The term prefix when used to describe personal number plates refers to the first alpha character. This Character was originally used as the year identifier for car registration numbers with the first being “A” issued in August 1983. At that time there was just one new registration series issued each year.
The prefix series of car registration numbers are now popular as personal number plates. The prefix personal number plates tend to be more affordable than their dateless registration number forerunners. The availability of unissued prefix number plates is now limited as there are literally hundreds being purchased every day and have been for many years.
The Driver and Vehicle Licensing Authority, DVLA, have recently declared there intention to release some remaining prefix numbers over the next five years. The first of the proposed rollouts is scheduled for October 2010 and will be the extended R prefix range. We will post more information when we have it here.