Early UK Registration

[Steve Simmons]

I'm hoping someone on the other side of the pond can answer a question. As I understand it, a car received number plates when it was registered to its first private owner. If the car was not sold by the dealer, it could still be driven on "garage and trade" plates. My question is, could a car with regular number plates be re-fitted with garage and trade plates later in its life?

The era I'm researching this for would be mid 30's through mid 60's.

Here in the US, we can change our vehicle registrations to "non-operational status" where you pay only a small fee and the car is no longer subjected to testing, registration fees, insurance requirements, etc until you return it to the road. But we keep the plates on the car. Perhaps there's something like this in the UK, only where the plates are removed or turned back in?

[ROGER FURNEAUX]

As I understand it, Trade Plates were used by dealers to move cars around, so that they would be covered by their insurance, and also because the cars were not taxed. We used to have a very simple system whereby an owner taxed a car for either 6 or 12 months, and if they sold it, the log book was handed over, and the tax disc, with the date of expiry, went with the car to the new owner.

Then the Civil Servants thought they could generate more income by making the tax non-transferable, meaning that if you bought a car, you should, in theory, contact the DVLA to tax it before you could legally drive it! A ridiculous system, that probably leads to more cars on the road untaxed!
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We now also have a thing called SORN - Statutory Off-Road Notification, which can be used for cars laid up and costs nothing. Previously, what happened was that a lot of cars were simply not taxed, usually during the winter months, to save money. But always, the number plate stayed with the car. Nowadays, a lot of people have re-imported cars, usually from the States, often still with their original UK number plates still attached, but have to jump through a lot of hoops to regain that original number!

[Steve Simmons]

Thanks. What I'm understanding is that you could have skipped the tax on your 10 year old car, and if you happened to be a dealer, you could then put trade plates on it in order to drive it around without being hassled. Yes?

[ROGER FURNEAUX]

You can only get Trade plates if you are a trader or a car repairer. They are for collecting a car they have bought, or for driving it to test it: NOT for general use! The trader also has to have insurance that covers them to drive any car (so not cheap!)

[Steve Simmons]

Got it. I have a '37 that was owned by the purchasing dealer for 29 years. It had a standard plate at first, and then later had trade plates possibly for several years. The reproduction registration book (issued in 1953) doesn't start until 1945 and then jumps to 1953. I'm trying to make sense of the situation!