The British Newspaper Archive

The British Newspaper Archive can be an amazing source of information - not least for old vehicles. Although the chances of finding something on the archive are slim, it will tell you if your old car has cropped up.

• Perhaps a celebrity bought and owned the car?
• Was it involved in a crime?
• Was someone else trying to track it down?

Head over to:

www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/search/advanced

and in the input box called "The phrase" (by the red arrow below), type your registration number. It doesn't matter whether it's in capitals (ABC123D) or lowercase letters (abc123d), just ensure that it doesn’t have a space in the middle (i.e. type ABC123D and do not type ABC 123D - note that space in the middle).

Also make sure that the box marked "Exact search" is ticked - this is important.

If the Archive doesn't find any results, it will let you know by saying "Sorry, no results were found".

If this is the case, repeat the search, but this time type your registration number as ABC 123D - with the space in the middle. Obviously if your number plate has a different format registration, use the variants of that. Simple dateless plates can be entered as either ABC123 and then ABC 123. Modern style number plates can be tried as AB12CDE and AB12 CDE. Also if you feel that any other variants are likely to exist then try these too.