Discussion
I ave a question about UK license plates. I see that companies actually sell plates for very high amounts and was wondering how that works? I live in Illinois USA and the state charges you every year for the plate and that is it. It cost a little extra for a special plate or vanity plate but not even 100th of what some uk plates cost. Could someone tell what the story? Thanks.
This will give you a good background, especially the history bit
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vehicle_registrati...
The salient point is that you can only have a registration that has previously been issued by the government of the day. You cannot go and request anything you want. Therefore the only way to get a plate you like is to buy it off the current owner and market forces means some plates are worth a lot.
A registration belongs to the car not the owner and belongs to the car for life or until a request is made to transfer it to another car. There is no annual fee once you have a plate.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vehicle_registrati...
The salient point is that you can only have a registration that has previously been issued by the government of the day. You cannot go and request anything you want. Therefore the only way to get a plate you like is to buy it off the current owner and market forces means some plates are worth a lot.
A registration belongs to the car not the owner and belongs to the car for life or until a request is made to transfer it to another car. There is no annual fee once you have a plate.
Edited by C4ME on Thursday 19th September 20:09
People also get very attached to them. There's a few stories here:
https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...
https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...
Kcmg1 said:
I ave a question about UK license plates. I see that companies actually sell plates for very high amounts and was wondering how that works? I live in Illinois USA and the state charges you every year for the plate and that is it. It cost a little extra for a special plate or vanity plate but not even 100th of what some uk plates cost. Could someone tell what the story? Thanks.
Funny because we used to think of the USA as the land of enterprise opportunities. It look as though the Illinois state has missed a trick.
In 1963 the UK adopted a licence place system involving a date identifier for the first time.
Eg. ABC 123A would be a new car first registered in 1963. (B=1964; C=1965 etc.)
The motor trade loved it, because car buyers wanted to have a car with the latest number plate.
A market developed amongst motorists who preferred the old style plates without year identifiers and to start with prices were very modest. I bought one of my old registration marks for £10, which now might sell for over £10,000.
The oldest and first issued mark was A1.
Registration marks in the UK are issued to vehicles, where they usually remain for the life of that vehicle. However they can be transferred to another vehicle and hence there is a market for interesting letter and number combinations.
A lady prime minister here saw an opportunity for the government to raise money from this market activity, so allowed the licensing authority to sell registration marks at commercial prices. A far better idea than increasing income tax, because the product costs the government nothing, but people are very happy to pay considerable sums.
The year identifier system now changes twice a year, so if you want to show off with the very latest number, you need to buy a new car twice a year. AB19 CDE was the format of registration marks on new cars from 1st March 2019, this became AB69 CDE from 1st September 2019.
There are many examples of splendid old numbers. A good one is 250 GTO on a Ferrari 250 GTO (owned by a successful musician).
Hopefully that gives you an idea of our system.
Edited by Jon39 on Thursday 19th September 21:09
C4ME said:
This will give you a good background, especially the history bit
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vehicle_registrati...
The salient point is that you can only have a registration that has previously been issued by the government of the day. You cannot go and request anything you want. Therefore the only way to get a plate you like is to buy it off the current owner and market forces means some plates are worth a lot.
A registration belongs to the car not the owner and belongs to the car for life or until a request is made to transfer it to another car. There is no annual fee once you have a plate.
Not quite correct on the not being able to request anything you want. Although the format of plates is limited to a degree by the rules, you can actually request plates from DVLA. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vehicle_registrati...
The salient point is that you can only have a registration that has previously been issued by the government of the day. You cannot go and request anything you want. Therefore the only way to get a plate you like is to buy it off the current owner and market forces means some plates are worth a lot.
A registration belongs to the car not the owner and belongs to the car for life or until a request is made to transfer it to another car. There is no annual fee once you have a plate.
Edited by C4ME on Thursday 19th September 20:09
I used to own a Lotus 340R, my user name on the Lotus forum SELOC is Dr H. I thought it would be great to have the pate DRH340R. It wasn't listed on the DVLA site so thought it was probably on a car somewhere. I contacted them to check and was told it had never been issued but was possible as it met the required rules in terms of formats etc.
They then put it into one of their auctions and you have to bid on it and hope no one else spots it and wants it! Took them about 6 months to get it in the auction. I bid and won for the starting price of £250.
Kcmg1 said:
Thanks for the info. Illinois has not thought of that yet but I am sure they will one day if they wanted money. However the Illinois lawmakers all have very low plates like AAT, 93 or S7. So they would get hit right along with everyone else. What would plate S7 go for in the UK?
According to Google S1 sold for £440K in 2008.Kcmg1 said:
Thanks for the info. Illinois has not thought of that yet but I am sure they will one day if they wanted money. However the Illinois lawmakers all have very low plates like AAT, 93 or S7. So they would get hit right along with everyone else. What would plate S7 go for in the UK?
You can have some amusement on a website such as this one.
https://www.newreg.co.uk/search/search_results/S7?...
If S7 was available (does not appear to exist now, most likely lost years ago when vehicle scrapped) it would be worth a fortune.
The shorter the number of characters, then as a rough rule the more the registration mark is worth.
You will have noticed that Aston Martin have a few old registration marks (eg. AML 1, AMV 8).
One historic mark which Aston Martin do not have is AM 270. Lionel Martin was into his number plates.
It is at present on an 2018 Audi diesel.
C4ME said:
@LPH : I had forgotten that and yes you are right. Shame they will not issue it to you directly and you have to bid against others in the auction even though you thought of it.
Yep it does appear strange but such is the capitalist marketplace I guess! I was bidding on mine by mobile from ski slopes in the Alps as I was on a snowboarding holiday when the auction ended.....dbs2000 said:
Not even allowed nice plate numbers over here 
Same in Italy and France, you get the sequential number that is generated at the moment. Even if I am been told that in France, with a combination of good timing, knowing someone at the MOT and money presumably, you can at least try to get a nice number, like 007, 911 and such. But never inquired much.I have the letters BAKA on my plate, which means STUPID in Japanese.
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