I'm looking for a private plate but the DVLA have told me that its a standard issue plate (J79 ***). Is there any way at all to obtain this plate? Even if I managed to locate the current owner of the car its on, is there any way to get it transfered for a fee? I'm hoping someone here can advise me

The owner of the plate could definitely transfer it to another car or onto a retention document. I don't know whether they could transfer it to you, though I think they should be able to.

http://www.dvla.gov.uk/faq/faq_transfering.htm
http://www.dvla.gov.uk/vehicles/cherish.htm

Unfortunately nothing on the DVLA website seems to lay out the exact rules and most of the forms aren't available to download. It might be easier just to call them and ask.

As he says you can transfer any plate onto retention or to another car for the standard fee (£80 or so).

However I think J1-99 would have originally been sold at a higher price, so the owner might want a few £££ before they sell it.

The other problem is finding the owner, you can get owner's information under the Data Protection Act but you need a good reason - and apparently wanting to ask the owner if they want to sell their registration is NOT accepted. You could lie about the reason but if they found out you would probably get into some trouble.

You can get the make/model by doing a car data check at www.theaa.com

Gareth

Of course you can get the make/model of a car for free just by starting an insurance quote at one of the many online insurance sites.

Edit: though I can't help thinking that someone at some point will decide that is some sort of violation of peoples' privacy

Can I just clarify what I mean... the plate I want was never available to buy as a private plate. Its just a bog-standard number plate - nothing special. Is it still possible to obtain if I could find the owner of the clapped out fiesta its probably on?

I did understand that it was a bog standard plate and I do still think you can transfer it. The only way to be sure though is to ask DVLA.

Private plate owner here, Car dealers seem to be able to transfer numbers with the speed of summer lightning. Us lesser mortals, whatever the website says, are best served by queuing in the local DVLA office. I'm pretty sure that you can do what you want to do, but that leaves the subject of getting hold of the plate.
A colleague of mine handles the advertising for one of those dealers that take half pages in the Sunday papers, no promises at all, but I may just be seeing him at lunchtime.
If you PM me the full number that you want, I'll try and get an opinion.

N.B. A used car dealer that I knew some years ago, used to have his initial followed by one on his cars, he reckoned that he would have to pay the maximum fine 40 times to come up with the cost of the cherished number.

I certainly remember this being possible, I remember a Corrado G60 owner being particularly keen on having G60 and then his initals. It was blind luck that he saw a car with the right plate parked up. He hung around and waited for the owner, a sum of money changed hands and he got the plate. However unless you've already seen a car with the plate you want it would be pretty difficult to track down an address from a number plate. Unless you have a friend that goes to work wearing a tit on his head.

The best plate I have ever seen was on a M3 owned by a developer who worked at ntl in Hook. The plate was:

Wow, must've been a good developer, I'd imagine that plate wasn't cheap.

Yeah, don't know what he was doing at ntl

(actually I'm pretty sure he was one of the Microsoft team, there to try and make Biztalk actually work)

That's interesting, my dad and I got to have a look round the control room at Lincolnshire police HQ and were shown a system called OASIS which had all the registration plate details on it. My dad must've spent a good 10 minutes putting in the plates of the cars he'd owned over the years to see wether they were still on the road. I should add this was 15 years ago.

Cool. So now to bribe a police officer. I need an excuse though... "yes officer I saw a suspicious vehicle. I *think* the plate was..." Hmmm this will be a challenge for me :S

Thanks for the replies!