Where are the 73s ?

[Bald Rick]

No, this isn’t a thread about Southern Electro Diesels, but I do hope the click bait worked.

We are now almost through September, and despite being out on the roads on average for a couple of hours a day, I have seen only 5 x “73” plate new cars, ie those registered since the 1st.

Interestingly all of them have been EVs (two MGs, two Mercs and an Audi) but no Teslas which is surprising as 23 plate Teslas seem to be two a penny. Perhaps Tesla had a big shipment landing in the back end of 23 plate time and no deliveries since?


I’m sure it’s just me, but has anyone else noticed the seeming rarity of 73 plate cars? Normally by now I’d be expecting to see them fairly frequently. (Having now started this, I expect to see dozens tomorrow).

 

[Darandio]

I've seen one only, Fiat 500 hybrid.

 

[JohnMcL7]

Now you mention it, I can't recall seeing any so far and I do normally keep an eye out for the new number plates.

 

[J-2739]

I saw one on the first day of the month, which is a record for me. And I don't live in a particularly affluent area.

 

[GLC]

I've seen a reasonable amount, certainly at no less of a rate than I would normally expect for new reg changes(completely anecdotal of course!). I actually saw my first 73 plate in mid August, it was being kept at a dealership ready for the 1st of September as the owner had requested a 73 plate. I wasn't aware that it was possible to register a car "in the future" as it were

 

[m79900]

I haven’t seen a single one, come to mention it. Normally by about the 10th I see one.

 

[ABB125]

I've seen one, a few days ago. It was electric.
I think my record is seeing a new plate on the 2nd (but I was in London, so not so surprising).

 

[GusB]

Since they switched over to the March/September system, there doesn't seem to be the same rush to get the latest reg as there used to be. When I was a kid it was a bit of fun to spot the brand new cars (it was letter suffixes in those days...)

I've seen a few 73 plates around, but not a huge number. If I'm honest, it was the same with the 23s.

 

[Baxenden Bank]

You're a very bad person @Bald Rick, but having fallen for the click bait here goes.

I well remember the single annual letter change and, like people sleeping out for the Next sale or latest Apple product, people being on showroom forecourts ready to roll just after midnight, with lots of press publicity covering it. It either doesn't happen now or it passes me by completely.

 

[Speed43125]

I drove up home to Scotland from Ashford in a rented Corsa (courtesy of the RAC) on the 1st, and there was already a 73 reg BMW (iX possibly?) behind me at one point then. I've seen a fair few since then, though not having ventured much away from the Central Belt, it may be different elsewhere.

It's a good point on the Teslas though, Model Ys don't seem any more common than back in the summer.

 

[Bald Rick]

Some more anecdostats from today.

Typically, having seen only 5 in the previous 25 days, I saw three more today: 2 x EVs (neither were Teslas) and the third which I had no idea what it was (No green plate, but appeared to be a minicab doing a rather ambitious three point turn on a busy London street, and I thought new minicabs in London effectively had to be EVs now).

However doing some maths with some wet finger assumptions, I reckon I should be seeing around 5 a day now.

On a 20 minute walk this evening, I saw 15 x 23 plate cars (a third of which were Teslas!) but no 73 plates. Given that tomorrow we are 15% of the way through the 73 plate period, I would have expected to see a couple, albeit law of small numbers applies.

 

[John Webb]

I've been seeing 73 plates from around mid-August - about a mile away from where I live there is a company with a compound to which new cars are delivered in bulk, prepared for dealers and then driven off to them! They fill up at the local Sainsbury's, but are easily identifiable by the displayed trade plates and various protective coverings on the cars. But since the 1st September I've been seeing three or more 73 plated cars in service on the road every day. (I've not paid any attention to what type of vehicle as generally I've been driving at the time!)

 

[SteveM70]

I got into the habit of looking for them when driving as one of our “entertain the kids on a long drive” tactics was a game called “yellow mini nn” where nn is the current plate. A point for each yellow car, each mini, and each with the latest plate. A new yellow mini was therefore a three pointer. What an exciting life we led

But no, I’ve not noticed many this time round

 

[Bald Rick]

I've been seeing 73 plates from around mid-August - about a mile away from where I live there is a company with a compound to which new cars are delivered in bulk, prepared for dealers and then driven off to them! They fill up at the local Sainsbury's, but are easily identifiable by the displayed trade plates and various protective coverings on the cars. But since the 1st September I've been seeing three or more 73 plated cars in service on the road every day. (I've not paid any attention to what type of vehicle as generally I've been driving at the time!)

