To ask people with personalised number plates.......why?

[itsgoodtobehome]

Genuinely interested. I see more and more personalised number plates (Sha70n) on my way home which inspired this thread. Why do you do it? Do you want people to know your name? Do you wear your name on the back of your jacket or on the front of your t-shirt?

I am really intrigued as to why people would flaunt their name, initials, nickname, whatever.....on their car.

MN enlighten me please!!

I have my initials and year of birth ie AB90

Definitely not to hide age of car as we change cars regularly.

Are they not a tad tacky?

No, they're not.

Mine is a regular number plate that is the right combination of letters and numbers, to exactly spell my (non English) name.

It's only personal to me and isn't worth more than the £250 i paid a few years back.

My first proper job years ago, was in a dept of transport vehicle licensing office. My manager at the time refused to allow a plate that read BOO110X. Think, iirc he somehow withdrew it from circulation.

Because it was on my second hand car when I bought it and is probably worth more than the car itself now.

When I was growing up the local registration was my last two initials so there were loads of cars around with my full initials (old style letter, number then 3letters). I ended up with one of my Dads old cars with my initials on so have just transferred it from car to car ever since.

Chckydoo? Do you think ER II is tacky ? Or do you mean things like PENISS, which lives near me, only by penny, but looks to me more like Penis! That is tacky, but two or three letters and two numbers, a classic plate doesnt offend me.

One I see regularly is a bmw with the letters bmw in the plate, surely that's nobhead²

There's one around here that reads 1 WKD. I worked? It's a Range Rover. Or other.....?

It is no different from spending money on getting anything other than the most basic car that you need

I have a personal plate. Nearly everyone in my school car park has the same car as me and I can find it quickly. Its not why I bought it, but it sure helps.

I’ve got one...it’s fun AND legal !!!
Doesn’t harm anyone and was less than £100
Why not ?!

Queen, or it could be William Kenneth Dukes' number plate!

It is no different from spending money on getting anything other than the most basic car that you need

It's very different.

They cost nearly £1000 for plates which won’t be used for 17 years.

I may well be wrong here, but I was under the impression that they had to be registered to a car and couldn't be kept 'in reserve' as it were; so wouldn't that force them to buy an old banger for each one and tax, MoT and insure it (unless they used them on their own cars, I suppose - which would surely make them less special when the time comes)?

I always thought it would be fun, if I ever had a colossal amount of money to waste, to buy one of the most obviously ostentatious, expensive ones ever produced (like A1) and then the vilest, oldest, rustiest old jalopy that I could just about keep road-legal to put it on.

I've also thought of getting the most massive 6-wheel showman's caravan I could possibly find, have it trucked to a big, popular caravan park and then pay to leave it permanently parked up there, but hitched to a 2-seater Smart car with the same registration number.

Probably as well people like me will never be rich

I wanted one until I realised that I always saw the same people on my boring work commute. I started realising that I knew where GIL456 lived as I always saw her turn off into her street and I knew where BA12KEN worked (plates made up). The only other car that I recognised on my commute was a yellow Nissan Juke (and that's just because it's yellow), I didn't remember anyone else's normal plates.

I found it a bit weird after that, my car is just a fairly nondescript black car and I'd prefer to keep it that way.

Mine was free, put on the car by the salesman who had spent time searching for one that he thought would suit - I didn't have the heart to tell him to take it off!

My husband always wanted one so I bought it as an anniversary present. When he offered me one I declined and asked for diamond earrings instead.

may well be wrong here, but I was under the impression that they had to be registered to a car

Webuilt you can pay an annual fee to reserve your plate.

I’m not remotely a fan of them but don’t think it’s any of my business if others have them.

PIL both do and my DSis who still has her married initials and is now divorced

DH and I play a game on long journeys “number plate bingo” to see who can spot the rudest/wankiest plates.

I once saw V4 SNP a few months before the Scottish independence referendum.

I have one. It is the initials of my DD who died. I have had it since not long after she died over 20 years ago. I love it so much. I feel that i keep her with me everyday which probably sounds mad! I will continue to use it until i can no longer drive. Not really fussed what anyone else thinks.

Sayanythingelse

Good point! A woman I know found out that her creepy stalky colleague had found out where she lived because of her personalised plate. I suppose a decent stalker would know the plate though regardless of whether it was personalised.

Because it makes me smile.

Mine is the old style, letter-number then my initials which is sort of my nickname. It's over 18 years old so I think a bargain

OH's is new style and his name with the year between. You would not know it is a personal plate unless you knew his name.

Neither of them hide the age of the car

PEN 15 used to be owned by Steve Parrish.

Very truthful plate in that instance. 😂😂

@PinkCalluna - Ah, thanks - I did wonder if that was true.