Private plates - yes/no

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Fri 14 Dec 2012 16:09
Private plates - yes/no - Trilogy

I've sometimes thought I'd like a private plate. One in particular was available for about £1,000 twenty years ago. Last year it was advertised for £25,000. However, I don't really want my anonymousmobile to stand out so have never bought one. I do like the ones the discreet ones like RS 04 LDT. Most don't know that was bought as a private plate.

Taken from Autocar website:-

Would you ever consider a private number plate? The ultimate automotive accessory or tasteless tat… where do you stand on private number plates? <*** class="imagecache imagecache-article_image_480" title="Theo Paphitis with his private-plate chrome Maybach" src="http://images.cdn.autocar.co.uk/sites/autocar.co.uk/files/imagecache/article_image_480/111212warwise.jpg" alt="Would you ever consider a private number plate?" width="480" height="318" /> Theo Paphitis with his private-plate chrome Maybach
<*** class="imagecache imagecache-personality_thumb" title="James Ruppert" src="http://cdn.autocar.co.uk/sites/autocar.co.uk/files/imagecache/personality_thumb/pictures/user-32-profile_photo.jpg?37f38ff387b86126d05ebca1578dab17" alt="James Ruppert" /> by James Ruppert 12 December 2012

I am sure you will be as delighted as I am to learn that the registration number PEN 15 is set to be auctioned early in 2013.

Apparently it has been banned from advertisements for being too X-rated. Regtransfers, the largest independent private plate specialist in the UK, believes the phallic-themed registration could be sold for a fee as large as £100,000.

It’s a free country, just about, so if you want to look like a KNO 8 you only have to shell out a six-figure sum. I’ve never understood the whole private plate thing, despite some particularly close members of my family having a large set. Each to their own, but my view is the same as the Triumph Stag-owning hero of the Terry Venables-penned TV series Hazell. Private detective (or dick) James Hazell solved a case by observing that with a private plate everyone could “see you coming”. Presumably being the centre of attention is the main reason why many buy them, and I notice that Dragon Theo Paphitis has RYM4N plate on his chrome-wrapped Maybach.

Rather alarmingly, the registration company claims to have BO11 L0X, ORG 45M and 53 XEY on their books.

So come on, I need someone to justify the whole personalised registration thing. Mind you, if anyone has JR 1 for a fiver, I’ll consider transferring it off their Proton.

Edited by Trilogy on 14/12/2012 at 16:10

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Fri 14 Dec 2012 18:53
Private plates - yes/no - madf

I bought my last car with a private plate and paid zero for the plate. I have been offered £600 nett cash for it.

So they are a good thing .. if you buy from people who don't care/are ignorant.

Pay for one? Me? I'm not that conceited.

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Fri 14 Dec 2012 19:35
Private plates - yes/no - Canon Fodder

'Vanity plate' is the technical term.

you see the odd good one, ''2 BAD" parks near my office, but generally they are chavtastic

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Fri 14 Dec 2012 19:41
Private plates - yes/no - jamie745

Oh who cares. It's their money. Why do we care what plate someone puts on their car?

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Fri 14 Dec 2012 23:04
Private plates - yes/no - bathtub tom

I take them to mean they've more money than sense, have probably never read more of the highway code than was necessary to pass their test year ago and to expect them to drive like total planks.

I'm rarely disappointed.

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Sat 15 Dec 2012 00:23
Private plates - yes/no - jamie745

People who spout the 'more money than sense' line are usually people who have never looked beyond their miserly bean counter mindset and gone 'oh what the hell, why not?!'

I make a living out of charging a company a healthy chunk of their money for me to tell them what to do with the rest of it, so financial prudence is always important. Just remember though that you can't spend it when you're dead.

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Sat 15 Dec 2012 08:15
Private plates - yes/no - RT

"More money than sense" also applies to most drivers' choice of cars - it's not restricted to registration plates.

Would you have us all running around in Dacia's with anonymous plates ?

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Sat 15 Dec 2012 13:55
Private plates - yes/no - Trilogy

These plates can be a good investment, especially if you are the kind of person that likes to keep a car for a long time.

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Sat 15 Dec 2012 14:22
Private plates - yes/no - Bobbin Threadbare

My in-laws both have private plates but they're not rude or weird choices; just initials really.

