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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

personalised number plates

138 replies

Yeeehaa · 04/10/2010 13:47

DH and I both work, but don't earn a lot.
We need to budget fairly tightly, but we manage fine.

DH has been looking at the DVLA personalised number plate site, and has "chosen" our number. He says he has been thinking about it for a while, and because his DB has one, maybe it would be a good idea if we got one. I assumed he was joking and nearly laughed my pants off. He was a little upset that i didn't take him seriously.

Now, if this was something that was really, really important to him, I wouldn't stop him, but £250 goes a long long way in this household - in fact, £250 would mean a far better Christmas than we're used to.

So, WIBU to assume he was joking, and to think that personalised plates are an unnecessary luxury?

(I am prepared to give in here if the majority think IABU!)

OP posts:
prozacfairy · 05/10/2010 06:59

YANBU as others said, they are tacky.

YADNBU as you can't afford it. Tell DH that it's a toss up between a nice christmas that the whole family can enjoy and a personlised number plate DH wont actually be able to see and admire while he is driving his car.

The DC aren't really gonna appreciate that daddy's car looks super tacky really cool when Santa has left no decent presents for them and christmas dinner is a microwave meal.

Also a friend of my boyfriend's has had his personlised plate nicked about 4 times.

5DollarShake · 05/10/2010 07:15

I have yet to see a personalised plate that makes me think more if the owner.

In the US they're called vanity plates. Nuff said. Grin

notagrannyyet · 05/10/2010 07:25

DH has one....it is very much a male thing!
But to be fair he was given it as a gift many years ago. I've no idea how much it's worth....maybe it was a good investment!

Everyone is correct they are a total waste of money....but lots of things are, and it really does no harm to anyone else does it.

I'm much more annoyed by those number plates with non standard letters that can't be read by speed cameras.

Faithless12 · 05/10/2010 08:11

They don't cost £400 all in. Mine cost £250 flat, no extra cost for assigning it to a car at all £20 for the plates. Although mine has personal meaning and isn't something stupid in fact most people don't know it's personalised.

If you don't have the money then it's a unnessary luxury.

Suda · 05/10/2010 08:19

Yes 5dollars but the terms Vanity unit, Vanity table and Vanity case - came from America also.

So hey all you people getting toiletries from the cupboard under the sink , sat at a dressing table or getting stuff out of a toiletry bag this morning - stop being so vain.

Everything we wear or do , to where we live or which car we drive - can be and often is a statement about us - shall we start categorising people who wear designer clothes,drive flash or open top sports cars,live in big houses,have their hair and nails done - none of these are essentials - they are indulgences and in some cases yes - showing off.

I think personalised number plates should all read:

A55 U ME

To do so makes an ASS of U and ME.

Dartshasbegun · 05/10/2010 09:49

A car is, to me, a useful tool for getting around with. By the same token, I regard a personalised number plate as an example of vanity, that I simply would not waste money on.

Don't get me wrong, I love driving my car, but it's still a tool that I do not attach any significance to.

Suda · 05/10/2010 12:05

I have never heard such sanctimonious twaddle. Some of you want to just get off your high horses and stop making presumptions about people you have ususlly never met. Sometimes these number plates are a bit of fun , sometimes tongue in cheek , yes sometimes they are vanity or just plain pride in a name or even promotional of the drivers business. So what ?? - no children or animals are being hurt in the process !!

You're the ones who are vain and shallow - vain enough to think YOU decide what kind of person the driver in front is and shallow enough to pigeon hole a whole cross section of people - based on what - a registration plate ?? Live and let live for goodness sake.

Stricnine · 05/10/2010 12:54

Thank you Suda - as a long term owner of a personalised plate I was starting to feel quite abused by some of the comments...

ColdComfortFarm · 05/10/2010 12:57

They are wanky in the extreme and would make him look a complete fool

Maisiethemorningsidecat · 05/10/2010 13:03

Well, here's another sanctimonious, shallow woman and her twaddle

Agree with all the others - tacky and unnecessary, esp. the ones that merge the letters and numbers, or that stick a black cover over the screwplate to make a full stop so you can't make out what the hell the plate number is.

Suda · 05/10/2010 13:20

Maisie - 'agree with all the others.

I rest my case.

