Too much on your plate

MOTORISTS selling their used cars are losing big money thanks to "confusion" about the new, twice-yearly number plate change.

Under the old annual system, an R-registered, 1998, Ford Mondeo 1.8LX lost pounds 600 when the S-plate came in. Under the twice- yearly regime, the car lost pounds 500 each time the plates changed, piling another pounds 400 on to its overall depreciation after 12 months.

A year-old Vauxhall Astra 1.4 LS lost pounds 600 when the plates changed under the old system. The same car now loses pounds 717 a year. Bad news for sellers, but good for people in the market for a used car.

"This twice-a-year plate change is really making its mark on residual values," said Martin Ward, market expert with the CAP vehicle valuation guide.

Ward said the current slump in used-car values started by the move to twice-yearly plate changes and was exacerbated by the cut in new car prices and car makers offering incentives like cheap insurance and finance.

He said consumers used to know the age of a car with the old "prefix" system, but found the new plates "confusing".

Jeff Paterson, senior car editor with Glass's Guide agrees: "I think it's fair to say that the introduction of the second plate has brought nothing but confusion to the buying public. There is a perception that cars appear to age faster as a result of the two changes."

Tony Styles, of Cap Black Book, concurs, citing the example of a three-year-old T-plate car registered in 1999. This car's T-plate has now been superseded by U, V, X, Y, 51, and 02 registration plates. Styles believes, as a result, that overall values have fallen.

"It is definitely having an effect on values. It is just a nonsense. No other country has it in the world," said Ward.

John Coates, boss of valuation guide Plex Partnership, and Autocar used-car pundit, believes the twice-yearly plate change is damaging secondhand prices.

"The benefits of number plates is all but gone and consumers are losing out," said Coates. He suggested that this is reflected in the rocketing sales of personalised number plates sold by the DVLA car licensing centre.

The industry car value "bible" Glass's Guide believes that the move to twice-yearly plate changes "continues to produce falling 'plate premiums" as buyers place less significance on a plate's "age identifier". The trend has been accelerated by downward pressure on nearly-new car prices caused by exceptional new car offers, it says.

Glass's Adrian Rushmore said: "The premium (between) the 0251 and 0151 plates is virtually non-existent - perhaps only a nominal pounds 50 to pounds 100 when comparing two identical cars with the same mileage."

Nobody is yet calling for the system to be scrapped, however. The switch to a twice-yearly plate system followed intensive lobbying by the motor industry and motor dealers to remove the brief, massive increase in buyer demand when the old style number plate changed in August, which car factories and distributors found difficult to handle.

The switch has smoothed out demand for cars overall, but it seems owners are paying for this with falling values, creating even more of a buyers market.

John Kirwan is deputy editor of Motor Trader.

Copyright 2002
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