better and would be permanently attached to something with an engine, thereby reducing its potential to cause carnage.