I use a different approach, which does not rely upon dealerships and I find to be extremely easy. Basically, I follow these steps; 1) I take delivery of the car with the normal dealer assigned plates. 2) After a period of time (usually when the date prefix is no longer the ‘current’ new reg
) I do the online application to assign the private plate (no cost as the plate is on retention – see step 4). 3) I drive to Halfords and when parked in their car park I unscrew the plates and hand them to the technician, so that when they make up the new private plates they can drill the holes in the same positions. I screw the new plates on the car and drive home, storing the original plates in my garage. 4) Just before the car is due to go back, I do the online retention (£85 cost) and the registration number that the car had when I took delivery is always reassigned. As I already have those plates with the correct pre-drilled holes, I just swap them with the private plates at home. Takes 5 minutes. Total cost of the above is the £85 retention and the cost of the plates, and each process can be done simply at a time to suit me.
) I do the online application to assign the private plate (no cost as the plate is on retention – see step 4). 3) I drive to Halfords and when parked in their car park I unscrew the plates and hand them to the technician, so that when they make up the new private plates they can drill the holes in the same positions. I screw the new plates on the car and drive home, storing the original plates in my garage. 4) Just before the car is due to go back, I do the online retention (£85 cost) and the registration number that the car had when I took delivery is always reassigned. As I already have those plates with the correct pre-drilled holes, I just swap them with the private plates at home. Takes 5 minutes. Total cost of the above is the £85 retention and the cost of the plates, and each process can be done simply at a time to suit me.Glos Guy, I’m looking to use this method come April (hopefully). One Q, do you find all the various databases that MoB, RAC, KF etc use update swiftly or have you had to quote the original plate to get the vehicle recognised at all?