Private number plate

motorguy

dipsomaniac said:

So have we finally established that it is all about cost? Affording something others can't? You can have your name in a windscreen (or is that illegal now) at a fraction of the cost of having it on a number plate. What's the difference apart from about 1 metre?

No, totally the opposite.

Its not about having something others cant - they can be got for £250.  They're simply a form of personalisation that some people take pleasure from owning and having on their car.

Stick on sun visor strips have long since went out of fashion whereas personal plates havent.  

dipsomaniac

You have to stop talking about £250-£300 as if it's an insignificant amount of money on a money saving website. Especially for something with no tangible benefit

born_again

motorguy said:

No, totally the opposite.

Its not about having something others cant - they can be got for £250.  They're simply a form of personalisation that some people take pleasure from owning and having on their car.

Stick on sun visor strips have long since went out of fashion whereas personal plates havent.  

I would rather spend £250 on a plate that suits me (easy to remember) than the same on some extra on a car I do not need.

motorguy

dipsomaniac said:

You have to stop talking about £250-£300 as if it's an insignificant amount of money on a money saving website. Especially for something with no tangible benefit

Well theres two angles to this then -

(a) to many people £250 is not a massive amount of money, particularly given the running costs involved with an average car these days.  Lets not forget people are running about with phones at £1,000 in their pockets. 

(b) even IF its a not insignificant amount of money on a money saving website, that doesnt make people who have the money to spend on one vain.

This website is NOT about eking out a living only having what you need.  I can easily demonstrate that as the Motoring Board is NOT under "Money Saving" but is under the same category as foreign holidays, etc - which wholly fall in to the realm of want not need.

So either way i think you maybe need to ask yourself why you cant comprehend that maybe people just like the idea of having one and can afford one, rather than only possibly doing so to lord it over you and others? 

And why you think we shouldnt be "allowed" to discuss things on here that arent about on a minimal budget?

Also it would be very easy for the mods to remove the 95% of threads on this forum board that arent about running a car on a tight budget, yet they dont.  Maybe ask yourself why?

motorguy

dipsomaniac said:

You have to stop talking about £250-£300 as if it's an insignificant amount of money on a money saving website. Especially for something with no tangible benefit

Why? 

Why do we have to stop talking about it?

Richard53

A few years ago, I bought number plates for my wife and myself - both had a single letter, a single number and our initials. As a gift, it was a bit more fun than a kitchen gadget, and it pleased us both. In the end, I got fed up of the bureaucracy and cost of changing vehicles and I let mine go with the last car I sold. She has kept hers, loves it, and will pass it on to someone else in her family (there are a couple with the same initials) after her day.

Neither of us could be described as vain in the slightest. The purchase was a bit of fun and it made us smile, especially when we parked together. Locally, plates with the old local identifying letters are popular with people who love the county. A local bed business has D1VAN - great business promotion. A local lorry fleet has the firm's initials and sequential numbers - identifiable by the public and presumably makes tracking the fleet a bit simpler. Some are amusing - the white BMW I saw with M5 MAD, or the JLR promotional vehicle with B16 CAT. None of these have anything to do with vanity, in my opinion. The only plate I have seen which seemed genuinely vain was RH14NON on a pink Bentley, owned by one of the directors of Trade Centre Wales, whose name I am sure you can guess.

Ascribing one motive (vanity) to something which a lot of people do for a lot of different reasons is perhaps more revealing of the person who says it than the rest of us.

motorguy

Richard53 said:

A few years ago, I bought number plates for my wife and myself - both had a single letter, a single number and our initials. As a gift, it was a bit more fun than a kitchen gadget, and it pleased us both. In the end, I got fed up of the bureaucracy and cost of changing vehicles and I let mine go with the last car I sold. She has kept hers, loves it, and will pass it on to someone else in her family (there are a couple with the same initials) after her day.

Neither of us could be described as vain in the slightest. The purchase was a bit of fun and it made us smile, especially when we parked together. Locally, plates with the old local identifying letters are popular with people who love the county. A local bed business has D1VAN - great business promotion. A local lorry fleet has the firm's initials and sequential numbers - identifiable by the public and presumably makes tracking the fleet a bit simpler. Some are amusing - the white BMW I saw with M5 MAD, or the JLR promotional vehicle with B16 CAT. None of these have anything to do with vanity, in my opinion. The only plate I have seen which seemed genuinely vain was RH14NON on a pink Bentley, owned by one of the directors of Trade Centre Wales, whose name I am sure you can guess.

Ascribing one motive (vanity) to something which a lot of people do for a lot of different reasons is perhaps more revealing of the person who says it than the rest of us.

+1




........

dipsomaniac

motorguy said:

dipsomaniac said:

You have to stop talking about £250-£300 as if it's an insignificant amount of money on a money saving website. Especially for something with no tangible benefit

Why? 

Why do we have to stop talking about it?

Bad choice of words. I should have said 'you talk about.....'

Didn't mean it to come across as you should stop talking/discussing

motorguy

dipsomaniac said:

motorguy said:

dipsomaniac said:

You have to stop talking about £250-£300 as if it's an insignificant amount of money on a money saving website. Especially for something with no tangible benefit

Why? 

Why do we have to stop talking about it?

Bad choice of words. I should have said 'you talk about.....'

Didn't mean it to come across as you should stop talking/discussing

Fair enough

AdrianC

Richard53 said:

A few years ago, I bought number plates for my wife and myself - both had a single letter, a single number and our initials. As a gift, it was a bit more fun than a kitchen gadget, and it pleased us both. In the end, I got fed up of the bureaucracy and cost of changing vehicles and I let mine go with the last car I sold. She has kept hers, loves it, and will pass it on to someone else in her family (there are a couple with the same initials) after her day.

Neither of us could be described as vain in the slightest.

Except for loving having your initials on display to everybody who sees that car. And paying for the pleasure.