[rihan01234]

The other day i was walking near to downing street were i pounced upon these beauties lined up in front of official buildings.

Mods please move into the appropriate section if this is not the place this thread should be

Here are the pics i captured.

[Cyrus43]

XJs and RRs are very very common in London. I think the official cars which used to be the Rover 75 has now been changed to the Jags.

[julupani]

Well,

What other choice do they have really?? They have to buy Jags and LRs because these are sort of the only two (sort of) British car brands left out there which suit their needs.

[Cyrus43]

NOt really. Ive seen the county official cars ranging from Ford Mondeos to the recently rampant Vauxhall Insignia. I think the Insignia has replaced the Rovers though for most of the official posts with the Jags being exceptions in some cases.

[julupani]

You can have the foreign brands in the smaller posts, but you cant have them for high profile highly visible officials. By choice I meant no other manufacturer making cars that are suitable for high placed officials.

By the way, Vauxhall too is a British brand and Ford has been in the UK for more than a hundred years nows. So they are not really considered foreign brands.

[ajmat]

There are also a lot of Pruis's used as they are green!

[Cyrus43]

Originally Posted by ajmat

There are also a lot of Pruis's used as they are green!

Im sure you meant Prius. But I havent really seen any of those as official cars yet. The Transport services and Rail services have alot of those though.

[rihan01234]

Originally Posted by Cyrus43

XJs and RRs are very very common in London. I think the official cars which used to be the Rover 75 has now been changed to the Jags.

I agree. Very common cars in London but its the sight of having all of them lined up and parked which pushed me to get some pics. Very strange that government buys these luxury cars but talks about spending cuts all the time

[julupani]

Do you want David Cameron to take the Tube to office next time around???Or may be the govt should place a bulk order for bulletproof G-Wizes??

[vaibzi]

Noticed that most of the cars have their number plates starting as "OVIO". Does that signify anything?

[aniguchisan]

Originally Posted by vaibzi

Noticed that most of the cars have their number plates starting as "OVIO". Does that signify anything?

'OV' signifies the cars were registered in Oxford. '10' signifies the car was registered/built in the first half of 2010 (up until the mid year). The '60' plates signify the second half of 2010. Consequently, the '11' plates suggest early to mid 2011, which is what is still running on any car registered in the present day in the UK. The second half of 2011 will be a '61' plate.

[Cyrus43]

Yep. Perfectly correct. the next decade will have the "6" prefix if im not mistaken.

[aniguchisan]

Originally Posted by Cyrus43

Yep. Perfectly correct. the next decade will have the "6" prefix if im not mistaken.

From 2010 till 2019, all early to mid year plates will read 1x (where x is the yearly variable that changes).

All mid to late year plates will be 6x (x being the same variable).

2020-2029 will be 2x from early to mid year and 7x for mid to late year plates.

Similarly, 2000-2010 read as 0x (for the early to mid) and 5x (for mid to late).

In the UK, and for obvious reasons, one can back date the plates on a car (for instance, put a 2002 plate on a 2009 S Class), but you can't do the opposite and post date the registration of a car to make it look newer.