Playing devil's advocate again. Here goes...
I can't understand why anyone wants a 'personalised' number plate. Do the people who fit them to their cars feel inadequate in some way? The way they manipulate the numbers to represent letters & try to tell the world their name. A bit pathetic I think!
And the prices you see them advertised at - talk about fools & their money...
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Nitro,
Without getting in to the point you're making the price they are advertised at is just that, the price they are advertised at. I do not think anyone (sensible) pays those sorts of figures.
If you look on Ebay most go for around £150 plus fees (£85).
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Legalised grafiti.
No wonder yobs paint or scratch their initials on lampposts & bus shelters when the government actually encourages the 'kilroy woz ere' mentality.
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I'd personally like one that can follow me from car to car. My own plate, so to speak. I'm talking XYZ123 format here rather than anything that spells out a word or even contains my name or initials.
I must admit, I do tend to feel really sorry for C12AIG and DAR123N when I see their mis-spaced and "altered-by-studs" number plates. I bet they think people really respect them.
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I have a personalised plate that my wife bought me for my first new Merc. It simply reads W2 and then my initials, it's not altered to say anything silly and it just goes from car to car.
I certainly don't feel inadequate or insecure it's just nice to have a plate that everyone knows is mine.
People who alter the lettering are a little sad I agree.
My wife bought it direct from the DVLA quite cheaply.
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UK personal plates look stupid because they are. Go across the Atlantic for the real thing:
sc.groups.msn.com/tn/08/F1/honestjohn/5/8e.jpg
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Let us in on the joke, Growler - all I get at the end of that link is a 96x96 thumbnail that might be the back end of a boxster
Bora - what Bora ?
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This subject has been discussed many times before on this forum, I bought a private reg purely as a sound investment, My son trades plates when he sees a bargain (only pre 1963 with no prefix) and I can assure you there is money to be made if you know what you`re about.
I agree these stupid numbers that are b******ised in an attempt to read like a name are crass and totally hideous.!!!
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Apologies, I got the right click properties stuff wrong.
Try this:
tinyurl.com/rwf6
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Same here, my plate has been with the family for 43 years now. Spells nothing, but gets passed from car to car. It's just my plate. When I got the new car last november everyone thought I was mad to not run around with the 52 plate until 03 took over.
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I have a personal plate that reads H2 and my initials. Not altered in any way except when I crunched the front one against the wall.
Now I'm feeling inadequate for not realising I was supposed to feel inadequate .... tablets please, nurse ...
My plate was bought because I wanted it. Like e.g. the house, the bluetooth headset, Mrs H's car, the bike, the bacon buttie I had for elevenses. What's wrong with that?
It also means that when I change the car, I don't need to buy new plates for the caravan and the trailer. So there you are, it's an economy measure. And I don't feel insecure, I don't, I don't, I don't ...
Hawkeye
-----------------------------
Stranger in a strange land
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E34kid - I agree! I've always thought that if "C12AIG" really wanted everyone to know that his name was Craig, why not just get a marker pen and write "My name is Craig" on the back of his car? Save a fortune..
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I might add that yesterday I saw two of the best "personalised" plates I've ever come across - "X1TE U" (on a Xsara Picasso I think!) and "FAL1C" on some little black sports car that was going too fast to be identified..
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I don't much like the new plates so changed mine.
It was RL 51 BVP and is now K 18 MGX. It's on an MG ZR and it means K series 1.8 MG Xpower. I like it. It cost me 250 quid of my money and I can afford it. It will stay with the car when I sell it. Don't see the problem or understand the critisism.
Quentin Wilson calls this type a plate a year hider. It can make a car sell faster, and for the asking price.
I don't like Novas with weird body kits, but I'm not going start a thread on a forum knocking them. It's his car - he can do what he likes to it as long as it doesn't harm anyone else. Same with number plates - have anything you can buy.
I do have to agree that altering them is totally wrong and it is currently a police priority to clamp down on those who do.
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"It can make a car sell faster, and for the asking price..."
I don't understand?
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Because some people are so daft
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2 identical cars, same price, the one with the plate can be slightly more attractive. The very large number of personal plates on the road shows how popular thay are. It's not a guarantee, but it can help.
Why do people like Marcos think anyone who has different views to them is daft? Never understood that irrational 'reasoning'.
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GOG.
Marcos is probably too polite to respond, but I did not interpret his post in that way.
Regards DougB.
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GOG,
You obviously are one, but how can two identical cars, one with a personal plate and one without be any more desirable when selling? Some people may even look at the private plate and be put off a car.
My personal plate certainly does not make my car any better than anyone elses.
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if i am selling a car that has had a long unchanged production run,(MX5,MR2, Pajero/Shogun)i will put a £60 N.Ireland plate on,everytime i will get £500-£750 more than if it had the correct age related plate.Silly,but it pays the wages.
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£250 for something that is useless...
I'm sure your car has badges to let everone know it's a MG!
I quite like Novas with body kits actually!
