New number plates in March and September

What are the new number plates this year?

For the current calendar year, the spring identifier is 26, covering March to August 2026. The autumn identifier is 76, covering September 2026 to February 2027. These are registration issue periods derived from DVLA's published system. They are not manufacturer model years and do not mean that every car carrying the identifier was built within that period.

The calendar diagram shows why New Year is not a plate change. The autumn series continues through the winter, then the spring series begins at the March change. The September change introduces the next autumn series. A registration remains valid when its issue period ends: existing owners do not replace their plates whenever the calendar moves on.

You can use the table when ordering a new car, but the relevant event is first registration. Placing an order, paying a deposit, making the final payment and collecting the car are separate events. If the identifier matters to your purchase, the order should say which registration period you have agreed, and the dealer should confirm the intended registration date before applying to DVLA.

Sources: [1] [2] [3]

How do I make sure my new car gets the plate I ordered?

Make the registration requirement part of the written order rather than a conversation at the sales desk. Explain whether you want the incoming identifier or simply a car ready for a particular collection date. Those requirements are not interchangeable. The dealer may be able to prepare a car before the change, but it cannot use an incoming age identifier to make an earlier registered car appear newer.

Ask whether the vehicle is genuinely unregistered stock. A pre-registered car has already had its first registration, even if it has barely moved and the dealer calls it nearly new. That may be acceptable, but the transaction should be described and priced on that basis. Ask about the first registration date, keeper history and any warranty already running, using the actual documents rather than assumptions about what pre-registered usually means.

Delivery estimates can change for reasons unrelated to the plate calendar. If the car misses the agreed handover date, check the order terms and contact the dealer before arranging insurance or disposing of your existing car. A plate date does not give a universal cancellation right. Your contract and the circumstances of the purchase determine your options if the dealer cannot supply what you agreed.

1. 1Confirm whether the car is unregistered or has already been registered to the dealer or another keeper.
2. 2Put the required registration period, intended collection date and exact vehicle specification on the order.
3. 3Ask the dealer to confirm the planned first-registration date before submitting the DVLA application.
4. 4Arrange insurance using the registration and vehicle details actually allocated, and confirm that vehicle tax is in place for collection.
5. 5Check the handover paperwork and subsequent V5C against the agreed dates, and raise any discrepancy promptly with the dealer.

Sources: [1] [2] [3]

What if my car is registered before the plate change?

A car registered in the outgoing period keeps that age identifier when the new period begins. You do not qualify for a replacement incoming identifier merely because you collect the car later. The rule is about the vehicle's registration age, so it is worth resolving the date before registration rather than arguing over the plates after collection.

There can still be reasons to accept outgoing stock. It may be the specification you want or the dealer may offer a lower price. Compare the written offer as a whole, including the cash price, finance cost, extras, part exchange and delivery arrangements. An older identifier is neither automatic proof of a bad deal nor a guaranteed discount. The seller's actual offer is the evidence you can use.

Sources: [1] [2] [3]

Does a January delivery need a new calendar-year plate?

No. The autumn issue period includes the winter months after New Year. Buyers sometimes assume that a new car delivered in January should carry digits matching the new calendar year, but those digits belong to the spring series that has not started yet. The dealer should still provide the correct first-registration date rather than relying on the identifier as a complete description.

That distinction also matters when comparing a January car with an autumn car carrying the same identifier. The plates may look equally old while the vehicles have different first-registration dates, usage and histories. Read the dates and inspect the condition. The identifier is a convenient category for searching, but the individual vehicle remains the thing you are buying.

Sources: [1] [2] [3]

Should I wait for the new plate before buying?

Compare what waiting changes for your own purchase. You may prefer the incoming identifier, but a useful comparison also includes the available specification, the dealer's written price, the cost of keeping your current car and the value you place on having the replacement sooner. None of those can be reduced to a universal percentage attached to a plate change.

Be cautious with claims that a particular month always produces the best deal. A registration target, stock position or manufacturer campaign can affect an individual offer, but it does not guarantee a lower price for the vehicle you want. Ask competing dealers for the same specification and compare offers written on the same basis. If finance is involved, include the final payment and total payable rather than ranking offers only by monthly instalment.

For part exchange, separate the price of the replacement from the allowance for your existing car. A generous allowance can sit alongside a less competitive selling price. Ask for both values and the cost to change in writing. An advertised plate-change saving is meaningful only when you can compare the same car, specification and payment route.

