Car rego - Does VicRoads have a different series for standard number plates and slimline number plates?

Austin 316 on 06/01/2014 - 11:15

I recently (mid December 2013) bought a new car from a Mazda dealer and the registration of the car is starting from Z… with the old pattern of 3 alphabets - 3 numbers.

As far as I know, that pattern has now been exhausted and the new pattern is 1AB - 1AC or something like that. I asked the dealer why I haven't got the new registration no as I fear the car might be a demo model or something, but he said that the standard rego plates and the slimline rego plates (which I had asked for as an option with my new car) have a different series and the slimline one's still run on the old pattern.

Could anyone please confirm if that is the case? I couldn't find any info on these on the vicroads website hence asking here.

Thanks.

Automotive

Comments

  • theworks on 06/01/2014 - 14:09
    +2

    Wouldnt you know if its a demo by the k's?

    • Austin 316 on 08/01/2014 - 08:02

      No. Because the car had 7-10 kms on it when I got it, and I had earlier seen another demo car at the same dealer which had 11 kms. So, I can't tell for sure.

      • endotherm on 08/01/2014 - 09:04

        Is this your first new car? :) They do drive them a couple of kilometers in testing, dynamometer, registration, delivery on the car transporter, moving around the dealer's lot for pre-delivery, stock transfer between dealers etc. Nothing to be suspicious about. Are you concerned that it may have had 27 potential buyers in it that may have taken it for a spin around the block? The other "demo" car may have been set aside by the dealer to be used for the purpose of new customers test-driving it, but it hasn't been used yet. It's really only a demo car if it clocks up a lot of k's and has a lot of people through it.

        • Austin 316 on 08/01/2014 - 11:46

          My only concern is that I was offered a new car for the price I paid. They earlier said they can give me a demo car for the same price and wouldn't budge on the price for the new car. But later they came back and said they can do the new car at the price of the demo.

          Also, when I checked the registration on VicRoads, it said the compliance plate date is 09/2013. What does that mean?

          BTW… thanks for your answers so far. They are really helpful and I do appreciate them.

        • endotherm on 08/01/2014 - 14:23
          +1

          Probably that it rolled off the assembly line some time in September, so it looks like it has been sitting around in the manufacturers yard awaiting shipment, or the dealers lot awaiting a sale and pre-delivery. It's not uncommon to be sitting around for a few months, unless you ordered a special order vehicle that no-one had with all the options you wanted, or in the right colour, and the plant had to actually build it for you. Then you would find you would be waiting for them to get around to building it. I think a lot of new cars are sold by dealers taking the order then ringing around the other dealers to see if they have a matching vehicle, if they don't themselves have one in stock, then do a stock transfer. As long as the car hasn't been sitting around for a year or been test driven a lot, there's not anything to worry about. The one dirty trick they sometimes try to pull is to sell you last years model this calendar year and try to tell you it is this years model because that is the first year of registration, or date of the sale. In your case you bought a 2013 car in 2013. You didn't get to enjoy it for too long, but that isn't the dealers fault.

        • Austin 316 on 08/01/2014 - 15:57

          Thanks for all that explanation. I am clear on that now and satisfied that it is indeed a new 2013 car.

          I am not worried about using it for only a few days in 2013 as I already knew that and they did offer me a 2014 model for an extra $2k. But I am happy with the 2013 model.

          Thanks a lot for your answers.

  • endotherm on 06/01/2014 - 14:25

    Certainly not an official answer, but I would think they stamp a certain number of regular plates and a certain number of slimline plates. The slimline ones are less popular/common than the regular ones, so I would think it is perfectly feasible that the first-issue batch hasn't been exhausted as quickly as the regular ones. I have seen "old" plates being issued quite a while after they would otherwise have been expected to. This is especially true if the issuing office is in a smaller/slower location compared to the central office. For the more uncommon/exotic plates (e.g. recreational vehicles, trailers, classic cars), they may have a dozen plates on hand but only issue one a year, so it could take some time to exhaust them.

    In your case, perhaps a call to Vic Roads could confirm the date of first registration? That way you know the car wasn't being driven around as a demo model before then. I've never seen a demo model with trade plates or similar, so you can be pretty confident it wasn't used before it was registered.

  • Borbely on 06/01/2014 - 15:02

    I picked up a new car in late October and I ordered slimline plates. I too was expecting my number plate to be number-letter-letter number-letter-letter but it came with the old style plates. I wouldn't worry. I'm in the same basket.

  • sparkles on 06/01/2014 - 15:08
    +2

    The new combinations are going to be way less fun to make words out of when you are sitting at the lights or in traffic. I sort of like the old ones. Nostalgia!

  • bdl on 06/01/2014 - 20:19

    http://news.drive.com.au/photogallery/drive/ford-ecosport-pi…

    check out those pics - looks like the new style are available in slimlne

  • resubaehtgnolhcs on 08/01/2014 - 16:39
    +1

    You can tell if you car was a demo simply by the fact that it would have needed to be registered first in the state before the dealer can use it as a demo. If you are not the first registered user for the car (ie the car has already been registered to the dealer or someone else), then car was likely a demo. However, if you are the first registered owner then the car is brand new regardless of the small number of kilometres on it (which has already been explained above).

    • Austin 316 on 09/01/2014 - 08:08

      Yes. Another great tip. Thank you.

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