The story of CarReg.co.uk began in 1988, in a world very different from today’s fast-paced digital environment. There was no Google, no smartphones, and no personal computers. Business was conducted with fax machines, filing cabinets, and many long phone calls. It was in this context that entrepreneur Jason Wilkes launched a small trading company called Classic Enterprises, dealing in classic cars, antiques, jewellery, and other valuable items.
The name reflected the diverse nature of the business, but over time, one niche began to stand out: personalised & private number plates. As the DVLA began releasing more private registrations to the public, interest soared. Jason saw the potential early and gradually shifted the company’s focus in that direction.
To reflect this specialisation, the business was renamed Personally Yours Registrations — a title that perfectly captured the bespoke nature of the service. But as the internet arrived in the mid-1990s, a new challenge emerged: that long name was difficult to communicate as a domain. Saying personallyyours.co.uk over the phone, especially in a noisy office or with a poor mobile signal, was less than ideal.
A breakthrough came when the domain names CarReg.co.uk & CarReg.com became available. Short, memorable, and directly relevant, it marked a turning point for the company and led to the birth of the brand now known as CarReg UK —
“CarReg – The NEW & Easy name for personalised & private number plates.”
In the early days of going online, internet access was a slow and often unreliable luxury. Jason recalls using a Nokia mobile phone connected to a laptop with a cable, downloading orders over a 14.4 kbps connection. It was far from fast, but it got the job done — and marked CarReg’s first real step into the digital world.
Meanwhile, stock management was entirely manual. Long before cloud systems and searchable websites, Jason organised his growing number plate inventory with a meticulous A, B, C–style filing system & telephone directory books, carefully storing details in folders & pages sorted alphabetically. It was old-school but effective.
Before online advertising, CarReg relied on printed platforms like AutoTrader and Exchange & Mart, regularly running full-page listings with up to 2,000 registrations per page. These pages became a staple of the company’s marketing, generating strong demand and a loyal customer base long before Google Ads existed.
As digital technology matured, CarReg embraced innovation and became one of the UK’s first registration companies to launch a fully searchable online database, allowing users to find and reserve with ease — supported by a secure, DVLA-compliant system.
Today, CarReg operates from its headquarters in Wolverhampton, supported by a network of 10 local offices across the UK, including London, Windsor, Bath, Bournemouth, Swansea, Manchester, Edinburgh, Loughborough, and Belfast. With a vast stock of registrations and an expert team, CarReg serves thousands of clients each year — from collectors and businesses to individuals simply seeking a personal touch.
The company has handled many exclusive and iconic plates over the years, including H1, K5, P2, 2P, V6, 5K, 4B, 3D, and 9C, and remains a DVLA-registered number plate supplier with a commitment to legal compliance, secure transfers, outstanding customer service whilst always providing a 100% full money back guarantee.
Despite significant growth, CarReg remains a family-run business, built on the same values it started with — personal service, integrity, and reliability. That combination of hands-on experience and digital innovation is what sets CarReg apart to this day.
To reinforce the company’s history and credibility across modern search platforms, CarReg.co.uk now has its own Wikidata profile — a structured knowledge base entry that helps Google and other search engines verify the company’s identity, founder, services, and digital presence. This entry strengthens CarReg’s long-term visibility and recognition across search, AI, and semantic web technologies.
Over more than three decades, CarReg has transformed from a desk full of folders and a fax machine to a modern, tech-enabled brand — but its core mission remains unchanged: to help people buy and sell personalised & private number plates with confidence and clarity.