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I think GOG's point is that he didn't mind paying the money for it in the first place, and doesn't mind if he doesn't recoup the £250 at resale, but that the car might sell easier because:
1.It has an easily recognisable numberplate (good for mum's in ASDA)
2.It hides the age of the car (good for people who care about that kind of thing)
Personally i couldn't care less about (2), and although i'd probably choose GOG's numberplate over a random one, i wouldnt pay a premium for it.
However a lot of people probably would, right?
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Precisely Hawesy - well put. Better than I explained it myself.
No I'm not particularly grumpy. Also I do try very hard not to slag off people who simply have different views to mine. I think that's being polite, isn't it?
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"£250 for something that is useless..." So not like a body kit on a Nova then?
"I'm sure your car has badges to let everone know it's a MG!" It does. They were put on at the factory. One each end. I think most cars have the makers name on, don't they?
"I quite like Novas with body kits actually!" Oh.
Nitro, I wonder if you should have entitled the thread - 'I hate personal plates and all who use them.'
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Spot on GOG. There has been previous threads on the subject - If the mods have time I'm sure they can link them.
But they all tend to follow this tiresome "I don't like it so it must be sad/rubbish etc." theme.
Usually applied to personal plates, 4x4s....zzzzzzz.
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Slightly off thread but ........
What do you think of folk who put a HUGE sticky plastic thingy on the side of their vehicles saying "Coupe" or "Opel" or such like?
Is it 'cos they are too thick to remember the make/model of the car they drive
Oh - and while in ranting mode - why do people put something similar on the rear window of their car advertising a make of food mixer!!!!!!!!!!!!! :)
..........................................................
"Rude, crude and socially unacceptable"
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I can't see anything wrong with private plates.
I'm certainly not against Joe Bloggs personalising his pride and joy, it doesn't harm me and it's Joe's money to spend as he wishes. As long as it's all legal and in the right font etc.
A couple of weekends ago I attached an attractive plaque to my front door so everyone can see which house number we live at. I 'personalised' our home. Same thing.
I don't have a personal plate and I have no desire to have one. I couldn't afford one if I did.
Each to their own.
Ed.
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They make the car more attractive for the simple reason that it makes it different from every other model out there. If I had a spare £250 I would buy one for the Fiesta...
Blue
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If I had a spare £250 I would buy one for the Fiesta...
Wouldn't it be cheaper to change your name by Deed poll to the registration number of the car? ;o)
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I have a xyz 123 type plate on the BM. Simple question of economics. It was on a car that the family had briefly many years ago. The plate worth far morethe heap it was on. Car died transferred the plate onto the then BM and its been swapped over ever since. Worth a couple of grand perhaps. who cares I like it. Used to help me spot the 3 in a car park full of identically silver threes that plague our streets (according to the anti-3 brigade anyway)
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As I've mentioned before....
VAN580Y on my Maestro van, worth MUCH more than the vehicle!!
& going on to her new, well 03 plate, Mx5 is
B11DGN (our surname is Budgen)
Sorrrrrrry!!
VB
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There's a fleet of car recovery vehicles around Essex/E London all with plates such as M12 TOW; A2 TOW; M11 TOW; A12 TOW and suchlike.
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THe Growler, as usual, has got it right. Why not let cars have a plate that gives scope for any inane, witty, boastful, crass, comment.
Why people would pay money for these plates is beyond me. But I don't have gnomes with fishing rods in my garden or disguise the spare toilet roll with a ballerina either.
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>>Why people would pay money for these plates is beyond me. But I don't have gnomes with fishing rods in my garden or disguise the spare toilet roll with a ballerina either.
Think your profile is a bit out. Most of the folks I know with non-dating plates are business/company owners and their gardener/cleaner would soon get rid of the gnomes/toilet Barbie. Interestingly most also have a bike, quite a few of them Harley riders too.
M.M
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Splendid subtle shift into euphemism gear there: personal plates have now become "non-dating plates".
Now we have a whole new plethora of rationalisations to expound, challenge, defend. Like that vacuous estate agent speak "the property has the benefit of well-maintained gardens laid to lawn" (means it's got grass outside which was cut recently) we can now have "this quality personal conveyance benefits from the fitment of non-dating registration plates" (it's actually a 1996 rustbucket but the Grimley-Parkinsons next door will never know it from a 1999).
Life is indeed rich, the more so for what my old boss would have called marketing "puff".
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Sometimes we need the euphemism to balance the euphuist.
Anyway, as you infer, it matters not what make of jean* you wear, just that you do.
M.M
*Actually it does, obviously Wrangler for the proper rider.
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If someone can afford a private plate then thats up to them. If spending £2000 on a private plate is what they want to do then let them.
Everyone has personal tastes which are very different. The only problem I have is when people try to make up silly names as mentioned or change the lettering to that horrible italic type that you just can't read. Is that legal?
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Recently changed my name by deedpoll to 567 UEH ;-)
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Marcos - no it is not. See tinyurl.com/s15m
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At least some laws make sense.
