Morris Minor Owners Club

Hi. I was just wondering whether anyone had ever sold their moggy registration?

I saw a moggy on ebay and they mentioned something about having to put another reg back on it before the sale so that got me curious.

Thanks for any stories you have!

Many do! Sometimes the reg number is worth more than the vehicle.

I thought there might be some interesting stories!

I don't believe in changing registrations, its part of the car's identity.
It makes life very tricky when trying to run a register and finding plates swapped between Morris Minors. It can make the DVLA check suspect as their database is based on the car's registration

Yes I agree, they do give old cars that extra bit of character.

It opens up a whole load of chestnuts for me because, when cars are for sale, they say the transferable plate is worth £1500. But is it really? If they sold the plate and put a non transferable one on.... then the car is assumed to be worth less than previous as the original plate has gone. So the original plate does add value to the car, but it is questionable whether the transferable plate is actually worth anything.

Ok I feel I'm chatting to myself here. If you could make the original plate non transferable on your old car, would you be devaluing your car? Even though it is part of its original identity??

If Peter Steven Leigh came along and offered you £1000 for that number - would you not take it ??? I would! You get an age-related old style number issued (which is not transferrable) and enough cash in hand to buy another car!

I wouldn't. My car has carried the same registration and same plates since 1952 and I have no intention of parting with either the registration or car .
I do however regret not hanging on to the 65 FUU registration of my old ex GPO van.

Yes it would seem a shame. If the moggy has been driving around for 50 years or so with the same number on it seems sad to change it.

Its very difficult to get an age related number plate in Northern Ireland and you certainly wouldnt get one if you sold the number. It would be registered with a brand new 2009 number. A few years ago the local DVLA were asking for people to return old log books and confirm that the vehicles were scrapped as they were almost run out of numbers to issue. Really the only reason you would get one here is if you imported a vehicle from abroad and even then I know a member who bought a 1955 van from New Zealand, fully restored it and its remains in his garage as he cant get it registered.

Ive got an age related plate on mine. The previous owner bought it to put the no on his BMW then his son drove it into the ground until the engine died due to unleaded fuel, then I bought it as it was going to be scrapped

Have you restored it?

My car was 1st registered as 947 ELH which was sold by the previous owner to a guy for his coach! She then was given AAB 612A. The same person didn't want the A suffix so applied for an age related plate and got ASL 642 which suits her fine, and that's the way she'll stay

The registration number on my latest car gives us a problem as I really want to paint the car red to match the number plate WRU 520, it helps that I am welsh! we did not buy it because of the plate it was not until i went to insure the car that i noticed the plate.

I was lucky. I bought my reg on fleabay., and it was on a traveller

forgot to add, I am Steve P Attfield, so SPA is fine for me.

Ok, I know I risk upsetting people now, but here goes..........

Private number plates really do get on my wick. In the majority of cases they are bought by pretentious people with more money than sense as some kind of silly status symbol. I firmly believe that a car's registration number should remain with the car and that ALL registrations should be non transferable by default.

The number of cars I see being advertised as 'plate worth.......'or 'valuable plate' etc etc..... it just gets my goat.

Besides, as I understand it, to transfer a number OFF a car, it has to have a current MOT certificate (but this may have changed so I prepare to stand corrected on this).

I bought my series 2 from a guy about 5 years ago. He had a barn FULL of cars which once held 'valuable registrations'. He bought the cars, sold the numbers and then left the cars in his barn to rot. When I bought mine, he was having a big clearout. My car now sports the age related, non transferable number VSY 853. Unfortunately though, as this particular trader had NO interest in the cars pasing through his hands, all documents and history for all the cars he bought was just binned. All I got with my car was a registration document, not even any plates for the replacement registration.

Making ALL registrations non transferable would remove the problem of this type of ruthless trader stockpiling old cars simply for the numbers. It would also stop the problem of greedy speculators advertising cars at inflated prices simply because of the registration.

Furthermore, tracing a car's history would surely become easier with the original number??

Agreed ^^^

Look at it this way - at least the cars were preserved in that barn - if the plates hadn't been worth transferring - the cars may just have been scrapped on the spot! So really - he did these cars a great service.
Oh - and my road car carrys my Amateur Radio call sign ( G 7 ALL - which didn't come off a classic - it had never been issued) ) as it's reg number - but I don't consider myself 'pretentious'! The ones I consider 'pretentious' are those in my street who just HAVE to have a NEW registration car every year! At least no-one knows how old my car is !! They spend a whole lot more on their new cars - than I did on my reg plate - and it will always be worth at least what I paid for it!