Personalised Number Plates - Naff or Cool?

[standards]

Have the plate that means something to me. Not expensive, correctly spaced etc. Can’t abide those that aren’t, with the possible exception of funny ones.

Anyone that matters thinks it’s fine; the others can go and....do as they please.

It’s that simple IMHO.

[Court_S]

I’m not really bothered by them. My other half has one with initials on, legally spaced supplied by the dealer. Looks ok, nothing to get excited about.

Illegal spacing, fonts, shading etc is just naff.

[2 sMoKiN bArReLs]

Court_S said:

I’m not really bothered by them. My other half has one with initials on, legally spaced supplied by the dealer. Looks ok, nothing to get excited about.

Illegal spacing, fonts, shading etc is just naff.

Kind of sums it up really.

[redguy]

I'm fine with them, probably as I have one myself!

I simply like the idea of keeping the same plate between cars. Bought mine from the DVLA (very straightforward), and have had it on a few different cars now. Wouldn't bother me if it was on a Aston or a Perodua, it's simply my plate.

Although the chance of the Aston are non-existent - more likely to be the other....!

[alec.e]

I like a simple plate with my initials on, got them in a pair:


Would love a 2x2 dateless plate

[Ares]

Always subjective. I bought one 20yrs ago, a year before the current format was launched meaning an end to shorter new private plates - I saw dateless plates as going up in value quickly.

It's Two Numbers/Two Letters (My birthday and my initials), dates from the late 1910s/early 1920s originally.

Spotted it for sale, seemed a good buy being so personal to me - advertised at £800 at the time, I negotiated them down to £550, I'd never part with it, but other plates with Two Number/Two Letters are all well into £5-figures now. Not many £550 investments have grown well over 20-fold in that time.


My wife got a new car last summer. She chose a £299 '19' plate so it had her initials before the 19, and our daughter's name after the '19'. Harmless fun.

[RammyMP]

2 sMoKiN bArReLs said:

Makes me chuckle.

It's a number letter combo. If you don't want one don't get one.

I like them, so I have them. I don't have them for anybody else but for me. (In fact one of mine you wouldn't know it was a bought plate)

A bit of fun really.

I’m with you. I’ve got one, 2 numbers and 3 letters (my initials), I bought it from the DVLA auction about 12 years ago. Recently there was another one on their auction, a much higher number but my initials, it went for £7k. Judging by that if I sell mine I will make a decent profit. Not that I want to sell it.

[Roboticarm]

I have a private plate and have had it on about 6 cars, I like that it makes the car "mine".
It's also the old format and 1 digit shorter so stands out now.
I few weeks ago I met a friend for lunch and she said "I like your new car" I asked how she knew it was mine, she had seen it in the car park and knew my reg number... Wouldn't happen with a standard plate
2 things do annoy me when it comes to private plates:
1) mis spacing / messing around, they should be standard font an spacing as is the law
2) when someone has car specific plate on the wrong car,XX AMG on base spec Merc or M3 xxx on a 320d

Ultimately though, if the plate is legal then I reckon people should have one if they want and not of they don't.

[irocfan]

Alfahorn said:

I don't care. They're just a bit of fun and I don't take them too seriously.

I've got a couple of plates. They cost me £250 each and I like them and don't care what anyone else thinks.

This ^^^ got mrs Iroc's plate because it stops people seeing if her car is new

My plate is quite car specific

[2 sMoKiN bArReLs]

irocfan said:

This ^^^ got mrs Iroc's plate because it stops people seeing if her car is new

See, I don't get that. Who gives a flying feck if people wonder how old your car is?

[21st Century Man]

Imo it's not just the plate, a lot of the time the car it's paired to can make or break it. When I put my plate on my Bentley it was dire, I took it off again very quickly, later I put it onto my 2CV with the correct pressed aluminium white/yellow reflective and raised black plastic digits for the year of the plate (1975 N reg) and it just looked great, perfect! When my Century was registered I put it on that, on the JDM size plates and font, it just didn't work. It's now on my old LDV Convoy and it looks fine on that.

[CRA1G]

RammyMP said:

I’m with you. I’ve got one, 2 numbers and 3 letters (my initials), I bought it from the DVLA auction about 12 years ago. Recently there was another one on their auction, a much higher number but my initials, it went for £7k. Judging by that if I sell mine I will make a decent profit. Not that I want to sell it.

Exactly... not only have you enjoyed your number on your car for the last 12 years it's continually increasing in value... it does make me laugh with certain opinions when secretly we and many others are enjoying increasing values year on year, I like you won't sell but have on two occasions been offered many many times that I paid for my number it 30 years ago...

[mike9009]

They are a bit pointless.

My VX220 came with the plate X22VXX which I quite liked though.

I encourage my kids to call out the person's name if they have a plate like CHR15 H, for example.

So, I am blissfully indifferent.

[2 sMoKiN bArReLs]

My mates call me Hassers



Don't tell me that that's not just a larf

[CRA1G]

mike9009 said:

They are a bit pointless.

I encourage my kids to call out the person's name if they have a plate like CHR15 H, for example.

Sold for £10100 + VAT Etc 19 years ago....

[2 sMoKiN bArReLs]

But we never know how to spell it

[Buster73]

Bought one as a surprise for my son , the surprise to me was that he politely declined it , so did his wife who didn’t like it either.

Put it up for sale , just sold it made £1k profit on it .

My first and last entry in number plate ownership.

[kambites]

For me they are neither, they're just completely unworthy of attention either way.

Unless they're weirdly spaced, use black screwheads to make letters look different, etc. That just looks desperate.

Edited by kambites on Friday 31st July 20:00

[2 sMoKiN bArReLs]

kambites said:

For me they are neither, they're just completely unworthy of attention either way.

..and that is exactly how it should be

[LunarOne]

If it were up to me I'd allow American-style plates that optionally show the county, and have fully customisable text within the bounds of unicity, decency and legibility. Of course if you could choose anything, it would put an end to the huge sums of money the DVLA raise from selling randomly-generated but fortuitous combinations of glyphs. I guess it would also make existing vanity plates worth a lot less. Which is why I will never be put in charge of vehicle registrations!