If you already own the car, the change creates no registration task. Your existing mark remains assigned unless you take a separate step to transfer or replace it. You do not need new plates, a new V5C or a different tax application merely because another issue period has begun. Continue to use the vehicle's own renewal dates for tax, insurance and MOT.

1. 1Obtain like-for-like written offers for the outgoing and incoming registration periods.
2. 2Separate vehicle price, finance charges, options and part-exchange allowance before comparing the total cost to change.
3. 3Check the delivery and cancellation terms, then choose using the actual offer and your need for the vehicle.

Why do number plates change in March and September?

Under the suffix and prefix schemes the age letter changed once a year, on 1 August for most of that period. The effect was a market that did roughly a quarter of its annual business in a single month.

That concentration was bad for everybody. Manufacturers had to build to a peak they could not sustain, dealers had to staff for it, transport and registration systems strained under it, and buyers who wanted a car in June were pushed into waiting eight weeks for a newer letter.

The current scheme, introduced in September 2001, changes the identifier twice a year instead. The spring identifier arrives on 1 March and the autumn one on 1 September, which splits the peak into two smaller ones.

Because the codes follow a fixed rule, the next few years are already known. The spring code is always the last two digits of the year and the autumn code is that number plus fifty, so the table below is simply the rule run forward.

Sources: [1] [2] [3]

Does a plate change guarantee a dealer discount?

The two plate change months are still by far the largest for new registrations in Britain, and that is where the pressure sits. A dealership with a registration target has more room to move in the last week of a plate month than at any other point in the quarter.

The month before a change is the other useful window. Stock registered on the outgoing identifier becomes harder to shift the moment the new one arrives, so a car sitting on a forecourt in late February or late August is a car somebody wants gone.

The opposite is true for a buyer who wants the newest plate. Demand for a fresh identifier is highest in the first fortnight of March and September, which is the worst moment to negotiate and the best moment to be told the waiting list is long.

• Best time to negotiate on a new car: the closing days of March, June, September and December.
• Best time for a discount on outgoing stock: late February and late August.
• Worst time to negotiate: the first two weeks of March and September.

Sources: [1] [2] [3]

How should I compare cars with different age identifiers?

The identifier is a shorthand for age, and the used market prices it accordingly. A car on a 24 plate reads as older than one on a 74 plate even where the two were registered six months apart and have covered the same mileage.

That produces a small but real step in value at each plate change, and it is worth knowing when you are part exchanging. A car sold in late August on a 21 plate is competing with a wave of 71 plate cars arriving in September, and the same car sold in July is not.

The step is largest on cars up to about four years old, where the plate is the first thing a buyer reads. Beyond that the mileage and the condition dominate, and the identifier stops carrying much weight at all.

Sources: [1] [2] [3]

Can I rely on a quieter month for a better deal?

Between the two peaks the market is thin. January and February before the March change, and July and August before the September change, are consistently the quietest months for new registrations.

A quiet month is a buyer's month on both sides of the transaction. There is less competition for the car you want and less competition for the car you are selling, because fewer people are moving at all.

It also affects delivery. A factory order placed in a quiet month is usually built and delivered faster than the same order placed six weeks before a plate change, when everybody in the country wants the same thing at the same time.

Sources: [1] [2] [3]

Which registration date should be written on my order?

If the identifier matters to you, the thing to agree in writing is the registration date rather than the delivery date. A car delivered on 28 February wears the outgoing identifier for the rest of its life, and a dealer under pressure to clear a month will sometimes register a car before you take it, which is worth asking about directly.

If the identifier does not matter to you, that is a lever. A car already registered on the outgoing identifier is a car the dealer is now motivated to move, and the discount on one is usually larger than anything available on an order for the new plate.

• Agree the registration date in writing, not the delivery date alone.
• A pre-registered car is cheaper and is one identifier older from the day you get it.
• Delivery is quicker in a quiet month than in the run-up to a change.

Sources: [1] [2] [3]

Is the registration year the same as the model year?

The identifier records the date the mark was issued, not the date the car was built. A car registered on 1 March may have been built the previous November and stood in a compound since.

It also does not survive a private plate. A registration may never make a car appear newer than it is, but it may make it appear older, so a 24 plate car wearing a dateless mark loses its identifier entirely.

Where the age genuinely matters, the field to read is the date of first registration on the V5C. It is also on the free DVLA vehicle enquiry service, and it is the date every tax and emissions rule is decided by.

Sources: [1] [2] [3]