Tips

Look up a number plate age code

The two digits in the middle of a UK registration say when the car was first registered. We hold a statistics page for every age code issued since September 2001 that is old enough to have taken a normal first MOT — what still passes, what fails, and how far those cars have run.

• Browse all 43 age codes — pick a code and see what the MOT record says about those cars.
• How to read a number plate — what makes one legal, what the flags and memory tags mean, and what to do if yours has been cloned.
• Number plate statistics hub — all 43 cohorts in one sortable table, with the DVLA lookup tables alongside.

Practical guides, written for UK drivers

Every guide in this library is written for the UK market — DVLA paperwork, MOT rules, the Consumer Rights Act, ULEZ and Clean Air Zones, UK insurance law. Generic car advice tends to fall apart at exactly the moment it matters, because the rules that decide who owns a car, who owes what, and who is protected are national. These guides start from the UK rules and stay there.

The library is organised around the decisions that cost real money. Buying: what to check before you view a car, how to read its MOT history, and how to spot a clone or a clocked odometer. Selling: pricing, paperwork and the payment scams aimed at private sellers. Owning: insurance pitfalls like fronting and undeclared modifications, warranty claims and why they get rejected, and whether a Clean Air Zone will charge your car every morning.

Check the car, not just the advice

Reading up is half the job — the other half is checking the specific car in front of you. Our free car check covers DVLA data, full MOT history and ULEZ compliance for any UK registration, and a full report adds outstanding finance, stolen markers, write-off history and mileage checks when you're ready to commit. Between the guides and the data, you should never have to take a seller's word for anything.