The best one I see on my way to work is a lovely white BMW M3 with the reg plate:

P002 TAX

Seems appropriate for him!

They are memorable though; I have had occasion to provide a police officer with a number plate and it helped to remember it because it was a vanity one. They nabbed him!

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Sat 15 Dec 2012 15:08
Private plates - yes/no - Bromptonaut

I take them to mean they've more money than sense, have probably never read more of the highway code than was necessary to pass their test year ago and to expect them to drive like total planks.

I'm rarely disappointed.

We have one on the Berlingo. Three letters that almost spell a word and the number 21. Worth quite a bit I guess but we didn'y pay and cannot sell.

It was on a motorbike givem to the MoL onb the occasion of her 21st birthday in 1951. Her father was in the motortrade and knew a particular range of numbers were due to be issued. He probably met the Council's registration chap socially as well and I wouldn't rule out possibilty of whisky changing hands.

Anyway it was on her cars from 1951 until she stopped driving in 2003. After a few years on retention it went on Berlingo. Not parting with until it goes to one of my kids.

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Sat 15 Dec 2012 15:47
Private plates - yes/no - RT

I believe that most personal plates were issued that way, pre-DVLA, unofficially reserved and some issued out of sequence - our local police had single digit numbers on their Wolseley 6/80s and the Fire Brigade had 999 on their "engines".

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Sat 15 Dec 2012 16:11
Private plates - yes/no - craig-pd130

I always think of the old Viz Top Tip:

"Motorists: don't waste money on expensive private number plates for your car. It's far cheaper to change your name by deed poll to match your car registration."

Mr P789UAT

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Sat 15 Dec 2012 17:26
Private plates - yes/no - John F

I'd never have one - it's best to be anonymous if one inadvertently makes a fool of oneself.

But they do provide some harmless fun and a bit of much needed economic activitiy and treasury funding.

I seem to remember the PEN 1S one being on an entirely appropriate bright red E-type!

In these post-Carry-On days they need to be more subtle, e.g. 5 XY on a DB9.

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Sat 15 Dec 2012 17:44
Private plates - yes/no - unthrottled

A cheaper alternative to a private registration plate is a pocket calculator. Untold hours of fun can be had by usiing digital numbers to create 'words'-especially naughty ones. But then, my mum told me to finish my homework or I wouldn't get any pockert money.

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Sat 15 Dec 2012 18:18
Private plates - yes/no - Happy Blue!

Beware what you do in a car with a private plate as they are well remembered.

A few weeks ago on a cold wet Friday night I was walking home with my wife and children from a friend's house after dinner. We are Jewish and don't drive on the Sabbath.

On the main road a BMW with an easily remembered plate drives past and the passenger shouts antisemitic abuse at us.

We contacted the police and after tracing the owner, then his friend who was driving and then the self-admitted drunk passenger, the idiot now has a police caution on his file and has written a letter of apology.

So don't do anything that you may regret. The plate was so easy to remember, all five of us including my eight year old daughter remembered it 24 hours later.

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Mon 31 Dec 2012 09:58
Private plates - yes/no - John Boy

Beware what you do in a car with a private plate as they are well remembered...

.... So don't do anything that you may regret. The plate was so easy to remember, all five of us including my eight year old daughter remembered it 24 hours later.


Not very pleasant for you and your family, HB, but I was pleased to read that. It shows that it can be worth reporting anti-social behaviour to the police.

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Sat 15 Dec 2012 18:29
Private plates - yes/no - Engineer Andy

If I won the lottery big time (and only if I did), I would get some kind of supercar and, if available, my dream number plate (which in theory should be available somewhere):

NCC 1701

Only to be used on cars with speed measured in "warp factors". Quite a few "NCC" plates around, I just haven't seen this one available yet. I bet it would make a fortune for anyone that had it on some original old banger from the 50's or 60's.

If not available, I'm sure some other trekkie connotation plate would be possible! ;-)

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Sat 15 Dec 2012 22:21
Private plates - yes/no - Doc

If I won the lottery big time (and only if I did), I would get some kind of supercar and, if available, my dream number plate (which in theory should be available somewhere):

NCC 1701

Sorry, number not possible. Can only be 3 letters and 3 numbers. (or 2 and 4 numbers)


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Sat 15 Dec 2012 22:38
Private plates - yes/no - Ethan Edwards

Obviously you have never heard of Northern Ireland. Big place a little to the left of you.

