Did cars used to have registration marks carved on their windows?

[ChaosTrulyReigns]

Mind was doing a little meander into my youth today.

But I've asked a couple of old friends and they don't recall.

And now I'm doubting my brain

Yep me dads Sierra was done

@IHaveBrilloHair

yes, the steering wheek lock too

We still have a steering wheel lock, though it's a disc that fits all the way over the steering wheel

Yes! I remember car journeys in my grandparents car staring at the backwards dotty registration number on the window! They must have really thought their Nissan sunny was something special bless ‘em!!

Oh and my stepdad used to have one of those weird long steering wheel lock things! Blast from the past thinking about those

Yes I remember this

Yes, they did. It was an anti-theft idea so that if the car was stolen the thieves couldn't simply change the number plates. Now cars have electronic keys that make them much harder to steal so it's not done much any more.

My first car had the registration etched onto the glass. This was at least 25 years ago, and the car was second hand, so it would have been done about 6-7 years before that.

Mine's got them (it's a very old car, though).

My dad used to have a side business where he did this. It was an extra security thing if a cat was nicked they couldn't just change the plates.

I used to do this when I was a fitter. It was done using a gun where you added the registration to a special holder then attached it to a compressed air gun and placed it on the windows. Moved the nozzle back and forth and it was done. This was the early 90’s

You can still have it done! I just did my theory test and it's in one of the multiple choice questions, as a recommended method for protecting your car against theft

Yy to Don McLean in the tape deck... or Chris De Burgh's Spark to a Flame. I knew all the words off the inlay card, reading it while dad was in the bookies each week.

The Reader's Digest Atlas was also very informative. By 9, I knew how to load a roof rack aerodynamically with the smallest suitcase at the front, the dangers of aquaplaning and being pulled by cross winds after passing the shelter of a lorry or embankment. Then again, I was the kind of geek child who found the highway code fascinating when I was 5

Yes, I remember registrations being etched into the windows.

Yes, reading the A-Z of local area. Again and again and again. 😬

Gosh we had a dearth if distractions in days of yore

Definitely remember this. Not sure when they stopped.

Yep. It was a security thing.

Ah yes, I was a teen in the 80s and remember seeing the reg number vaguely through the haze of cigarette smoke ... cough cough 🤢

I was the youngest so I used to sit in the boot with the dog. We had a mini clubman too, I seem to remember the rear window had a little clip that you undid and the window pushed out a bit. Anyone remember those?

My kids barely remember car windows that wound up and down.

@MintyMabel

My cat hates having his plates changed

Yes they did on the side of one of the passengers windows

I had winding windows in the back of my last car so up to last year. DH had them until a couple of years ago. DS2 used to like pushing his foot on them, then they'd open and you'd have that horrid air pressure thing going on down the motorway and it was a PITA to push them back up.

@LagneyandCasey

Ah yes, I was a teen in the 80s and remember seeing the reg number vaguely through the haze of cigarette smoke ... cough cough 🤢

I was the youngest so I used to sit in the boot with the dog. We had a mini clubman too, I seem to remember the rear window had a little clip that you undid and the window pushed out a bit. Anyone remember those?

My kids barely remember car windows that wound up and down.

My dad's land rover had these in the back!

The Highway Code used to advocate this, as a "cheap and effective deterrent to professional thieves".

The Highway Code used to advocate this, as a "cheap and effective deterrent to professional thieves

They still do - DS is doing his theory driving soon and it was one of hte questions in the practice test.