G reg 240 ?

Depends what you mean by "still".....

There's at least one 'G' suffixed car on the road in the UK, but it is a retrospective-issue 'Age Related' plate on a car that was originally sold and used in a far off market.

I wouldn't get too hung up on the question of UK registrations if I were you. I've got a mid 1970 build Fairlady Z-L that's on a 'W' suffix plate, for example.

Don't use the UK registration plate to date these cars. It's a can of worms.
 
Perhaps it's a very early, extremly rare, priceless, prototype................................














That your going to turn into a hybrid. Shame on you.
 
I've got a 72 car on a W plate. It was previously a Belgium car so might be related to that.
 
Just in case anyone's confused by all this:


'G' suffix registrations for new cars ran from 1st August 1968 to 31st July 1969. As the S30-series Z was only officially released for sale in Japan after the 1969 Tokyo Motor Show ( which started on October 24th 1969 ), and no Export models physically went on sale outside Japan until January 1970 at the very earliest, it's clear that no S30-series Z should be on a 'G' suffix plate as an original issue....

'H' suffix registrations for new cars ran from 1st August 1969 to 31st July 1970, so an original import could feasibly have received an 'H' sufix plate had it turned up in time.



However, whilst the DVLA will normally make it very difficult for you to put a younger registration on your imported car ( for obvious reasons ), there's nothing to stop you buying an older suffixed plate for a 1970 built HS30 ( for example ), and that's why you might very well see a 'G' suffixed plate on a 240Z in the UK....
 
Albrecht said:
However, whilst the DVLA will normally make it very difficult for you to put a younger registration on your imported car ( for obvious reasons ), there's nothing to stop you buying an older suffixed plate for a 1970 built HS30 ( for example ), and that's why you might very well see a 'G' suffixed plate on a 240Z in the UK....
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Strange that the DVLA hasn't cottoned on to the fact that increasing a cars' age can also increase its' value.....!

Before they issued age related plates, the DVLA insisted upon the date of importation and therefore a younger plate...........hence the 'W' plate ?

A tad contradictory.....:eek:
 
Maybe, but a car's age should be judged by when it was built rather than anything as arbitrary as a registration plate. Especially when the authority issuing the registration plates has changed its rules - and/or not adhered to them - over the years.

My 'W' suffix plate 1970 Fairlady Z-L, and my 'N' suffix plate 1972 Fairlady 240ZG were given their registrations many years back. They were simply issued with registrations according to the suffixes current at the time of import. In contrast, my 1971 Fairlady 240ZG and 1970 Datsun 240Z were both given 'Age Related' suffix plates ( 'K' and 'H' suffixes respectively ) as they were brought into the UK after the DVLA switched to a new system. The first three letters of their registration numbers identify them as 'Grey' imports.

Marque / model owners clubs in the UK are usually aware of the system, and usually have the expertise to *help* the DVLA and insurance companies in the accurate dating of member cars......
 
Geoff at fourways has a G plated 240, originally LHD I believe.

Mine is on an H.

Back in the 80s many imports ended up with a suffix that was given when the car was first registered in the UK hence your W. This can be changed if you can prove original build date or registration in foreign land....shouldn't be difficult
 
The V5 says on it that it was manufactured in 1972 but I've got a private plate to go on it anyway so should be fine.
 
vipergts said:
Geoff at fourways has a G plated 240, originally LHD I believe.
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Geoff's H-suffix plated car was originally an Australian market RHD car, and was built in 1970.

The plate is *inappropiate* for the build date of the car, but was not necessarily issued as an 'Age Related' plate by the DVLA. That's the whole point; You can buy a plate that's earlier than the build date of the car.....

vipergts said:
Back in the 80s many imports ended up with a suffix that was given when the car was first registered in the UK hence your W.
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That's precisely the point I made earlier in the thread......
 
tel240z said:
...can you elaborate on the first 3 letters you mentioned as grey import as i'm sure you have gathered that my australian import ahs its new plate ending with G the first 3 letters being CHJ
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I'm not sure what letter sequences the DVLA are currently using as prefixes for 'Age Related' grey import registrations, but there used to be a LOT of 'RYT'. 'RYL', 'RYX' and 'RYY' prefixed cars running around in the London area, for example. One of my close neighbours even had a USA-import Porsche 911S with a number very close to one of mine.

But what's the reason for your asking? Do you not know the history behind the car, or is it just curiosity? If it's the former, then paying the small fee to the DVLA for a V888 search of pervious owners and any importation history got me the answers to a few questions for my own cars, and I'd recommend it.

Technically speaking, no S30-series Z should be issued with a 'G' suffixed plate by the DVLA as an 'Age Related' number, as I've alluded to above. The plain fact is that the 'G' suffix applicable dates ran out on 31st July 1969, a full three or months before any S30-series could feasibly have been sold to the general public in Japan let alone anywhere else. In fact, we have data from Nissan Shatai ( the people who actually made these cars ) which shows us what cars had actually been built before the end of July 1969, and all of them were factory pre-production prototypes and production prototypes. I'm fairly sure that your car will have been built in 1970 at the earliest anyway. The earliest feasible correctly-issued suffix for an S30-series Z would be an 'H'.

All bets are off when a plate is actually a 'vanity' / 'personalised' plate. You can put an 'F', 'E', 'D', 'C' or even 'A' sufffixed plate on a 1970 Z retrospecitively if you want. The point is that UK registrations are not reliable ways to date these cars. I wouldn't bother taking them seriously.
 
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