Number plate mystery - Any sleuths who can help?

Grumpy_chap

AdrianC said:

A couple of fine examples I saw yesterday.

Both <prefix> <single digit> <three letters>... Nothing exceptional there, right?
Both on those "4d" raised-letter plates... (They change over time?)

And both with the backings SO darkly tinted that the regs were damn near illegible.

Why on earth would somebody be so vain as to pay for a reg they want to shout to the world, pay a considerable amount extra for the actual plates... then be so embarrassed by it that they want to stop people from reading it?

Both were, of course, on black-painted, "pimped", up-market German-brand vehicles.

This I really do find odd, though it happens.  Why do all this "attention seeking"?  To my mind, it just makes you more likely to be "got" for a minor misdemeanor such as not indicating where otherwise the police might have let you drive on.  There was a local case where a herbal medicine sales rep was prosecuted having initially been stopped for smoked out rear lenses on the car.

That_Sinking_Feeling

MalMonroe said:

demontfort said:

BOWFER said:

silverwhistle said:

No, I don't take that from the OP's post even if you did. I'd be concerned too that something was being hidden by such a strange change. They also didn't say they were going to change the plate but were worried about resale value, which seems a eminently sensible thing to do.

They asked if they could change to a 17 plate.

I'm not a big fan of cars, less so of expensive number plates. I was concerned an old plate might devalue the car, rather than wanting to draw admiring glances from ladies at my 17 plate as I sped along with the wind in my hair.

I'm also buying it for my dad's 75th birthday but was worried about his reaction when I told him how much it cost for a car with a 10 plate (at least now I know it's easily resolved).........You'd understand if you'd met my dad in a bad mood!

As a 'lady' I am relieved to hear that you don't want to draw admiring glances from any of us because we are not impressed by cars. 

I dunno... I'm pretty impressed by the right car. Not new flashy things, but drive a well kept or restored classic past me and you'll certainly get a look and a thumbs up - especially if it's something a bit unusual. 

Korkyb

I bought a car around 12 years ago which when I viewed it had a short registration which meant something to the owner but not to me (its along the lines of something like P8 IME).

He said he was selling it separately (as he was emigrating) and asked if I wanted to buy it, which I didn't.

I bought the car & when I picked it up it still had the short registration on it - he said he couldn't be bothered with the hassle of selling it given everything else he had to do moving abroad.

I've ended up keeping the plate and have transferred it to 3 cars since.

My reasoning is:

1/  its easy to remember (& I am getting older...).
2/  £80 to swap it isn't much in the grand scheme of car buying /owning.
3/  it does hide the age of my car (I currently drive a 6 year old Jaguar & as its in very good nick the casual observer wouldn't be able to tell it apart from a 6 month old car).

I guess point 3/ can fairly be described as "vanity" but given the number of people that spend a fortune to change their car every 3 or 4 years to have the latest & greatest (which again could be described as vanity) I think my £80 every 4 years or so to achieve a similar result is verging on Moneysaving   

Grumpy_chap

Korkyb said:

3/  it does hide the age of my car (I currently drive a 6 year old Jaguar & as its in very good nick the casual observer wouldn't be able to tell it apart from a 6 month old car).

I guess point 3/ can fairly be described as "vanity" but given the number of people that spend a fortune to change their car every 3 or 4 years to have the latest & greatest (which again could be described as vanity) I think my £80 every 4 years or so to achieve a similar result is verging on Moneysaving   

This can be described as MSE and makes some sense if buying a car of a design that does not age that quickly.  Probably makes less sense if the car itself is more every-day.

Langtang

Korkyb said:

My reasoning is:

1/  its easy to remember (& I am getting older...).

Isn't it Switzerland that issues you with a personalized registration when you pass your test? It's yours for life after that. I think that would be a great idea.

AdrianC

Langtang said:

Isn't it Switzerland that issues you with a personalized registration when you pass your test? It's yours for life after that.

Not quite.

They are personal rather than directly vehicle-allocated, but they aren't "for life".

They're issued by the Canton (the local authority) rather than centrally, and if you move to a different area, you need to get new ones.
You can have multiples, or you can move them between vehicles - but the vehicles without must be off the road. And there's different types for cars and motorbikes and commercial vehicles...

droopsnoot

AdrianC said:

Both on those "4d" raised-letter plates... (They change over time?)

Apparently these are now sometimes marketed as "5D" plates. Yet another dimension to them, I'm not sure what it is. Perhaps they're the ones where the sides of the letters are a different colour. I saw one the other day where three of the characters on the front plate had fallen off.

droopsnoot

BOWFER said:

I knew a guy who bought numberplate '1P' after winning the lottery (he was already quite well off anyway).
He never really divulged how much it was other than it was more than the Merc Coupe he bought at the same time.....
He sold the plate and it used to be seen around Aberdeen, although not seen it for a while myself.

Scroll down here a little bit: A - UK Single-Single Number Plate Registry

Grumpy_chap

droopsnoot said:

Apparently these are now sometimes marketed as "5D" plates. Yet another dimension to them, I'm not sure what it is.

The "5D" plates only work to their full potential when fitted to a DeLorean.