Maisiethemorningsidecat · 05/10/2010 13:31

What case is that then Suda? If you have an issue with the 'all' then please do say so, and I will happily replace it with 'most'. I'm typing and talking to colleagues at the same time, so happily accept that I've made a error in that all should have been followed by "who have said takcky etc" - no biggie.

If your case is about something else, then I'm afraid I can't H3L.P

NigellaPleaseComeDineWithMe · 05/10/2010 13:48

I saw a plate the other day was MN then a few numbers...

Was tempted by K155 xxx (xxx = initials)when they released that batch could of been nice in some ways.

Maisiethemorningsidecat · 05/10/2010 13:52

Unless your name was Ann Sara Smith Wink Grin

BitOfFun · 05/10/2010 14:06

When DP sold the car he had when we met to a garage, we found out that it had once been registered as B1G 8OY Grin

I, er, don't think we'd have got together if it had still been there. To be fair though, I don't think he'd have bought the car. I hope not.

hairytriangle · 05/10/2010 14:13

I just don't get spending good money on personalised number plates. All they say to the rest of the world is 'the person driving this car is an ego maniac twat with too mich money'

BabyDubsEverywhere · 05/10/2010 14:51

How about classic cars?

We will be getting some next year, we have been doing up our bug for the last 6 months (we love all things beetle and camper!) we will be going to all the shows next year and lining her up with all the others, sometimes private plates complete the look of a vehicle and Im planning on buying them for him before the shows start, i know he will be over the moon. Just got to work out what now...

Any ideas for an orange classic beetle?

staranise · 05/10/2010 15:10

I think they're naff and tacky, very boy racer. I would be very embarrassed to drive round in a car with a personalised plate.

However they rarely lose their value and often it increases so you could see it as a form of investment.

flowerybeanbag · 05/10/2010 15:45

Goodness, this thread is illuminating. As well as learning about other posters, (something I have found disappointing) I find myself apparently completely lacking in self-awareness. I have now learned that I am a thick, tacky, cheap, chavvy, brash, ego-maniacal tosser who drives like a prick and has more money than sense. And is male, apparently.

Glancing down at myself I don't feel appropriately dressed for my new role in life, so I will get on to that sharpish.

flowerybeanbag · 05/10/2010 15:47

Oh I forgot 'twat' several times over. I can't remember the last time I heard such vicious judging of people based on something so unimportant.

staranise · 05/10/2010 16:04

I think what amazes people flowery is that they cost so much and yet serve absolutely no purpose - equivalent to a vastly expensive piece of jewellery perhaps (but without, for me, the aesthetic appeal). My friend's father wanted to buy one for her with her name on and it was going to cost over £10,000 Shock

Most women I know with them were given them as gifts by their husbands. One poor friend has to drive round (with gritted teeth) with 'Mummy' written on her car.

LindyHemming · 05/10/2010 16:31

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

flowerybeanbag · 05/10/2010 16:39

Oh I understand why people don't understand buying them, or think they are pointless. Clearly they are a colossal waste of money (mine was about £400 iirc), but then so are lots of things. Lots of people waste thousands of pounds on things I and others might think are pointless or unattractive.

I wouldn't be seen dead driving 'Mummy' around,for example, but if I saw your friend I wouldn't think she was a chavvy twatty ego maniac, I'd just think 'ooh that's not to my taste' and then I'd probably think 'wonder if it was an unfortunate Christmas pressie'? Grin

Maisiethemorningsidecat · 05/10/2010 16:45

Or the one round here - Biimbo (I think that's the spelling). Who on earth in their right mind would agree to getting into a car with that emblazoned on the front and rear? Obviously the bleached blonde, orange, female driver thinks it's a right larf or something Hmm

I'm not even sure that many of them are even legal - anyone know what the position is with regards to the stupid ones with backwards letters and misplaced characters?

Twattish is a step too far, I agree, but they are v v annoying (in the same way that lots of other things up for discussion on MN are)

GrandmaW · 05/10/2010 16:58

Like a previous poster, I have a personalised number plate, but it's nothing silly and most people wouldn't know that it was personalised.
It simply incorporates both my initials and those of my late husband. Earlier this year, I sold the car that my husband had bought for me. Sentimentally, this was quite hard to do, but by having this special number plate I feel that he is part of my new car. Might seem silly but it has been a great comfort to me.