Last registration of the DGT in Spain

As with the line of the bodywork, the front or the tires of a vehicle, the license plate of the car is a distinctive element of it. But, in addition, this license plate is a source of a lot of information, especially related to the date of registration of the vehicle.

All of us who live in Spain have an identity card. The same thing happens with vehicles, but in this case the data is offered by the license plates of the cars. This combination of numbers and letters reliably identifies the vehicle and is also the source of a great deal of information, as long as you know where to look for it.

Unlike what happens in other countries, Spanish license plates work through a fixed and clearly defined allocation system, so it is not possible to have a personalized license plate, with specific letters and numbers. But what you can know, or at least estimate, is what is the license plate that would correspond to you if you register a new vehicle on a certain date. Something interesting if you are interested in getting a vehicle with specific acronyms, although as long as they are not too far from the last number plate seen on the streets.

How do the registrations work in Spain?

The registration system in Spain was established in the year 1900 , with a format where the province and the correlative order number of the vehicle were represented according to the date of registration of the car. These plates had one or two letters for the province and 5 numbers.

The depletion of those numbers caused that in 1971, and with the automobile boom in full swing, it was necessary to modify the system. The change consists of adding one or two letters to the end of the plate, while reducing the number plate to four, compared to the original five. 

All these approaches go down in history with the arrival of European license plates, whose importance is considerable when looking for license plates and also to be clear about which license plate can be delivered to us for our new vehicle. 

This system uses a format of four numbers and three letters , which are awarded consecutively to newly registered vehicles. It is important to know that this system eliminates the provincial approach, so now the license plates are assigned at the national level. Therefore, there are no longer fifty-two different numbers according to the province, but all vehicle sales are added to a common and unique number for the entire country. Something that makes it easy to estimate, according to the last license plate of the DGT, the one that corresponds to us for that new vehicle. 

How to know the last registration in Spain

When it comes to knowing this latest registration, we have a problem: there are no official sources about it . The DGT, which would be the competent body to give us this information, does not make it public, neither on its website nor in any other medium. Something curious, because of the last vehicle that was registered with the old provincial system we know even its model. In fact, it is the only case in which we can know the model of the car from its license plate.

However, this has not always been the case. While the provincial license plate system was in force, it was common for the magazine Tráfico, published by the DGT, to include a section indicating the latest license plates that each province had issued at the time the magazine was written. Today, that information no longer appears in the magazine.

This leaves us with direct observation as the data source. If we take a look at the network, there are several web pages dedicated to the world of the automobile in which the last number plate seen on our streets or highways is collected. This data can come from different sources, such as insurers, dealers or simple fans who are dedicated to “hunting” this license plate. By the way, the data never appears complete, but the last two figures are hidden from said license plate, for privacy reasons. However, knowing the letters, the thousands and the hundreds of said license plate, we have the necessary information to know which license plate we can get.

By the way, remember that to obtain a new license plate you do not need to buy a new car, but you can re-register a used car with an old license plate or one with a foreign license plate. Something that should be taken into account when checking a license plate, if we see that the vehicle’s registration date does not coincide with the one that theoretically would correspond by date.

What else is registration for?

Leaving aside the most trivial aspect of the license plate, such as trying to obtain certain letters or knowing the last one to appear, the truth is that this element is of great importance to know the car license plate data related to the vehicle itself.

To obtain this data, we only have to have the license plate and access the search engine that the DGT makes available to us. With this information we can request the complete report of the vehicle in question, where we will see its history of fines, transfers and any possible pending sanction or immobilization that it may have.

It is also possible to obtain a technical report, which indicates data such as your identification, power, fuel or the inspection history of the ITV that has passed. 

Finally, the last important report is the one that indicates the charges that the vehicle may have in view of a possible transfer, such as seizures or the like. This information is very practical and easy to access when buying a second-hand car, as long as we have the registration number of the vehicle in question at hand.