Registration Date

[Barry Townsend]

My 1931 RN was registered on December 31st 1931. I have heard of several others similarly registered, can anyone explain why it should have been done on the very last day of the year. Seems strange to me

[Martin Prior]

I've noticed a disproportionate number of 31st December and 1st January registrations. I suspect that this was down to laziness when setting up new computerised V5s.

[JonE]

Did tax years used to be Jan-Dec?

[Barry Townsend]

I'm pretty sure in those days the car tax year was the same as the calendar year. the current system was introduced fairly recently (shows how old I am!) to initially remove the pressure of new year sales and then latterly boost mid year sales

[Martin Prior]

We have the old-style logbooks for all of our fleet and they all have random dates scattered throughout the year.

[JonE]

I'm pretty sure in those days the car tax year was the same as the calendar year. the current system was introduced fairly recently (shows how old I am!) to initially remove the pressure of new year sales and then latterly boost mid year sales

but its the fiscal tax year that would the possible determinant then, as the reg letters wouldn't have changed in the 1930s...
Garages may have registered cars at beginning or end of tax year to favour their tax return.

[Robert Leigh]

In the 1950s when I started motoring, tax for vehicles was from 1st January for 12 months or for 3 months at a slightly higher rate. I suspect that buyers may have wanted to buy cars on 1st January partly for keeping up with the Joneses but also to get maximum value from the tax. Some will remember the change of registration suffix letter date moving from the beginning of the year to the middle of the year in 1967. This was because of pressure from the motor trade to reduce the surge in new car sales on 1st January. I believe the later change to altering the year identifying numbers to twice per year started on 1st September 2001, again to reduce the market surges.
Robert Leigh