... to be entertained by personal registration plates?

[ImJustMadAboutSaffron]

First off, I have a personal registration plate and I am not knocking them in general. You wouldn't really know it though, because it has a letter, three random numbers and my initials. Well you would if you know, as it makes it look as if the car dates from 1991, but it isn't "stand out".

I'm on about the weird ones, try-hard ones, just odd ones and the ones that look just daft.

M444 RKD. (Mark Dobson (for example). The name is Mark, not Maaark).

CL14 REK - It's Claire, not Cliare.

And where I live, a lot of plates starting with HG11 and similar. Having your postcode as a registration number? It's bizarre. Ironic, too, when the plate indicates the car was registered in Hampshire or Dorset, not Yorkshire.

And don't get me started on K155, M155 (seen on several white Audis), BO55 (my most hated one. So embarrassing! If you are really a "boss" you wouldn't need to tell everyone).

Yep I might be sneering and I expect a lot of brickbats. But what do other Mumsnetters think? Am I being mean? Any other examples?

I used to sée an Alpha V6 in Booths car park.

Thé owners may have been very proud of his V6CUL plate, but 'cul' is French for arse. Made me smile.

Once in Hale I saw a Rolls/Bentley with the plate either 1OBE or OBE1 can't remember which way around. Wasn't impressed by that one.

A Porsche 911 with the plate V11GRA, pity it wasn't V14GRA!!

None of those suggested 'Mark' plates will exist. There's never been a 'LNLL' or 'LLLL' or 'LNLLN' format of plate in the UK.

My plate is '1 XYZ' (where the XYZ bit is actually my initials). I wouldn't dream of having a butchered unreadable one, though. If you're going to do that, just stick with what the car came with!

I detest miss-spaced, butchered, illegal plates. There are so many around these days.

I followed a little car the other night that was covered in pentagram stickers and witches on brooms. The registration read 'Wiccan'. Couldn't tell you what it was exactly but it really made me smile.
Not one to cut up though in case they curse you 😂

None of those suggested 'Mark' plates will exist. There's never been a 'LNLL' or 'LLLL' or 'LNLLN' format of plate in the UK.

They'll have been taken by other people who have bought personalised plates.
The obvious ones get taken first.

Sorry, I think my post may not have been clear.

If 'L' is any letter and 'N' is any number, there has never been any plate issued in those formats.

'LLLL' can never exist because no number plate which is a combination of 4 letters and no numbers has ever been issued.

Same with the other combinations I was talking about, such as LNLLN

There are very strict regulations on how registration numbers are formed and always have been right back from 1903 when it first started.

I think they're a bit naff tbh but each to their own. I do get irritated by the misplaced screw heads that make the plate look like it reads something else. I also get annoyed by the illegal ones.

I have a family member who works in the DVLA & he said that it's quite a 'thing' for hiding money, some are worth £thousands apparently. 🤷‍♀️

Never seen the point in personalised plates other than P155 OFF, but that was never made available to the public because the DVLA won't issue potentially offensive ones. (I believe in Scotland the SN07 xxx plates were replaced by TN07 xxx to avoid offence, being too close to "SNOT".)

The weirdest one was a car I used to see in the Brighton(ish) area who's number plate was C2.COM (using a screw for the full stop). I wondered what this website was so visited, it's some American consultancy firm who have no idea why some English person wanted to use their web address as a personalised number plate (see here if you're interested, which is unlikely).

I always laugh inwardly at the crap ones where they obviously couldn't get the actual name, so went for something that vaguely looks like it. Cringe at the ones like W1LLY.

But then I don't really understand the point of personalised plates - why not just get a sticker with your name on it and put it on your car?

That's the exact point, I don't want my name available to all and sundry, I wanted something personal but unobtrusive. I've seen plates spelling out people's actual names or an approximation of them. That's not what I wanted.

There is a good one on my road that I think is actually accidental but it makes me smile every time I see it:

BL08 BGZ

There is a VAG 1 around where I live, ironically drives like a complete fanny!

Doesn't exist. Also, what is it you are suggesting is says?

It does exist because I have seen it multiple times - it is on an orange fiat 500.

blob bags - obviously it’s nonsense but it makes me smile.

We saw one the other day that said B16 KNB

I thought the guy was overcompensating claiming to have a big knob, but DH reckons he's called Kenneth Neville Bibblethwaite.

I will definitely honk if I see you

Oh no! BL08 BGZ must have been written off or scrapped 😩. It’s not on the gov website, but site below must have historic data on it (checked my own car on it to see if it worked properly and details were correct).

I worked in a medium secure unit once and my ward manager was a prick. He also had a number plate that spelt his name. One of the patients had unescorted leave from the ward, and happened to be wandering through the car park. Recognising the ward mangers car from the number plates, he keyed it. I know it was wrong to be delighted by my schnaufrade (or whatever the German word is) but I was secretly delighted. He was an idiot and the personalised number plate made it worse.

A B06 ROL is now on an X5 if anyone wanted to accuse me of lying about that one too. What a ridiculous thing to accuse someone of making up 🙄🙄.

As a general rule of thumb, people with personal plates are dickheads. It's very rare that this isn't the case.

@littlepeas

I just came to apologise as well!

I didn't accuse you of anything, I just said it doesn't exist, which is accurate. But yeah, I came to apologise because obviously it did exist so that was am misunderstanding. Never mind.

I don't think I've ever paid attention to other people's number plates. I guess personalised ones are easier to remember and report if they're driving like a dick though so not all bad.

My workmate's plate is GLZ (if I put the rest it wouldn't be fair)

But he's called Gavin and she's Zoe - apparently it's Gavin Loves Zoe... there's a 4 in the last bit so you can guess the rest.

It just makes me smile.

CL14 REK - It's Claire, not Cliare.

It's not trying to Cliare.

The 14 is to look like an 'A'

You wouldn't like my cars, we have 3 cars with the same initials on with similar numbers and DSS' car matches too 😆

Yes. My sil, her husband and her 2 grown up sons all have them, and all parked along the road outside their house. Now my fil has one too. I can confirm they are a bunch of utter bellends.