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

Equally my husband's previous boss didn't like his staff to show up at clients' premises or important meetings in older cars because he thinks it will make people think the company isn't doing well. Whether that's true or not, I don't know, but I guess if he thinks it then others probably do.
Of course as others have said, if someone really wants to know it's easy enough to find out how old a car is, but I suspect it's a quick first impressions thing really. I doubt many people would actually bother to go online and look up how old, say, potential collaborators' cars actually are, but if you walked through the car park and the rep from one company was in a 2017 plate car and the others were all brand new it might give a negative impression, even subconsciously. Whereas if they're all private plates I can't imagine anyone bothering to record all the numbers and look them up. I guess that's why some companies do it.

I've got one with my initials on. It was a slightly piss-taking 21st birthday present from my parents. I'm nearly 49 now and my parents are long gone, so it's a nice memory of them.

Someone may decide to pay thousands for a handbag, others a nice holiday, people spend on whatever they like.

Can I ask how it makes it easier? You have to enter your car reg whatever it is, and then the app (all the ones I have anyway) save the reg.

I have one which nobody would have a clue what it meant. It also ages my generic boring car by about 12 years. Cost about £100.
Buttons compared to what some people spend on Botox or lips, which I don't see the point of.
Just aswell we are all different.

Think they're very vulgar. Just like wearing designer labels on the outside of clothing or obvious logos.

I didn't use the word chav

I think they are tacky and pretentious. I have some neighbours that both have personalised plates and they are both pretentious show offs

"BL03 JOB"

That's tacky as fuck.

They are an ego trip. But what's the harm.

I think in general they're a bit naff. They do smack of the nouveau riche…
But I know of a few that spell an actual word that are loadsa money, far more than the car they are on, a good investment.
The rest were all presents from a husband that couldn’t think of anything better!

Oh I agree, they are very naff - not for me, but each to their own!

Yeah, my sister in law uses MN a lot and I'm too chicken for her to realise it's me, then have it out with her about the reg plates she's bought her and her kids 😁

Couples matching number plates are the epitome of cringe.

My husband had one when we first got together. It was his nickname (short) and his last initial. It was a bit of fun for him on his bachelor car. He’s always had newer cars since then so it wasn’t him trying to make an older one look new or show off as such. He was just a single man with a decent disposable income that he could spend.

He eventually got rid of it when he got a company car and sold it for £750 more than he bought it for so that was a bonus for us!

Why would you care?

That's a bit harsh

I saw one a while ago that was meant to be “N Miller” spelt N M17LER but the 7 looked like a T and from a distance the M could easily be mistaken for a H. Unfortunate.

I personally think they’re tacky. Guy I used to work for (multi millionaire) collected them and spent over £100k on one with his initials and birth year. Madness IMO but I guess he could afford it.

The same reason people buy anything that’s pointless and costs a lot of money - to wealth signal.

I don’t understand it. Buying a personalised reg for say, ten grand doesn’t prove you have ten grand. It proves you used to have ten grand.

Good suggestion, I'm going to try it now.

I wouldn't have one but my 17 year old son wants one that is a nod to the football club he supports, it's around £300 so not excessive so I may get it for his 18th birthday 😉

I'm not insecure enough to care about that!

It's possible to think about more than one thing at once.

We actually have 3 different ones, all on retention, as my DH doesn't drive any longer for health reasons. Two of them reflect our names and the other refers to the brand of car we used to own. DH was a real car geek when he was younger and liked to put one of them on whatever he was driving at the time.

Our car now has its regular DVLA reg on it as I can't be bothered to change it to my personal number. Also, I'm not sure I want to be so readily identifiable these days. With the personal reg, the car stands out in the crowd: without it it's just another grey car in a car park which I prefer.

Thinking it through, we should probably try to get rid of them all - they might be worth something!

Get it him. He won't care if some middle aged Mumsnetters think he looks like a wanker. He'll be cooler than them anyway.