To not see the point in personalised reg plates?

[Flexilexy]

As I sat in traffic this morning trying to work out if someone's reg was their initials or if it was meant to spell a word out, I wondered why they even bothered.

If you have a personalised registration plate, why?

This is one of those things I've just never understood why anyone would spend money on it. I'd have to have a LOT of disposable income before this is something I'd part with cash for.

Google says "The cost of a personalized number plate can range from a few hundred pounds to hundreds of thousands of pounds."

I'll be honest, and show my judgemental side. Most (not all) of the people I know with personalised reg plates are skint, or just scraping by month to month. So it really baffles me that this is something they'd chose to do with their money.

But also, even if I could afford it, what's the appeal? I'm genuinely interested to know what makes you want one?

And yes, I'm fully aware it doesn't have any impact on my life at all, but one is allowed to ponder. This entire site is full of people complaining about things that aren't relevant to them, it's just a discussion.

YABU - Personalised reg plates are wonderful and not just an expensive bit of plastic that collects dead bugs
YANBU - They're totally fucking pointless

Someone that I was working with (a contractor) had a personalised number plate to hide the age of his car so that the people who were paying him didn't know how often he was changing his car.

Yes, exactly. They’re cheap in the US and are usually pretty funny and creative. That’s why I was so shocked by the amount of vitriol over here. It’s really not that big of deal to me.

How do you hide the age of the car with the personalized plate?

But a 2 year old car is generally quite similar to a 5 year old car unless you do a close examination

I have a Private plate - means something to me. Was a few thousand pounds but worth every penny for what it means to me.
Also because I can afford it ...why do people always feel the need to put others down. Saying 'more money than sense' smacks of jealousy!
Why do people buy expensive bags, shoes, cars, perfume, jewellery...because they can afford it and it makes them happy!

What I don’t understand is that there are loads about where someone has had to use letters and numbers to spell something out - like the SC62 LET for Scarlet mentioned above. But sometimes I see ones that are just a word written on the plate, like BECKY. Is that legal?

A personalised number plate really does not 'de-age' a car, even slightly! It takes one minute to go onto Google, and look up the age of a car, and if it has tax and MOT on it. Personalised number plates are pretentious and wanky. Only the most showy and arrogant people I know have them!

Check if a vehicle is taxed - GOV.UK

Bit like getting a tattoo with your partners name on I guess. Pointless but each to their own. (I have neither)

Mine was bought for me, I never asked for it. But it makes it easy to remember my reg, not having to remember a new one every time I change my car.
So for those who think negatively about them, I think it shows more about you, because I certainly don’t care about your opinion, and neither do I waste one second of my life thinking about what others have.

If it's parked in the customer's car park it looks the same as the 3 year older car of the same make, model and colour. People looking out of the window just see Bill approaching in his car because they know he drives a black range rover with a personalised plate - they don't realise that it's a new car since he last visited. And if they say anything, he said he'd just had it valeted.

I wouldn’t want one myself, but surely it’s no different from any other ‘pointless’ luxury? I’m sure there are ‘pointless’ things that make you happy too. Not everything in life has to have a practical use. Is a personalised number plate any different to having an engraved pen or monogrammed luggage or something? Just seems like an ‘each to their own’ thing really.

Exactly. People are deluded if they think that no-one knows the age of their car because they have a personalised plate!

You can Google it within one minute! 😆

I'll be honest, and show my judgemental side. Most (not all) of the people I know with personalised reg plates are skint, or just scraping by month to month. So it really baffles me that this is something they'd chose to do with their money.

Incorrect.

All kind of people have these number plates.

Some of my relations had one in honour of their DS who is no longer with us. If it made them feel good then it's none of your business. Some people just have them for a bit of fun. Life is short so perhaps stop being so judgemental. To be fair I couldn't care less if you judged mine on my van. I'm sure you have belongings I wouldn't spend my money on.

Definitely a sign of an inflated ego imo, wealthy person or not.

There's a scooter business locally called, say, ABC Scooters and the owner parks a BMW with the plates ABC BO55 around town. He parks, not surprisingly, like a dick.

Hello to my neighbours if I've just inadvertently outed myself to you 😎

Not a great example with BECKY as you’d have to do some serious butchery to make a plate display as that. Good plates similar are things like DAV 1D, KAT 1E and K1 NGS etc. Obviously you see fewer of these type of plates as they’re less common and massively expensive.

Agree. All the people I know who have them are a little bit up themselves.

I have one, was given it for my 21st birthday.

I love it and I'm not really bothered what others think 😂

You know people can have all sorts of thoughts about all kinds of different things? Ranging from completely trivial to extremely serious.

They're chavvy

Yes, but you've just made a really unintelligent comment.

Definitely a sign of an inflated ego imo, wealthy person or not.

It's one of those things I don't think I would ever see the point in paying for. But I'm not sure I really care enough to spend much time thinking about it!

Cars often change lights/ have a "face lift" even so what's the point on trying to make a 2 year old car look brand new when it still is pretty much brand new.
Anyway pointless argument

So people can try to pretend their old car is a new one.

No, no butchery. They are literally the word written on the plate. No numbers at all. I see one every few weeks in London.