New/old Registration Plates Idea

carchaeologist

This is something that iv been thinking about for awhile and id like some feedback as to if its a stupid idea or not.
Theres been alot of debate recently about the ZV plates problems and the 5 digit thing.What im proposing is if every county used the letters that went unused after the 1987 changeover to the new style plates for the re-registering of 30 year old cars,that would give you an old irish number, a county correct number, and it would last a lot longer than the ZV system did,which was only 9999 numbers or less because of heldback numbers in its original format. Im sure every county,including dublin would have enough leftover numbers to do this comfortably. Kerry for example would have from around 370CIN(i think that was the last old type number to be used) to 999ZIN, and then ***AZX to 999YZX.Considering thats 999 registrations for each letter,it would last a long time. Am i making sense,or am i missing something obvious here?

gogs2006

i totally agree:) the ZV system takes away a cars character....

what i have often wondered is what will happen with the system of registration numbers pre ZV...
this system was like our modern system for an imported classic eg 39 D 123, 29 KY 123,56 C 123

will this system eventually collide with our present registrations????


has anyone got a list of the county allocations pre 1987???

Wishbone Ash

carchaeologist wrote: »

Im sure every county,including dublin would have enough leftover numbers to do this comfortably

I very much doubt that Dublin would have adequate numbers. Prior to the introduction of the 1987 plates Dublin numbers were lasting no time and that was when the country was on it's knees (economically). AFAIK even in 1986, the Dublin prefix changed several times.

Now if it was Leitrim, it would be different. It took them 69 years to exhaust their first allocation! :eek:

Anan1

gogs2006 wrote: »

what i have often wondered is what will happen with the system of registration numbers pre ZV...
this system was like our modern system for an imported classic eg 39 D 123, 29 KY 123,56 C 123

will this system eventually collide with our present registrations????

That's an interesting one. Someone could well be puttering around on 09 D 1 as we speak!

macplaxton

It's an interesting idea and would make sense although you might have to lose the geography bit to avoid some areas using up their allocation quicker than others.

It doesn't really matter what sort of age-related registration system you use it will always stand out to those that know (such as SV and SU age-related plates in the UK), but at least they retain their original format.

I'm not too fussed at the exact details or geography of the format, just the general appearance. Has to be six digits, so you can fit them on a "proper" number plate with 3 1/2" (89mm) high letters. All those "French" plates should go in the bin Bring back proper 3 1/2" letters (none of this UK 3 1/8" stuff) and period white/red background "reflective" plates with rivet on plastic digits.

Irrespective of the actual number, it doesn't look right to me seeing a 1972 UK car with black/silver plates. Anything after 1968 would have the new white/yellow reflective ones. Same with a 1986 Irish car. Should be white/red reflective to look right.

So yes, I'll put my hand up for a new system. ZV plates running to 7 digits in total re-issued a new "old format" mark.

Dades

I'm not sure I'd upset the apple cart. The Greenie's will have us taxed and reg'd as normal cars if we don't watch it. :eek:

MercMad

Irrespective of the actual number, it doesn't look right to me seeing a 1972 UK car with black/silver plates. Anything after 1968 would have the new white/yellow reflective ones. Same with a 1986 Irish car. Should be white/red reflective to look right.

..........I dont think the rule was hard and fast, there were plenty of new cars registered after 1968 that had black and silver plates, the Ace style, which I think are the best looking ! I think the rules were far more relaxed until 1987, certainly my folks had acrylic plates that were black with either silver or gold digits !

I agree though the ZV 5 digits looks crap !

There has to be another traditional looking format possible !

hi5

gogs2006 wrote: »

i totally agree:) the ZV system takes away a cars character....

what i have often wondered is what will happen with the system of registration numbers pre ZV...
this system was like our modern system for an imported classic eg 39 D 123, 29 KY 123,56 C 123

will this system eventually collide with our present registrations????


has anyone got a list of the county allocations pre 1987???

Not only will it collide but as they started with the number "1" it means the loss of income from the current preordered early reg numbers.

TomMc

or may be they could leave out the year and have say D 1 up to 9999 & WD 1 to 9999 and so on.

I remember just the letter Z (add number) on some old cars and it looked cool.

Of course the Dubs would run out of 9999 eventually, doubt anywhere else would for quite some time.

corktina

i believe I saw a Veteran car numbered 00 C 1 or somesuch long before we got to 2000....

carchaeologist

Wishbone Ash wrote: »

I very much doubt that Dublin would have adequate numbers.

I think its been said somewhere else on another thread that dublin didnt issue the ****ZJ series so thats 9999 nunbers to start with? Id say that would last a few years at least. Does anyone know what series or parts of them havent been used in their respective counties? Id like to bet there is a fair few unused numbers in each county!

macplaxton

MercMad wrote: »

..........I dont think the rule was hard and fast, there were plenty of new cars registered after 1968 that had black and silver plates, the Ace style, which I think are the best looking ! I think the rules were far more relaxed until 1987, certainly my folks had acrylic plates that were black with either silver or gold digits !

Sorry, I'll just clarify here - Either / or from 69 to 86 (Just like the UK from 68-73 is a "take your pick") I just think there would have been more reflective ones originally. It's only when now people are going back to older styles because they can.

