Batch registration numbers

[Craig T]

Not to do with series 2's this one but more a general enquiry about the DVLA registering vehicles in batches.

There was a bunch of 88" Series one Land Rovers sold as civil defence vehicles in 1957 and they all got SXF registrations. There is around 230 known vehicles in that range, different numbers but all start with SXF. A friend of mine owns SXF 94 and I now own the bulkhead from it.

I have a P38 Range Rover S785 WOM. One day when randomly browsing Facebook market place I spotted another P38 in blue with S783 WOM as the number plate. Today I wanted to check the MOT date of my one so I went to the DVLA, typed in the wrong number, S788 WOM and it came up as a green Land Rover. I tried again with the right number and got what I wanted.
Got me thinking though, was a batch registration thing going on here so I searched the DVLA database, went back to S780 WOM and right up to S801 WOM and yes, they are all Land Rovers. S802 WOM existed but it was a 2 litre Rover car.

I know that my Range Rover Wasn't registered until August 1998 but the stamped plate on the body and the build dates on all the electronic models place it a year earlier so it was built around the middle of 1997. The first owner of the car once it was registered was Rover cars, Longbridge. They kept it about 2 years before the previous owner to me purchased it. I'm the third registered owner.

Was registering in batches like that normal for manufacturers? I always thought the vehicles went to the dealers unregistered then the local dealers dealt with the DVLA when they sold them so the chances of getting more that 2 or 3 in a sequence would be quite low?

Craig.

[diffwhine]

Not sure how it is now, but each dealer (or dealer group) used to get an allocation of numbers from DVLA. Once used up, you just applied for another batch. As many MG Rover dealers also had LR connections, its quite likely that there will be similar vehicles with similar numbers.

[O7BE16]

Rover / Land Rover / Ford management vehicles and Fleet / Engineering vehicles all tend to be registered in blocks of registration letter combinations. At any given time it was a fair guess if you saw a similar number plate to your own management / engineering vehicle it was also a 'JLR' vehicle.

[Exile]

There is a Facebook group for owners and those interested in Factory registered vehicles.

They can usually tell you if your vehicle has a factory registration, and they are always on the look-out for more.

It started out as a group interested in preserving factory registered P38A's, but has since expanded to cover all factory registered vehicles.

Have a browse:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/cvcregister

[Alan Drover]

The first Discoveries were known as G-WACs' because they were prefix G and WAC were the letters so that was batch registration. Now I believe they're sought after.

[Exile]

G-WACs are sought after and most have now been, or are being preserved.

AC is probabably the best known factory registration.

AC went from being on pre-pro 80 inchers, to well:......

[Mycroft]

Typically done at the dealership level I believe.

Our trucks were - all the trucks that I've looked at on the Database with a reg are clearly linked to the area where the truck's dealership lived. I bought a Saab in the 90s and the dealer gave me a choice of the 10 reg plates he had been issued with for his next 10 cars. And I've looked at various BL cars from the 70s and sequential numbers were all from the same dealership. My Dad used to own GVR963N, a white Cortina and one of his sales reps had GVR966N, a lurid green one. All dealership sorted.

That's not to say that the manufacturer wouldn't have registered some themselves - demonstrator cars or particular batches. That could also apply to military. My last series III was registered first and only then delivered to the Royal Navy.

[TimV]

When my wife bought a brand new car in the 90s, once again the dealer showed her a list of numbers that were available, she chose one with a number sequence she liked.

I bought a car and then spotted similar registration numbers on Ebay - eleven in all. Was able to plot their prices relative to their mileage.

So - no mystery really.

[Craig T]

Thanks all. Doesn't sound all that unusual then.
Would be good to know the reason it wasn't registered for a year though. Maybe it was a demonstrator or showroom model. It is a very basic Range Rover, as basic as they come in fact. Cloth seats, no sunroof, no AC, no electric seats, no headlight wipers, no cruise control and the dial type heater controls. I guess they may have had a basic demonstrator then a HSE demonstrator next to it to encourage buyers to spend more money!

I'll stick a post on the CVC facebook page and see if they think it's anything unusual.

Craig.

[autorover1]

I looked up a Rover P4 110 in the Warwickshire Archive for club member in The Netherlands as it was a company registered vehicle & there were about 20 various vehicles in one batch registered by The Rover Company  . I also was able to choose a registration Number out of a list at LEX Cheltenham  when I bought a new Land Rover in the 1980's . I chose a physically short one so I could display it easily with my Front Drum Winch.

[GlenAnderson]

A base spec vehicle is likely to have only really been a customer order. It's way more usual for dealers to up-spec demonstrators and "stock". Maybe the original customer pulled out? These things do happen. Maybe it sat around at the dealership for exactly that reason?

As for blocks of registration numbers being issued, that's been the case for years. As recently as 2016 when I bought a new motorcycle, I was given the choice of a list of twenty odd numbers, running from GF66 HAA through to HAX. 

[Sunny Jim]

Mine was a Ministry vehicle (RAE Farnborough) and registered with a London number in the XE series, which seems to have been reserved for Ministry type vehicles in the same way that XF was. When I looked up on DVLA what vehicles were registered in the series (OK I was bored one evening), they were things like tractors, Bedford trucks, and what was obviously a Ministry car. The registration dates were not in number sequence, implying that each department was allocated blocks that were used up at different rates. Note that XE was later transferred to Luton.

Sunny Jim

[Exile]

Factory registered are different to Dealer registered.

The factory registered their own vehicles for a host of reasons, from pre production, to development, to Press Launch, to Management/Directors runarounds.

For example the J...OAC registered Defender in my pic above, is in a batch of several other J...OAC vehicles, including a management Range Rover now owned by James Taylor.

Most, if not all of the more recent factory registered vehicles will have the Land Rover green oval on their original registration plates.

Unlikely,if at all, on Dealer registered plates.

[22900013A]

Public utilities also had their own blocks, which they applied to their fleets.

When I bought my 110 in 2011 it was just given the next reg on the list,I didn't get a choice.