Yet another thing wrong with cherished number plates

Peddle Up!

I've always thought them as an affectation. Mind you, this bloke looked the biz, in ALV 1N, when I saw him riding through Leicester back in the day.

team47b

Steve Davis's girlfriend lived nearby to me in the UK and I often saw his Porsche SD147 around, good job he had the personalized plate or I would just have thought it was some boring prat in a Porsche

VTech

Jimmy White owned CUE 80Y

mr_goo

Thought I had to post another entry on this topic after seeing a Bentley Continental GT with the plate
B11 SHT, parked on the forecourt of the RR/Bentley second hand dealer in Bournemouth. I just have this image in my head of what the driver looks like and what he does for a living.

HJ1976

The guy that owns the snow dome in Tamworth had SN08 ORD (snowboard) enough said.

oldhairylegs

I saw what seemed a very apt plate on a BMW a while back whilst driving on the M6: A11GRY.

The owner had put the bolt head (in black) nicely in the middle of the two numbers to make it say ANGRY. Funnily enough, he was driving it like a complete tool - chopping across lanes, tail-gating and flashing his lights at all and sundry. I guess he felt that he needed to reflect his number plate persona?

tangled_metal

I knew a guy who got a personalised plate on a pretty nasty old escort. He was delighted with it and took us all out to look at it grinning. I knew all his names, those of his partner and thought I knew a bit about him too but despite that I could see no link to him on that plate. He was disappointed when we asked him to explain it. It was meant to be his initials and kind like one of his names. Not a chance! Just a standard number plate and an old style one too which only made the car look older than it really was.

Personalised plates seem to be about communicating something about you. Say spell your name in a kind of text speak. It needs to be obvious to intended audience. If that is only family and friends then initials in the last 3 letters of a bog standard plate does that. If it's audience is meant to be ppl who do not know you then it's not clear enough result is it's a bit naff and to be avoided.

craker

Oldish Range Rover in Swanage V8 0 YEH

I thought that was quite good

mr_goo

The late Max Bygraves used to drive a Roller with the plate MB 1. From what I heard Mercedes UK coveted it, but Max didn't need to sell it.

paul64

I heard a story about a BMW driver who upset a neighbour and the neighbour sneaked out at night and replaced the rear number plate with C * * T, causing much reaction on the BMW driver's commute the following day oblivious of the reason. Might be one of those urban myths as it's many years ago.

VTech

Mr Goo wrote:

The late Max Bygraves used to drive a Roller with the plate MB 1. From what I heard Mercedes UK coveted it, but Max didn't need to sell it.

He would never sell to them no matter what the price tag.
7 weeks after his death, his next of kin sold it to mercedes.

Anonymous

95% are sad and wrong IMO. Police should crush your car if you tamper with spacing and letter shapes.

I would not monogram a pen or bathrobe, yet alone my car! People that have their initials and a single number are super sado's.
If its DSK 6 I would expect him to have DSK 1-5 as well.

I think the best ones (the 5%) normally have to relate to the car only.

Find it funny when people have multiple numbers or letters (444/XXX) as if that kind of makes them invisible and we can only see the bits that are actually relevant.

I had one that fitted the car perfectly (without any alterations of course ;-) ). I toyed with it for ages before buying it because I am not into them but it seemed a no brainer so had to be done. Sold it for three times its cost and have never considered one again since.

Best one I saw was in the 80s on a 911 Turbo TUR 13O. It looked better having a the 13 than if it had actually been a B due to the font used (ok, and maybe a tiny miss space) as it looked futuristic and cool.

VTech

Carbonator wrote:

95% are sad and wrong IMO. Police should crush your car if you tamper with spacing and letter shapes.

I would not monogram a pen or bathrobe, yet alone my car! People that have their initials and a single number are super sado's.
If its DSK 6 I would expect him to have DSK 1-5 as well.

I think the best ones (the 5%) normally have to relate to the car only.

Find it funny when people have multiple numbers or letters (444/XXX) as if that kind of makes them invisible and we can only see the bits that are actually relevant.

