900 Club Forum

Hi. Thought I would put the following post for your review as I have become a little stuck in tracing the history of my FC 11a.

It was suggested upon purchase that the original registration was 'lost'...which I have assumed to mean transfered at some point in its life. I have done a DVLA enquiry, and found that in the 90's, the FC was sold by an Indpendant LR dealer, who arranged for it to be registered...this gave it a 'Q' plate.....and the vehicle went to an estate...the next (private) owner applied for an age related plate and got an 'A' suffix plate assigned, which is how it is currently registered.

I have obtained a Heritage Certificate, which shows the FC being despatched to a garage to Newbury...a search on the internet reveals nothing about the garage.

It is possible that the FC was used as a breakdown truck by the garage, and hence never registered (just run on trade plates), but to be like this from 1963 to early 90's seems unlikely (but not impossible!).....

I contacted the independant LR dealer, who is still in existence, but they have ignored my communications.....I will try them again!


So, my questions are;

1.) There is confusion as to when 'A' suffix plates actually came into circulation....it would be nice to prove and hence obtain a 3 letter 3 digit plate if appropriate (my FC is ealry 1963). Does anyone know when 'A' suffix actually started...my understanding is that it was mid 1963, but cannot find actual evidence.

2.) Does anyone have any ideas on additional sources of information or ideas for further research?


Thanks for reading, any thoughts / ideas welcome.

....also, forgot to say in the above that I have contacted Berkshire Record Services to see if there vehicle records exist for the relevant period, and unfortunatley the response from them was that they don't....

Crashbox on the series 2 club has done a lot of research on the Berkshire records, so their response is a little confusing!

If you think your vehicle has a breakdown truck (not exactly common for an FC mind you) then it would not have required registration until 1988. Prior to that it would have almost certainly ran on trade plates. The fact that it was given a Q plate would seem to back up that assumption.

The Landrover dealer ignoring your contact is not surprising I'm afraid, they are only interested in one thing generally, and its not helping out amateur historians...in fairness they probably do not have any records anyway.

The introduction of A suffix plates varied depending on location, some areas never issued A suffixes as they had plenty of unissued dateless plates, so went straight in at B suffix. It is possible your A suffix plate is quite correct for your vehicle, which by the sounds of it never wore a dateless plate. I would take the view that the A suffix plate is far more a part of its history than some random dateless plate. The fact that it was transferred off a Q reg would suggest the plate is age-appropriate.

I had the same response from the main dealer who originally took delivery of my 1 Ton; deafening silence!

Wrecker wrote:I had the same response from the main dealer who originally took delivery of my 1 Ton; deafening silence!

By now the records will have long since been shredded. There was a time when common decency would have meant you got a nice letter saying so, but now, if they can't make money out of it they won't bother.

Up until 1966 registration years ran January to January, so an A suffix would have been issue (in some areas) from January 63.
D suffix plates were only issued from January-August 66 which is when the system moved to August changeover, I believe partly to work with industry standard of August being the introduction of the new 'model year'.

Personally I've never been that fussed by reg numbers, so long as the vehicle has a plate and its in the correct tax class it's all good.
I've seen a few earlier vehicles that are on later plates for one reason or another (military stuff registered as new when demobbed, or factory fire engines registered new when a requirement to use them on the road has become apparent) that the owners have been determined to get an 'age related' number for.
The 'why' behind it has puzzled me on a few occasions as the circumstances under which the vehicle gained its original number are an interesting part of its history and something that's detracted from quite a bit if the number was changed.

The best example I can think of at short notice is my old IIB '18A' which was built in 1966, and should really qualify for a D suffix.
However it was used by 'Special Projects' for the first couple of years of its life and was sold on after being registered on an F suffix by the factory.

Anyways, keep it on the A plate.

Das, I think it was actually E suffix plates which only had a six months run from Jan to July 1967.

According to this http://www.cvpg.co.uk/REG.pdf some councils did not issue suffix plates until C reg!