My wifes old car had three numbers and four letters. 100% legal here in rural Efficks.

NCC1701 is absolutely possible. Hope you win the lottery and get it.

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Sat 15 Dec 2012 22:50
Private plates - yes/no - Avant

But haven't all the NI numbers got an I or a Z in them - depending on the local authority who issues them?

NCC under the old (pre-2001) system would have been a Caernarvonshire registration, and you couldn't have had 4 numbers.

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Sat 15 Dec 2012 23:02
Private plates - yes/no - Doc

But haven't all the NI numbers got an I or a Z in them - depending on the local authority who issues them?

NCC under the old (pre-2001) system would have been a Caernarvonshire registration, and you couldn't have had 4 numbers.

Correct. see:

tinyurl.com/bux5qz9

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vehicle_registration_plates_...d

Edited by Doc on 15/12/2012 at 23:04

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Sun 16 Dec 2012 10:08
Private plates - yes/no - Engineer Andy

I do remember seeing on more than one occasion an "NCC" plate for sale that had 4 numbers after the letters, so it should be possible to get an NCC 1701 if it was produced originally (it may not have been - too little cars at the time before the plate type changed maybe?).

Anywa, I'm sure something like WARP 9 or similar (maybe WARP 2 for my Mazda 3) would be fine if possible.

Speaking of "rude" plates, there used to be a person living down the road from my parents who unfortunately had the standard reg. FAR xxx T ;-)

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Sun 16 Dec 2012 10:18
Private plates - yes/no - RT

I do remember seeing on more than one occasion an "NCC" plate for sale that had 4 numbers after the letters, so it should be possible to get an NCC 1701 if it was produced originally (it may not have been - too little cars at the time before the plate type changed maybe?).

Can't happen with UK mainland plates - as posted the only registrations with 4 numbers were the original 2 letter county series or from Ireland with I or Z in the letters.

It may of course have been a distorted registration, like NCC 170L, with an illegal L - or a UK dependency registration or indeed simply a foreign one.

US owners can request registrations in any combination of letters/numbers so it may have appeared on a US serviceman's car if stationed in the UK.

Edited by RT on 16/12/2012 at 10:19

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Sun 16 Dec 2012 08:12
Private plates - yes/no - Buster Cambelt

Folks are free to spend their money on what they like, however ill-advised.

My retort of "that's the general point of a registration number" in response to a former colleague telling me she'd spent £1000 on a "unique" number is probably still lying in the corner behind her desk.

Edited by Buster Cambelt on 16/12/2012 at 08:12

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Sun 16 Dec 2012 11:41
Private plates - yes/no - iFocus

I have a private plate, cost me £250 including the assignment fee.

I consider them good value, for me its mainly vanity reasons that I have one and it adds abit more of a personal thing to a car.

The reason I have one is so that my car is ageless, I've always gone for low mileage/condition in my cars over age, so I've usually ended up with early examples of current models. Thus it covers the age of it, and makes it look 'newer' that it actually is and I therefore keep it longer.

Craig

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Sun 16 Dec 2012 23:51
Private plates - yes/no - Bilboman

Only the Queen's own cars (and IIRC the car used to ferry the leader of the General Synod of the Church of Scotland) are plate-free, but I can't see why: "Betty's Barge" isn't exactly a run of the mill Eurobox, and I think a distinctive plate (QE II, HM 1, UK 1 if they're not already taken) in gold lettering would be quite cool.Failing that, a gold crown on a plain plate, as used by the Spanish royal family.
Just a thought.

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Mon 17 Dec 2012 09:05
Private plates - yes/no - dieseldogg

I attempted to buy MA13 CUS for our soon to be 21 year old Son.

Who has no car yet and is in no hurry to buy one.

It would only have been £699.00 ( OK plus £75.00 for 3 additional years retention)

Direct from the DVLA, whose computer crashed, and when I finally got logged on, it was gone.

Strange that.

I do perhaps wonder if Reg Transfers and their like have unofficial "insider trading" facilities.

PS

This number would then have been handed down (hopefully) as we re-cycle family names.

