Number Plates.

[RonH]

Hi,
* Registration marks are legally owned by the Secretary of State for Transport: it is the right to display the mark on a vehicle which is granted or transferred*
Also,
THE LAW.
The law states that.
.you must not alter, rearrange or misrepresent the letters or numbers.
.Characters must not be moved from one group to another (e.g.A242 ABC must not be displayed as A242A BC)

Offences may result in any, or all of the following.

. A fine of up to £1000
.The registration may be WITHDRAWN
.The vehicle may FAIL the MOT test. (DVLA's own capital letters).

Will the day come when those money grabbers that run this country apply the law and start withdrawing number plates. If they do, there are going to be some red faces out there from those people that have more money than sense !.

Disguss.
Ron H.

 

[television]

Its a fantastic income source for them.

In Sweden you can make up your own, it last for 10 years and cost £100

 

[Quickbrit]

In the US its less than $30 for whatever you want...

MikeE

 

[keith100]

Its a fantastic income source for them.

In Sweden you can make up your own, it last for 10 years and cost £100

Yeah. Don't understand why UK drivers pay huge amounts for plates that "sort of" mean something.

We can make up our own, too. Subject to a review committee - you probably won't get "TOP NAZI" or "FU2"- and no one else having it, any 2 to 7 letters or numbers and its yours for life for 200 bucks.

My accountant has "0TAX2". I applaud his chutzpah every yearend!

 

[jberks]

Yeah. Don't understand why UK drivers pay huge amounts for plates that "sort of" mean something.

I'll try to explain ....
Like everything, it's supply and demand. As they are issued at the behest of the govt you have to compete to get what you want. Reg formats change over time and if you want one with no year prefix for example, you have to find a registration that was issued prior to 1960 ish. Given that to transfer a registration from a car, the rules require the donor car to be legally roadworthy (hold a valid MOT pass certificate) and obviously most of these cars are long since scrapped, the rarity increases dramatically. To put it in perspective, I wanted a 'JBB' plate. I wasn't fussy about the numbers, just that I didn't want a year prefix, and it took me over 18 months of searching the ads to actually find one. Competition even then was so fierce that I had to drive 200 miles with a cash deposit to secure it.

Uk numbers have a prefix that shows the year of manufacture so ageing a car is an almost instinctive thing. You look and gauge the car by the reg plate rather than it's general condition - hence a non prefix plate, or one that is obviously not relevant, is desirable. In a world of 'Jones's, you can buy a used car (as I do) and provided it's not a model that everyone has and changes every week (like a Honda!) everyone thinks its a new one. My car still looks to most asif it's a new one. If I had the original 54 plate on it, people would look at it and instantly know it was a 4-5 year old car and I suspect I wouldn't get half as many comments on it as I do.
I know I shouldn't care but if I'm honest (I got shot on here last time I was honest so bring on the hypocryts... ) I do care and so does almost everyone else.
I transferred the plate off our 280E a few years ago. It was 8 years old but still looked smart. I put the replacement 'year' plate on it and it instantly looked tired. The bits of rust on the front airdam suddenly looked more obvious and it just looked older. You see cars running around with the same plate and in your mind, it's suddenly grouped in with them. Fine if they're new and shiny but not so good when most are now battered taxis.

Rules have changed over the years - at one time you could transfer off a scrapper - which is where my Dad got his number, and they could change again, but with such a vested interest in keeping the value and rarity I suspect they won't change much. Allegedly there was some attempt to get rid of private numbers altogether in the 70's but so many MPs had them that it was soundly defeated.

I am amazed at what some people pay for their plates (I bought mine 20 years ago, before things got silly) but if you have the money spare and are buying for your own pleasure rather than profit - hell why not? Afer all, most buy them and keep them forever. I'll certainly have mine for as long as I can drive as it has now, locally at least, become part of my identity.
I suspect that when I do pop off, my kids won't sell it but will put it on their cars - after all, I don't know what I'll do with it but I can't see myself selling my Dads plate when the time comes - it would be like selling a piece of him.

 

[coventryslk]

M31 lmo anyone got it??