Hi,
Following a post in reply to Kev_is_Here I got thinking about Irish plates. My car has an Irish plate beginning VJI which I know didn't come with the car as new.
I know I shouldn't give the plate out but it begins VJI and then end which 4 numbers. I'm sure this means something to someone. Is it the region in Ireland? The age?
It's not important I'm just interested to know.
Many thanks
Adam
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I think the plates are specific to Northern Ireland. I believe the Republic of Ireland has a different numbering system, and bringing an Irish car over would require re-registering in Britain and being allocated a Q-plate, or a plate of the correct age/registration, or whatever. Don't know much more about them than that, other than that it's the cheapest "dateless" plate you can buy, which I guess means there's no reference to the age of the vehicle on there.
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hi,
my car is on northern irish plates, 3 letters 4 nos, imported from ireland in '97.
insurance co wanted to change to a british registration, but i objected on the grounds that i liked the present plate, and i was allowed to keep it. no problems re-registering it with swansea, but although the irish documents it came with are supposed to be valid in great britain and northern ireland under the 1974 traffic act, very few places will accept the irish documents...especially the mot.
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That's right - Northern Ireland still has the 3-letter + 4-number combination and didn't change to the new 51..02 system.
The last two letters I think still indicate the county - I have a vague memory that JI may come from Co. Tyrone. Put 'car numbers' into Google and see what you get.
Some people import them over here - especially coach operators - to avoid giving away how old the vehicle is.
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Thank you very much for your replies. I suppose I could have done the search without asking thinking about it. Avant you are right, JI is County Tyrone.
Incidently, before you all go thinking I bought the plate to cover up the age, it was already on the car when I got it. The dateless thing is a little academic because the car is '99 registered anyway!
Many thanks
Adam
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Greetings Adski!
I too have an Irish plate for the very reason that it is anonymous and dateless. I got it from a registrations company in Balfast region and changed it for an 04 prefix. From your sources do you know what region LKZ is from?
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Hillman,
Your number plate was from County Antrim - you learn something new every day!
www.asharte.freeserve.co.uk/veh_tab.htm
I hope that helps you
Thanks
Adam
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The Irish Republic changed to its present registration system a few years ago. Before that it used a system left over from when it was part of Britain - using I's and Z's, just like Northern Ireland. When Ireland originally adopted reflective number plates they decided on RED plates at the rear.
When the new reg. system came in, Ireland gave or sold the rights to all its unused old-type numbers to Britain, and a lot got used on coaches so it wasn't obvious how old they were.
Cheers, Sofa Spud
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As others have said, the second and third letters are the county. The first letter just runs sequentially from A-Z (though I think Z is actually not used, so it's really A-Y), and the numbers sequentially from 1 to 9999. When the A-Z letters run out, a new 2 letter sequence is picked for the county, and it starts again at A. So the sequence is like this:
VJI 1
VJI 2
...
VJI 9998
VJI 9999
WJI 1
WJI 2
...
So it is possible to work out dates from NI number plates, but not easily, because different counties work at different rates, depending on how many registrations there are. Around 15 years ago the Belfast registrations changed initial letter every six months or so, whereas Antrim registrations changed every nine months or so. Presumably these times may be shorter now, if car sales have risen.
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