Cheers

MA13CUS

Edited by dieseldogg on 17/12/2012 at 09:05

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Mon 17 Dec 2012 16:47
Private plates - yes/no - FP

"I attempted to buy MA13 CUS..."

This illustrates perfectly what I often find with personalised plates - that I just don't "get" them. It took me some seconds before I realised that MA13CUS looks ever so vaguely like "MARCUS".

PEN 15 I do get - and it's a hoot, as are a few others. But a car with your name on it - badly spelt, almost indecipherable or downright impenetrable (as some are) - what's the point? And you paid money for that?

Seems a bit like a school kid walking down the street with his name tag showing in really big letters.

Not that I'm against the freedom of people to make idiots of themselves, you understand.

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Mon 17 Dec 2012 17:39
Private plates - yes/no - dieseldogg

Well!

Bah Humbug, I thought it was pretty good, for the money especially.

At 53 with almost no pretensions and fewer teeth I couldnay gie a fiddlers fornication what others think.

Cheers

PS

I did think that some of the prestigous English Universities conducted a survey which concluded that iffen the first and last letters n a word were correct it didnay matter aboot the wans in the middle.

PPS

Betcha I kin mak 13 look pretty "R" like.

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Tue 18 Dec 2012 10:55
Private plates - yes/no - FP

"I couldnay gie a fiddlers fornication what others think."

Oh, I believe you do care what others think - otherwise what's the point of personal plates?

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Mon 17 Dec 2012 18:35
Private plates - yes/no - RickyBoy

For what its worth, I'm COMPLETELY with FP on this matter!

Contrived plates = (Fill in the missing blanks to suit yerselves).

That is all ...

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Tue 18 Dec 2012 06:04
Private plates - yes/no - john96

I remember in Glasgow in the late 80's early 90's there was a biege lada with a private plate on it that lived in the Shieldhall area. Two reasons to think, why bother!

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Tue 18 Dec 2012 07:33
Private plates - yes/no - TR7
I used to look after a Rover 35 with no. Plate 01 in Knightsbridge for an old lady. One day an Arab who lived next door layed his chequebook on the table and told her to write down what she wanted for the no. Plate. She refused saying she was leaving it to her grandson which she duly did. I wonder if he kept it?
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Tue 18 Dec 2012 21:09
Private plates - yes/no - RickyBoy

...and there's more ...

... I overtook '42 D' on the M1 southbound in Northants this evening. Just has to be owned by a Page 3 stunna? ...

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Tue 18 Dec 2012 21:34
Private plates - yes/no - Bobbin Threadbare

I remember in Glasgow in the late 80's early 90's there was a biege lada with a private plate on it that lived in the Shieldhall area. Two reasons to think, why bother!

You do see some fancy plates on old bangers now and then! Maybe the owner has kept the car since new.

I have never seen a private plate on a motorbike though.

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Tue 18 Dec 2012 22:58
Private plates - yes/no - Trilogy

The best ones I've seen are WER 10 T, H 14 CES and M 11 STC. Also saw A111PPO but not spaced as personalised number plate.

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Fri 21 Dec 2012 14:06
Private plates - yes/no - FP

I may be thick, but I don't understand what three of these are supposed to mean. The second one is Hiaces, I think (Toyota model, presumably), but the others escape me completely. I have tried to work it out ever since the message was posted - that's three days ago.

OK, I am thick.

But put me out of my misery, please.

Edited by FP on 21/12/2012 at 14:07

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Fri 21 Dec 2012 14:22
Private plates - yes/no - RickyBoy

I read 'em all as 'Werther's Original' – probably an age-thing? ...

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Tue 18 Dec 2012 23:48
Private plates - yes/no - Engineer Andy

One of my old bosses had a personalised plate (his initials and a number) on his motorbike (all his family's cars have them too), until that is he had a near fatal crash in it...after extensive repairs and a few choice words from his wife, its now a track-day only bike used by a friend of his (he got a replacement, but he's no longer "allowed" by 'er indoors on the roads on either).

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Fri 21 Dec 2012 00:46
Private plates - yes/no - Avant

My favourite was OGO 2 L - a genuine London registration issued in 1973.

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Fri 21 Dec 2012 17:39
Private plates - yes/no - Sofa Spud

I'm not a great fan of personalised numbers and have actually passed by an opportunity to have one for next to nothing!