I had one that fitted the car perfectly (without any alterations of course ;-) ). I toyed with it for ages before buying it because I am not into them but it seemed a no brainer so had to be done. Sold it for three times its cost and have never considered one again since.

Best one I saw was in the 80s on a 911 Turbo TUR 13O. It looked better having a the 13 than if it had actually been a B due to the font used (ok, and maybe a tiny miss space) as it looked futuristic and cool.

Have you ever bought a nike and changed something on it, like a crankset or wheels ?

In this life we sometimes get the pleasure of personal choice, it makes for a much finer and richer life in many ways so why would anyone hate that ? Choices, without them we are little more than robots or slaves.

Anonymous

But there are good choices and bad ones.

Personalised plates are ultimately about showing off and are quite a lemming like thing to do.
Has little to do with personalisation so your analogy is pants.

Pross

Well, I'm going to buy PR05 SER (it's used to be available at a mere £15k and is as close as anything to a real name) to go on my Aston when I win the lottery so sod the lot of you! Actually, PR63 SER is currently available for £300 - just need a newer car in order to buy it. Of course, it would only be a matter of time before some scrote changed the first letter and covered up the second!!

Anonymous

Saw 1 VAT near me and thought it was crying out for three carefully placed bits of black electrical tape to be added 8)

Anonymous

I saw a chanel delivery van. (all black, just white writing saying 'Chanel'

NO 5

Excellent

Giraffoto

Pross wrote:

Well, I'm going to buy PR05 SER (it's used to be available at a mere £15k and is as close as anything to a real name) to go on my Aston when I win the lottery so sod the lot of you! Actually, PR63 SER is currently available for £300 - just need a newer car in order to buy it. Of course, it would only be a matter of time before some scrote changed the first letter and covered up the second!!

That's getting back to the original point - they're now so common that relatively few people would guess that PR63SER is meant to meant anything. That's common in the "widespread, ubiquitous" sense, rather than "vulgar" (they were always that). Even PR65SER.

And another thing (every good rant should include this phrase.) For a lot less than £15,000 you could engage a coachpainter, signwriter or other artisan to write your full, unabbreviated name on the doors of your car. Why not do that? Or get stickers made up with your name, the relevant flag and a bit of text to say what you believe a cherished plate says about you? Why not do that? Eh?

Pross

I may not have been entirely serious!

Giraffoto

Pross wrote:

I may not have been entirely serious!

This is a rant, I will take everything (a) seriously (b) personally and (c) as evidence of a wide raging conspiracy. You can't get me, I have my tinfoil hat on.

norvernrob

I have one, it came with the car and I'll leave it on the car when I sell it. It's a Megane R26 and the reg starts R26.

Nothing else to add.

pinno

There is a black Honda 2000GT here with the number plate 200 OGT. looks like it has been driven off a car forecourt.

I do not understand the animosity towards private plates. They can be a good investment when interest rates are very low but picking one that is say less than £1000 and will accumulate in value is probably difficult. Here in Scotland, they are commonplace and on the most mediocre of cars. 1 NWC is a local one which I had misread as an ad for portaloos which turned out to stand for 1 North West Castle - the co-owner of the Hotel with that name, now on a Ford Fiesta.

ballysmate

W4 NKA and TO55 ERS are probably the most appropriate.

mrushton

A late friend treated himself to a new Porsche every year as his business got more successful. He ultimately had a 911 Turbo in Guards Red with A911ONA The fad for vanity plates hadn't really taken off so it didn't cost him that much and the dealer supplied the plate. My friend later sold the car with plate and made some money on it which was typical of him. Conversely I saw a Maserati last week with J 504APY (J SOAPY) which seemed a bit crap imo but if he was happy then so be it.

VTech

Expression is a wonderful thing. Each to his own

rolf_f

mrushton wrote:

Conversely I saw a Maserati last week with J 504APY (J SOAPY) which seemed a bit crap imo but if he was happy then so be it.

Yep - he can afford a Maserati but he can't spell. It's not a good image!