I know exactly where that is, and it’s only a few miles from me, but they’re obviously not coming my way!

 

[Sad Sprinter]

A car thread? Euuurghh, I thought we were going to talk about my beloved Southern Region!

 

[John Webb]

I know exactly where that is, and it’s only a few miles from me, but they’re obviously not coming my way!

I thought you'd probably know where I was talking about!

 

[bluenoxid]

Noting that car prices have increased, I was wondering if there was an increase in personalised plates on new cars, which would effectively hide new car registrations

 

[JD2168]

I have seen some 73 plate Cars, not many Vans or Lorries.

 

[Bald Rick]

Noting that car prices have increased, I was wondering if there was an increase in personalised plates on new cars, which would effectively hide new car registrations

I was going to mention that, as funnily enough one of the two 73 plate EVs I saw today was an e-up with the plate RE73CCA which whilst a good attempt, doesn’t really cut it.

Also I was thinking of starting another thread titled ‘one day every Car will have a personalised plate’…

 

[Gloster]

Having been caught by the click bait, I will say that I have only seen one or two on the Isle of Wight. I was in the insurers renewing my house insurance the day before the 73 started and I commented to the woman that I would have done it a few days before if I had realised that it was the last before the start as I expected the office to be full of people arranging for their new cars. She commented that it had been much quieter than normal. As I also got a lot more when selling my car a few days before (and from some anecdotal evidence) I suspect that there may still be a shortage of chips. Or maybe the rocketing cost of living is causing people to put off buying a new car for a bit. (“I reckon we can squeeze another year out of the Jowett.”)

 

[bluenoxid]

I also wonder how many people are waiting to see how the electric car market develops whilst running their existing car on. The highest number of cars were sold in the middle of the last decade and not all of them will be on their last legs.

 

[m79900]

I also wonder how many people are waiting to see how the electric car market develops whilst running their existing car on. The highest number of cars were sold in the middle of the last decade and not all of them will be on their last legs.

It confuses me as to why people would get a new car, unless they’ve grown out of old one, or it’s ridiculously expensive to repair. Keeping older cars until they break is the eco friendly way, I think.

 

[Bald Rick]

It confuses me as to why people would get a new car, unless they’ve grown out of old one, or it’s ridiculously expensive to repair. Keeping older cars until they break is the eco friendly way, I think.

Quite obviously, the market would not function if everyone bought second hand cars!

 

[Speed43125]

It confuses me as to why people would get a new car, unless they’ve grown out of old one, or it’s ridiculously expensive to repair. Keeping older cars until they break is the eco friendly way, I think.

I think if you compared say the interior of a 2020, 2010 and 2000 BMW 3 Series you could quite easily make the case for moving up to a newer model. New or nearly new cars do offer a variety of advantages over their predecessors, and this is coming from someone who owns a very old Volvo.

 

[75A]

Very hard to tell in this part of the world, we have the 'Republic' plates which are white, the 'Ulster' plates which are 3 letters, 4 numbers which you can't tell the age by and GB ones which for some reason round here all seem to be 55.
Haven't seen a 73 yet but then again I don't recall many 23's either. Times are hard.

 

[RichJF]

Seen 3 already. One a vile juggernaut BMW iX, one a Tesla & the other a delivery van for a supermarket.

 

[61653 HTAFC]

Back when I was a kid, my brothers and I would love spotting the new reg' cars on August the first... funnily enough we lost interest as we got older.

The "new" (now 22 years old!) format with the year indicator digit not at the front means it's less obvious when you see them anyway. I don't think I'll ever get used to the current format, whereas I can still recite from memory the number plates of almost every car owned by my immediate family that was on the old format!

 

[m79900]

Back when I was a kid, my brothers and I would love spotting the new reg' cars on August the first... funnily enough we lost interest as we got older.

The "new" (now 22 years old!) format with the year indicator digit not at the front means it's less obvious when you see them anyway. I don't think I'll ever get used to the current format, whereas I can still recite from memory the number plates of almost every car owned by my immediate family that was on the old format!

In 2050 odd, when they run out of numbers for the current system, I wonder what they’ll come up with.

 

[GLC]

Easiest system would be to do as they’ve done before, and reverse the format to XYZ 01AB

 

[Bald Rick]

In 2050 odd, when they run out of numbers for the current system, I wonder what they’ll come up with.

Barcodes. As per Back to the Future II (set 8 years ago)