The very early registrations, like E1, which I've seen, have a certain something about them, as do ones like P 1 GGY or S 1 LLY, neither of which I've actually seen.

As for those 'nearly' personalise plates that almost spell a name if you half close your eyes and pretend that the illegally spaced '4' looks like an 'A' - I think they're a waste of effort and money and they impress nobody except perhaps the owner.

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Fri 21 Dec 2012 18:35
Private plates - yes/no - dieseldogg

Sniff, in my beer, Sob & sniff.

Mostly I agree with the above sentiments, however if the price is sensible and it is easily remembered, like the brothers IXI 6060, which simply came on a car he purchased, and has for ever since retained.

I kinda intended to retain VIW 7743, which was the first new car I ever purchased, still got her parked up but would cost a £ or 2 to MOT.

sigh

btw.

I got GIW 405 on a "G" Wagen parked up , but despite having kept this vehicle MOT'ed for several years I would not dream of removing it from its origional host vehicle.

Also btw I bulldozed BUI 74 (on a 7 year old Renault 5 ) into a pile of scrap many year ago, what odds? though the self same brother still gripes that it was valuable.

I unfortunately (unlike others) was not so sharp/aufait to put her "back on the road" during our MOT amnasty a wheen o year ago.

Then very promptly transfer the No. plate. (It was done, I can assure you)

That would have been a pure paper excerise btw

I was admring VIW 10 earlier today on a local businessman's Porsce Cayanne.

Edited by dieseldogg on 21/12/2012 at 18:36

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Sat 22 Dec 2012 14:20
Private plates - yes/no - Bobbin Threadbare

Out in a Preston today, I spotted a brand new Merc SLK roadster with the plate EHH UPP. On second inspection, I noticed that it was EIIH UPP but they'd used one of those black number plate bolts between I and I to make it look like the letter H.

Edited by Bobbin Threadbare on 22/12/2012 at 14:21

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Sun 23 Dec 2012 15:47
Private plates - yes/no - Trilogy

Limited internet access - hence delay.

WER 10 T spaced to WE R10T.

H 14 CES = on a pilot's 205 GTi also read HI 4CES = High forces.

M 11 STC, with stategically placed bolts was MUSIC

A111PP0 became A HIPPO. :)

A friend's brother at one time tried to get ART15T, but it wasn't availble in 1978.

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Sun 23 Dec 2012 16:20
Private plates - yes/no - FP

Well, I'll be .....

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Sun 23 Dec 2012 17:41
Private plates - yes/no - unthrottled

I saw V4 VED today. Tribute to the taxman?

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Mon 24 Dec 2012 16:43
Private plates - yes/no - Bobbin Threadbare

I have also seen this car - a strange choice unless it matches initials!

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Fri 28 Dec 2012 22:08
Private plates - yes/no - tyro

I saw UR 02 FAT on a van a couple of years ago.

Upon closer examination, the van was a commercial vehicle for a business that dealt in ostensibly healthy food.

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Fri 28 Dec 2012 23:06
Private plates - yes/no - countryroads

There is a Porsche round here with the plate FAT 61T which I quite like.

Ive got an ageless plate on my car, just a cheapy but its easy to remember and all the locals know if it isnt me driving it, its been knicked!

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Sat 29 Dec 2012 15:06
Private plates - yes/no - Trilogy

I know of L 2 YOU on a 1990s Volvo 740 estate.

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Sat 29 Dec 2012 21:14
Private plates - yes/no - drogers

Best Plate I saw was AS51GYT

I didnt buy it BUT I do have a private plate on my car with my initials on,

Why ? well why not. My plates gome up in value (about twice what I paid so far) and I think it makes it less likely the car will be stolen

Plus I intend to keep the ca which I bought new for about ten years so it sort of hides the age or will do when its about 6 years old and older.

As for being recognized - well I dont drink and I drive well and I dont break the law because I work in the justice system so I dont have those worries

Incidentally I was told by my insurance Brokers that the premium was reduced - that was a pleasant surprise

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Mon 31 Dec 2012 09:05
Private plates - yes/no - tyro

Incidentally I was told by my insurance Brokers that the premium was reduced - that was a pleasant surprise

Interesting. Did they give a reason?

And how much might I expect to save per year if I get a private plate?

:-)

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