Private car reg plate.....is there a way to check its history?

[chriswoody]

Would life be easier if GB did what apparently Germany do - ? Issue a reg. number to the owner, not the car. Thus the number stays with the owner for their driving life and simply transfers car to car.

What happens if you have more than one vehicle?, do they all have same reg-number?

You're not too wrong, but it is a little different, basically each county has an office which deals with car registrations and driving licences. When you buy a car, you need to go to the office and apply for a red temporary plate. You then go and purchase the car and affix the temporary plate to the car, which is valid for 14 days. Then with all of the cars documents, along with the red plates and your own Identity card you then go back to the office and exchange them for the permanent plates. The first letters on the plate stand for the main town of the county issuing the plates, for the big cities it's often one letter, so B for Berlin or H for Hanover. Usually it's only two letters, but a lot of the towns in the old East of Germany often have three letters to identify them. The last two letters and numbers, you get to personalise your self if you want, or you can have randomly generated numbers.

If you have a second car then you have a different plate issued, still with the same letters identifying the region you live in, but the others are all different.

Then if you sell a car, you need to return the plates and new ones are issued for any subsequent car you purchase. It is possible to keep certain numbers and transfer them to a new vehicle if you wish, but it's not mandatory. My cars have all just had random numbers on them, I've never personalised them.

 

[FishFright]

A old friends grandma had VT 1 on an old rover way back when .

 

[BoldonLad]

You're not too wrong, but it is a little different, basically each county has an office which deals with car registrations and driving licences. When you buy a car, you need to go to the office and apply for a red temporary plate. You then go and purchase the car and affix the temporary plate to the car, which is valid for 14 days. Then with all of the cars documents, along with the red plates and your own Identity card you then go back to the office and exchange them for the permanent plates. The first letters on the plate stand for the main town of the county issuing the plates, for the big cities it's often one letter, so B for Berlin or H for Hanover. Usually it's only two letters, but a lot of the towns in the old East of Germany often have three letters to identify them. The last two letters and numbers, you get to personalise your self if you want, or you can have randomly generated numbers.

If you have a second car then you have a different plate issued, still with the same letters identifying the region you live in, but the others are all different.

Then if you sell a car, you need to return the plates and new ones are issued for any subsequent car you purchase. It is possible to keep certain numbers and transfer them to a new vehicle if you wish, but it's not mandatory. My cars have all just had random numbers on them, I've never personalised them.

Seems incredibly inefficient? I amazed, not what we expect from Germany?