Madam, – The motor trade continuously laments the current vehicle registration system as new car sales are skewed towards the start of each calendar year.
This concern could be addressed with a small modification of the registration system.
Instead of starting each registration with the year in which it was registered, a letter could be added to the registration number to denote the month in which the vehicle was registered, eg A11-D- for cars registered in January 2011, B11-D- for cars registered in February, etc.
If this proved to be too administratively arduous, the letters could represent three- monthly periods. The UK split the year into two periods and found that sales are now clustered at two calendar points.
Either of the above systems would reduce the problems of cars registered late in the year being deemed one year old the following January and should lead to a more balanced flow of trade in the new car market through the year. – Yours, etc,
