Private number plate

motorguy

Grumpy_chap said:

motorguy said:

AdrianC said:

Richard53 said:

Heh. 'Loving' is in reality 'being mildly amused by'.

Your choice of word...

Actually it was your choice of word - "Except for loving having your initials on display to everybody who sees that car."

This seems to be the first introduction of the verb "love" into the thread:

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.

Yes.  He said his wife loved the registration.  Adrian twisted that to "Loving having your initials on display to everybody who sees that car."

Where was his evidence of that?  

Its genuinely laughable how bitter people seem to be about what other people chose to do that has no impact on their lives whatsoever and the bizarre reasons they come up with as to why they've done it.

motorguy

Richard53 said:

To be precise, I did use the word 'love' in connection with my wife's reaction. I never used it about my own feelings. In the context of a general and light-hearted discussion, does it matter anyway?

Jeez.

Sadly its not a light hearted discussion to one or two individuals on here who seem to have severe inferiority complexes.

Richard53

Whatever, it's a daft way to spend a Friday night and I'm out.

cymruchris

My dad passed away earlier this year, however in the months prior we had many conversations reminiscing of times past where he often talked about his first car, and how if he'd known he was able to transfer the plate from car to car, he would have done, but it wasn't something he learnt about until his mid-30's. He said that if he had kept it, it'd be worth a fortune today but that's life.

I didn't expect last Christmas to be his final one, although I knew there weren't many left, and when the subject came around as it always did of 'what to buy me for Christmas' when there's nothing much that I wanted or needed, he said that he should get me a personal plate that in decades to come I could keep with my own car (Not that it would ever be worth anything), and so I went off and chose one of the £250 jobs. The car it's on isn't exactly new, and you can't hide that fact, but for me, I intend to keep the plate as long as I'm driving, and it'll always be a memory of our last Christmas, something that when I look at it, it'll make me think of my dad and our long conversations around putting the world to rights.

I've obviously blanked out my initials - but the '888' has a personal meaning to me. It's not for vanity, it's for the memories. And yes, it's an old car, but it's fun. Sometimes there are underlying reasons behind why we do what we do, that the world doesn't know about (and really doesn't care about). If you want a personalised plate for any reason at all, go and get one, and if you don't, don't. 

AdrianC

...and that photo raises another related issue, that of illegal plates.

motorguy

cymruchris said:

My dad passed away earlier this year, however in the months prior we had many conversations reminiscing of times past where he often talked about his first car, and how if he'd known he was able to transfer the plate from car to car, he would have done, but it wasn't something he learnt about until his mid-30's. He said that if he had kept it, it'd be worth a fortune today but that's life.

I didn't expect last Christmas to be his final one, although I knew there weren't many left, and when the subject came around as it always did of 'what to buy me for Christmas' when there's nothing much that I wanted or needed, he said that he should get me a personal plate that in decades to come I could keep with my own car (Not that it would ever be worth anything), and so I went off and chose one of the £250 jobs. The car it's on isn't exactly new, and you can't hide that fact, but for me, I intend to keep the plate as long as I'm driving, and it'll always be a memory of our last Christmas, something that when I look at it, it'll make me think of my dad and our long conversations around putting the world to rights.

I've obviously blanked out my initials - but the '888' has a personal meaning to me. It's not for vanity, it's for the memories. And yes, it's an old car, but it's fun. Sometimes there are underlying reasons behind why we do what we do, that the world doesn't know about (and really doesn't care about). If you want a personalised plate for any reason at all, go and get one, and if you don't, don't. 

Sorry for your loss

Its lovely to have that memory though via the reg plate, and as you say you can transfer it on to future cars.

Lovely car by the way.  

onlyfoolsandparking

AdrianC said:

...and that photo raises another related issue, that of illegal plates.

Once again, the bigger picture eludes you!

Biggus_Dickus

My wifes youngest sister has a personalized plate on her car. She also has regular and expensive cosmetic Botox treatment;

...there’s no end to that woman’s vanity! 

Grumpy_chap

Biggus_Dickus said:

My wifes youngest sister has a personalized plate on her car. She also has regular and expensive cosmetic Botox treatment;

...there’s no end to that woman’s vanity! 

Are you suggesting that a personalised number plate is like a gateway drug to vanity?

Biggus_Dickus

Grumpy_chap said:

Biggus_Dickus said:

My wifes youngest sister has a personalized plate on her car. She also has regular and expensive cosmetic Botox treatment;

...there’s no end to that woman’s vanity! 

Are you suggesting that a personalised number plate is like a gateway drug to vanity?

I’ve never considered that; but now you mention it........😮