Bl**dy Neighbours

Savvy_Sue

clint_S wrote: »

But with a Registration number and make you can. Since these are parked you can look up it's status using the links.

Sigh. Yes, I can take a note of the reg and make, go back home and look it up. But since I don't generally stand in the street looking for a wifi signal and I don't routinely use my phone network to access the internet and even if I didn't I STILL wouldn't stand in the street accessing the DVLA website I repeat: you can no longer tell simply by LOOKING at a car whether it is taxed or not.

Some may consider it an advantage that you can check both MOT and tax status online, and I wouldn't necessarily disagree, but there are some areas near where I work where I would not even want to stop and record a registration number, whereas I would quite happily have glanced at a tax disc as I walked past.

Possibly the OP can record registration numbers discreetly, but if not then they're a bit stuck. IMO.

atrixblue.-MFR-.

Savvy_Sue wrote: »

Sigh. Yes, I can take a note of the reg and make, go back home and look it up. But since I don't generally stand in the street looking for a wifi signal and I don't routinely use my phone network to access the internet and even if I didn't I STILL wouldn't stand in the street accessing the DVLA website I repeat: you can no longer tell simply by LOOKING at a car whether it is taxed or not.

Some may consider it an advantage that you can check both MOT and tax status online, and I wouldn't necessarily disagree, but there are some areas near where I work where I would not even want to stop and record a registration number, whereas I would quite happily have glanced at a tax disc as I walked past.

Possibly the OP can record registration numbers discreetly, but if not then they're a bit stuck. IMO.

It takes a second to snap a photo or video record a walk buy of a reg plate you can check the status when ever you want after that. memorize the number plate no need to stop and its just like glancing at a task disc!.

Savvy_Sue

atrixblue.-MFR-. wrote: »

It takes a second to snap a photo or video record a walk buy of a reg plate you can check the status when ever you want after that.

I'm honestly not trying to be difficult, but it takes me at least a second to unlock my phone, which I can't reliably do while walking along, and then load the camera. If I've got gloves on or bags to carry, it's really NOT that simple. And as I said, there are some places where I would most definitely NOT stop and do this, because if I was seen to take a photo of someone else's car I'd be challenged by the 'gentlemen' of the neighbourhood.

atrixblue.-MFR-. wrote: »

memorize the number plate no need to stop and its just like glancing at a task disc!.

I'm afraid that's not something I can do. I might get the numbers and the letters, but I'd really struggle to get them in the right order.

What I might be able to do is stop and send myself or DH a text message with the details. If I was sufficiently discreet and didn't make it clear I was taking down details of a car then the 'gentlemen' might not be upset.

So if the OP shares my difficulties I guess that's a possibility?

culpepper

If you have a voice recorder app on your phone, you can just speak the number and make into it and play it back to yourself at home. It would look like you are just on the phone then which you sort of are.

Bobcrowther

Sheesh. Multiple posts about remembering a car registration number.
It's SEVEN characters - the same as a local phone number, and four less than a mobile.
Is it REALLY that hard to simply memorise it?

RichardD1970

Bobcrowther wrote: »

Sheesh. Multiple posts about remembering a car registration number.
It's SEVEN characters - the same as a local phone number, and four less than a mobile.
Is it REALLY that hard to simply memorise it?

For some people, yes. It's not something I can easily do but my wife would have no problems.

We both have similar IQs but our brains work in different ways.

*Robin*

RichardD1970 wrote: »

For some people, yes. It's not something I can easily do but my wife would have no problems.

We both have similar IQs but our brains work in different ways.

Fair enough. But we aren't talking about a fleeting one-off opportunity here - such as memorising the number of a hit-and-run driver speeding off after an accident.
In this case, all these cars are parked around OP's home in a cul-de-sac (if I've understood correctly). OP has every excuse to walk past the rogue-parkers as many times as s/he wishes in order to take note of the number.

clint_S

RichardD1970 wrote: »

For some people, yes. It's not something I can easily do but my wife would have no problems.

We both have similar IQs but our brains work in different ways.

Can you remember your cars reg number? It's not like this is a one off, it's park outside OPs house and they would see it every day.

Savvy_Sue

Bobcrowther wrote: »

Sheesh. Multiple posts about remembering a car registration number.
It's SEVEN characters - the same as a local phone number, and four less than a mobile.
Is it REALLY that hard to simply memorise it?

Yup, can be. Plus we are losing the ability to retain phone numbers: I can now do my own (home, work and mobile), DH's mobile, and bizarrely ONE of our friends from where we used to live 16 years ago. I can work out ALL the work phone numbers from first principles (there are only about half a dozen of them). But I am forgetting the work fax number because I never use it, and I don't know my sons' mobile numbers or any of my siblings numbers - I recognise the area code if they use their landlines.

And it's a standing joke in our house that I will not ask for directions, whereas DH will. No point me doing it. By the time someone has given me three consecutive instructions, the first one has gone - was it right or left? Did the traffic lights come before the roundabout where I turn? And so on.

So, I look at a car registration no. I may even start reciting it under my breath. But within a minute I will be wondering if it was AB 123 CDE or BA 321 CED. And see below.

*Robin* wrote: »

Fair enough. But we aren't talking about a fleeting one-off opportunity here - such as memorising the number of a hit-and-run driver speeding off after an accident.
In this case, all these cars are parked around OP's home in a cul-de-sac (if I've understood correctly). OP has every excuse to walk past the rogue-parkers as many times as s/he wishes in order to take note of the number.

That is a fair point, although walk past too many time, make it too obvious what you're doing, and life could get interesting ... at least in some areas!

clint_S wrote: »

Can you remember your cars reg number?

Only with difficulty! It's a nightmare whenever we change cars!

coolcait

I agree with Savvy_Sue.

In the old days, you walked past a car, glanced at the windscreen, and immediately knew the following:

- is it displaying a tax disc?

- if so, is the tax disc still valid?

If the answers to both questions were 'Yes', then end of story.

Nowadays, you need a variety of strategies to obtain/remember the relevant information before you can even check out the answers to the above questions.