I don't think the plate specifications were "far more" relaxed, more likely nobody gave a toss about it.

But I'm not too worried about this, more the uncertainty over sub 30 year old cars and VRT.

carchaeologist

MercMad wrote: »

black and silver plates, the Ace style

Probably a silly question, but why are they called the ace style, was that the company that made a version of them?

Silvera

I too agree that the current 5-digit ZV system is inappropriate for classic and especially veteran cars.
With a little bit of thought, and in consultation with the IVVCC, the govt/revenue/dept of environment could come up with a much more appropriate system.

There are literally thousands of unissued pre-1986 registrations which could be re-issued for classics. I checked up old plates a while back and, for example, Carlow alone has c.9000 unissued pre-86 plates.
All pre-86 plates could be inputted into a central system and issued at random for classics, and not necessarily on a strict county basis. This would allow enough pre-86 combinations to be issued in all counties as Dublin has no old system registrations left to issue

Another (albeit short-term) possibility is to issue reversed ZV plates, i.e. -

100 ZV, 101 ZV, 102 ZV ....etc etc up to 9999 ZV.

At least it would be a max of 6 digits and would look much more appropriate for Irish classic.

Whatever system is introduced, it should also allow for veteran cars to be allocated low numbers. For example, I have seen a 1910 car with a 6-digit ZV plate (ZV ****) and yet a 1975 car with a 3-digit ZV plate (ZV ***)?!
Low numbers should be reserved for, say, pre-1920 vehicles.

The problem is that unless the IVVCC and other clubs around the country push for a new system, the status quo will remain. And perhaps in time the govt will start to issue 100,000 plus ZV plates?!? (as they have done with temporary 'ZZ' plates ....another reg system which needs to be updated. For example temporary registrations should be 'sealed' (i.e. tamperproof) plates like trade plates, and should have the format 000-ZZ-08, 000-ZZ-09, etc. with the month of expiry sealed into the plate. But thats another days work!)

My 2c.

carchaeologist

Well, if you want to be totally pedantic the reversed ****ZV numbers could be used exclusively for dublin under a new system as ZV was used as a dublin area code pre 1987 as AZV*** to YZV*** in the mid 80s, and i dont think they were used in reverse as in ***AZV TO ***YZV,so thats another 25000ish unused numbers(i think).And how about ***AZS TO ***YZS(the reverse of another 80s batch)?More numbers again. Its the simplest answer to the disaster of a system at the moment i reckon. It would probably require a bit of setting up, but i cant see how much different it would be then for the registration office or each county council to start issuing the leftover numbers.
Im sure its just that it was very easy for the pen pushers in governmentland to tack an extra digit onto the existing system and make life easy for themselves and annoy pedantic number plate obsessives like ourselves:)!

Silvera

carchaeologist wrote: »

Im sure its just that it was very easy for the pen pushers in governmentland to tack an extra digit onto the existing system and make life easy for themselves and annoy pedantic number plate obsessives like ourselves:)!

Id bet thats exactly what happened!
Some 'bright spark' in the relevant govt dept just looked at the 5-digit ZZ plates (i.e. the temporary reg plate system, which actually now uses 6-digits) and said "ah sure lets do the same with the ZV system!"

Thing is with the ZZ system it doesnt really matter as the plate is only valid for 1 month and the vehicles they are attached to are (nearly always) being exported.

Not so with the ZV plates, which are attached to Irish classic/vintage/veteran cars for life!!

carchaeologist

Does anyone that posts here work in the vehicle registration dept i wonder?;)

MercMad

carchaeologist wrote: »

Probably a silly question, but why are they called the ace style, was that the company that made a version of them?

...............yes "ACE" were the name of the company that made them. There were other companies but ACE used to have a little oval logo on the bottom right corner with their name on there.

I think everyone now calls black and silver peaked digit plates by the ACE name.

Renotec

Hi all,
If I may piggy back this thread.
Once upon a time there was a booklet containing all the registration details of cars per county in Ireland (26). It contained nice details such as reg sequence - vehicle volume - started on / finished on. I remember finding the list somewhere on the net but can't seem to remember. Does anyone know where it is?

carchaeologist

Iv heard tell of this book alright, and being honest id nearly sell my mother to get a copy, i could think of nothing more interesting to read!! The quest for the holy grail springs to mind:D

carchaeologist

MercMad wrote: »

...............yes "ACE" were the name of the company that made them

Thanks for that mercmad:)

MercMad

Renotec wrote: »

Hi all,
If I may piggy back this thread.
Once upon a time there was a booklet containing all the registration details of cars per county in Ireland (26). It contained nice details such as reg sequence - vehicle volume - started on / finished on. I remember finding the list somewhere on the net but can't seem to remember. Does anyone know where it is?

......yes I had a copy of it years ago. I think it was similar to the salesmans guide they used a few years back until everything went oin the net !

carchaeologist

Im sure its on the net somewhere just to find it...:)

Renotec

I remember stumbling accros it on an Irish website. I'm scratching the head but the filing cabinet inside is locked. I'm kind of sure its a site that deals in all things about Irish driving and its a link from there.
I've gone through most bookmarks but still no luck. If I find it I will post it.