Once the preserve of the rich and famous the
Once the preserve of the rich and famous, the private plates business was expanded hugely when DVLA started to offer unissued prefix type private registration numbers at very reasonable prices. The popularity cannot be denied but it has also tarnished the image of the original private plates. These were much harder to come by as each one had to be transferred off a pre 1963 car or motorcycle and to do this the vehicle had to be both taxed and tested. Unissued numbers have no such constraints, if it was not used as a normal registration number at that time, the DVLA can issue it and sell it.