Date of first registration is the date that a vehicle first became known to the DVLA. This is usually the same as the year the car was built.

Imports will be counted under the year they were brought into the UK, and some restored classic vehicles will be counted under the year they were brought back on the road.

Model IDs are unique codes that refer to a specific make and model. They bear no relation to manufacturer model codes, they're just codes that can uniquely identify a specific model sold in the UK (imagine them as a barcode for vehicle models).

For most cases, one model name has a single code associated with it. However, models can sometimes be listed against multiple model codes (eg: BMW M3).

There are no rules for how these codes are allocated or chosen, so in some cases a single code may span multiple model generations, and in other cases a single model generation may have multiple codes (which could correspond to facelift models, or different body styles).

Note: the years listed against the model IDs are my 'best guess' at the year that production for each individual model started. Unfortunately there's no definitive source that lists the correct years.

I've added these codes so you can make the most of the data that's been released by the DfT. However, it's not always clear which models or generations the different codes refer to, so you may have to do some more research to understand them properly!

As with all large government databases, there are errors in this dataset (especially since quite a lot of the data for older vehicles is based on paper records that were originally maintained by local authorities).

The most common error that crops up is vehicles that don't have exactly the correct model variant recorded on their V5 registration document. For example, a special edition Peugeot 205 Gentry might only have Peugeot 205 recorded on its V5. This can lead to some model variants appearing to be rarer than they actually are.

The key to understanding whether or not the data is accurate for your particular model is to check the model name on its V5 registration document. If it's not what you expect it to be, then it's likely that the DVLA statistics for that model aren't very accurate!

This happens more often with older vehicles, especially for those that would have originally been registered in the 1970s and earlier.