Register new car in Feb or March?

[Clariman]

Does registering a new car in March have any real financial benefit over registering in February? I'm not interested in the vanity of "oh look at my new car" or "I'm one of the first to have the new reg".

Is the resale value of the car going to be better if March reg? If it is, will that outweigh any reduction of trade-in/value of my current car? Also, I guess that car sellers may be more motivated to shift a car in Feb than March?

I am a cash car buyer, not PCP.

Thanks
C

[bungeejumper]

I suppose it depends on how long you intend to keep the car? In 10 year's time nobody's going to give a monkeys about the registration date, because by then it'll all come down to the condition of the car. But in two or three years' time, I'd say that the relative cachet of the more recent registration would encourage more buyer interest.

In other words, you might not care about the reg number, but other people who need to impress their neighbours probably will.

It's as true as it ever was that you'll (usually) get a better deal on a rainy Tuesday afternoon in February than you would on the first of March. But you may find find that some dealers will offer to hold your new car for a few weeks until the magic 70 reg comes in, and still give you a decent price or (more likely) a generous trade-in. Win-win.

Have a look at CarWow or Drive the Deal, which will flush out the lowest new-car prices, and then try to nail down the salesman to give you both the current CarWow price and the 70 reg. It can be done, not least because dealers are always keen to get some forward sales onto their books before March arrives. And they're all a bit worried about slow car sales this year, for reasons that are probably obvious. You are their dream customer! (And even more so if you're not asking for a trade-in. TBH, though, they'd rather sell you a PCP than let you buy it with cash.)

Alternatively, start searching for Nearly New, and see what comes up among year-old vehicles. All the dealers are twitchy, which is great news for you.

BJ

[marronier]

This problem is why reg. plates change twice a year . In the '60s , "A" ,"B", "C", "D" plates started on Jan 1st , while most new cars were sold in spring and summer depressing car sales ,so dealers complained. The answer was to switch to introducing a bi-annual reg.plate change for 1967 ,so an "E" plate lasted 6 months and an "F" plate 12 months and so on.

[DrFfybes]

This problem is why reg. plates change twice a year . In the '60s , "A" ,"B", "C", "D" plates started on Jan 1st , while most new cars were sold in spring and summer depressing car sales ,so dealers complained. The answer was to switch to introducing a bi-annual reg.plate change for 1967 ,so an "E" plate lasted 6 months and an "F" plate 12 months and so on.

I think you'll find it swiched to August in 1966.

the twice per year didn't come in until 2002 because all the sales were skewed to August.

My neighbour delivers lease/PCP cars - they dropped off over 100 cars the 2 days before Xmas, and that was just Mercs.

Paul

[DrFfybes]

This problem is why reg. plates change twice a year . In the '60s , "A" ,"B", "C", "D" plates started on Jan 1st , while most new cars were sold in spring and summer depressing car sales ,so dealers complained. The answer was to switch to introducing a bi-annual reg.plate change for 1967 ,so an "E" plate lasted 6 months and an "F" plate 12 months and so on.

I think you'll find it swiched to August in 1966.

the twice per year didn't come in until 2002 because all the sales were skewed to August.
Paul

Sorry, misread your post, you meant it went biannual for 1967 ONLY. The "6 months" confused me, as it was for 7 months until end July. Having said that I typed 1966 instead of 1967.

Paul

[tjh290633]

the twice per year didn't come in until 2002 because all the sales were skewed to August.

Paul

I think that you will find that it went to six-monthly in about 1998. We had an R-reg in early 1998 and Y was March 2001.

TJH

[Breelander]

the twice per year didn't come in until 2002 because all the sales were skewed to August.

I think that you will find that it went to six-monthly in about 1998. We had an R-reg in early 1998 and Y was March 2001.

Yes, they changed around the dates and duration several times. For the full history see Wikipedia:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vehicle_r ... om#History

[bungeejumper]

Speaking of when the registration letters came in....

But you may find find that some dealers will offer to hold your new car for a few weeks until the magic 70 reg comes in, and still give you a decent price or (more likely) a generous trade-in. Win-win.

Whoops, I meant the 20 reg, of course. 70 doesn't come in until next September.By which time desperate dealers will be giving cars away with a packet of cornflakes, the way things are going.

And that's before the trade tariffs kick in. £1,500 extra on a typical car, I gather. Deep joy.

BJ

[Clariman]

A combination of delivery to dealer and our holiday means that we couldn't get car until 17th Feb, have delayed reg until March.

Thanks