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Nothing like a good 'debate' is there?
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I recall doing some implying in that direction but not any inferring SFAIK :+D... Nor lapsing into any Mills and Boonese
:-O. Definitely not.
But seriously I do agree with the comments about messing around with studs and positioning (letters on number plates I mean) is puerile, not to say pathetic.
Where I live there is a further idiocy in similar vein. Fake German style plates (black on white with the EU thingy on the left)can be bought at any car accessory store. They are longer than the local one, so the idea is you bolt your local one over your fake German plate to give anyone with the remotest curiosity the impression you imported your heap from Germany and are thus somehow occupying a higher niche in the food chain. Naturally this is S.O.P if you have a German car. However, this ploy sowed the seeds of its own debunking when 1987 Lancers and Corollas took to doing the same thing.....
If you want real serious class in the Philippines you black out all your windows, throw away your number plates and keep a Glock 9mm in the glove box.
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messing around with studs and positioning
Just followed a massive, expensive looking, horse/accomodation waggon around the M25. From a distance the plate looked quite personal "PONYS" it said.
Up closer the number was a very severely modified P13 NYS. How on earth it hasn't attracted the attention of plod beats me.
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LOL! Can't believe that someone would spend time and money on a plate only to end up with a spelling mistake! Tragic.
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know of a chap in Surrey called Mark, who has car with the index H9RK W - the "H" is altered with legs splayed out so it looks like M, and "9" has screwhole thru bottom left so it looks like "A".
oh, and he's a police officer
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Gotta add my favourite ....so far..
One of the bed manufacturers ( it may have been Slumberland, I realy didn't notice, laughing too much) has a fleet of trucks with BED registrations...the one I saw was a P reg.... Even if they have a fleet of P reg bed trucks..surely they should have considered the somewhat mis-spelt implications of P15 BED !
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on a brand new nissan micra
D 12 ERH
whats that all about then ?
Bora - what Bora ?
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D 12 ERH
actually its
D12ER H
But i'm still none the wiser
Bora - what Bora ?
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And another two spotted in the last hour.
X SEXE (X5 EXE) on a Trevor and DAVE which was a real font bending D7 AUE.
What is the matter with these people? Did they crave attention as small children too?
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Saw BOYS on an AMG Merc at Le mans at the w/e (UK car).
I guess it was really BOY 5
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G6NGA (Ganja) on a Cherokee with blacked out windows.
H1 THC on a lowered and chromed 3series convertible
BAD80Y on a lowered and darkened 7 series (with the footnote "Crime DOES pay" where the dealer emblem usually goes).
I suspect these three individuals are well known and extremely popular with the local boys in blue......
All seen in and around Dorset in the last 2 months.
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I remember seeing X01108 on a 5 Series a couple of years ago. It wasn't the car I needed to see coming up behind me on a dual carriageway while chauffeuring my parents somewhere. Cue lots of juvenile laughter and "No, it's nothing really - honest" protestations...!
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Geordie friend of mine in the States has; Y I Man
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Recently I saw a plate which started out as H15 EXY but had been respaced to read H1 5EXY.
Fancy parting with cash for that!!!
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Fancy parting with cash for that!!!
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Someone parted with a lot of cash for B1MBO - why would anyone want that label?
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I think Viz magazine (circa 1988) summed up this issue with this \"letter\" in their readers tips section :
Save money on expensive Personalised Number plates. Change your name by deed poll instead.
Yours Sincerely
Mr L328 GYT
Barnsley
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Just wish I had bought one when they were almost given away. It is only now that they are worth a lot that people want them. Had to smile at a black Hummer with G1RLS for a reg. number.
Peter
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Saw TOXIC in Essex last weekend - a WASTE of money?
Matt35.
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this morning, on a BMW X5
D 12 ACL
with the letters crushed up and the 2 'warped' so it read DRACL
Bora - what Bora ?
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Bora,
Warped and DRACL?
Michael Howard?
Matt35.
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Yesterday on the drive into work I saw two Lloyd's one in a merc C the other in a BMW 3.
L10 VD* = Lloyd *
L10 YD* = Lloyd *
Both within about 10 minutes of eachother on the A46.
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I've resisted this thread so far but my favourite , seen in Warwickshire is NON 1X .Put the space after the O.
I am assured by my brother who lives nearby that it is apparently owned by a lady well known in the area.
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How about this one: N 140 NYS?
Tennis, anyone?
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Leon on Derv,
I suggest you re-read \"The Small Print\"
( www.honestjohn.co.uk/credits/index.htm ) which you agreed to upon registering.
It is becoming tedious to keep on having to edit swearing and other remarks from your postings that fall outside the context of the T\'s & C\'s of this site.
For further clarification, you may also want to read www.honestjohn.co.uk/forum/post/index.htm?t=12524
This also applies to anyone else. Should this thread require anymore editing from the moderators, then it will pulled instead.
--
Dynamic Dave
Back Room Moderator
mailto:dave_moderator@honestjohn.co.uk
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