Personalised number plates and snobbery?

Barks · 10 Jan 2009 at 18:28

As Hammond once said, is it not just a trade based on snobbery and gullibility?

I can understand why you'd buy a simple plate to hide the age of your car. What I don't get is why people have plates which are more expensive than the actual car, quite often see cars like Mini Coopers/Polos with plates such as "AP2" "JT1" etc. Why the hell would you waste that sort of money on a plate?

I've also noticed that a lot of extremely expensive cars on the road do not have them. Do middle-class people buy private plates just so others will perceive them as being more wealthy? Unless you're earning a hell of a lot of money, you'd have to be absolutely crazy to spend £20k on a number plate... surely!?

Anyhow what are your views?

Barks · 10 Jan 2009 at 18:36

That is a really nice gesture. However the thing I have difficulty understanding is the price.

An obscure example but to the point... It's a bit like if we all wore different jackets, but you could pay £10,000 to have a holographic badge on it or something. People would still pay for it purely so others look at them and appreciate they've spent £10,000 on it.

Barks · 10 Jan 2009 at 18:37

rafster said:
People I know with 2/3 character regs have had them for a very long time and did not pay anything near what they go for now, one of my friends has a 2 digit one on his Golf which was passed down his family

I appreciate that, but I know people at university who have plates in their own initials. One girl got a brand new Mini Cooper and a 3 digit plate. Spoilt brat.

Sure, there's nothing wrong with spending £250 or whatever to hide the age but I do know people (gf's parents for example) who spend far more than that.

Barks · 10 Jan 2009 at 18:40

[TW]Fox;13259864 said:
Pathetic isn't it. It's for pretentious morons.

The same people strut around in Jack Wills lounge pants and Abercrombie hoodies with a fag hanging out their mouth thinking they own the place. It's a disgusting trend to be honest :rolleyes:

Barks · 10 Jan 2009 at 18:43

CDj-Rossi said:
I'd quite like to have a private plate, but only the one that pretty much spells out my name.

DR05 TRN. D ROSTRON. Works quite well, its about £790 though

Precisely mate, I mean is it really worth about £1000. You could buy a better car in the first place if you were going to spend that, or one with lower mileage/higher specs.

Barks · 10 Jan 2009 at 18:55

rafster said:
There's people I know who earn enough to buy nearly any car they want and drive Minis and what not (maybe it's fashionable) and there's guys I know who drive sheds but can afford way better (my dad for one), it doesn't always mean that if someone owns a certain type of car they have "predefined" social class/wage bracket etc.

A 20 year old girl in a brand new Cooper with a 3 digit plate is the definition of spoilt.

Fox is a student with a personalised plate, just in case you missed his sarcasm.

Fox is much older than the standard 18-21 year old student.

Barks · 12 Jan 2009 at 18:14

I just don't get why anyone cares or would waste money on a personalised number plate. Some people need to get some hobbies or something.

Barks · 12 Jan 2009 at 18:23

Hiding the age of your car is the same principle as splashing out thousands for a pretentious plate like "B055"

It's pathetic that someone will look at a car and evaluate their opinion on its age rather than what it is. What's the difference between a 55 plate Golf and a 58 plate Golf. Absolutely nothing, only that the person who owns the latter can afford to buy it brand new.

Barks · 12 Jan 2009 at 18:54

[TW]Fox;13275253 said:
Or that the person with the 55 plate could afford to buy it themselves or has perhaps had it from new 3 years ago whereas the person with the 58 plate had to take out a loan or lease it..

Yes and people who take out loans to buy cars are very likely to do the same thing again and upgrade. Hence why most garages offer personal hire plans. It's exactly what my dad has done with BMW for the last 10 years.

Barks · 13 Jan 2009 at 02:12

mrk said:
So why do you hate Personal plates so much?

I myself have never seen a private plate on a car that didn't look like it was well looked after and therefore the owner cars about their cars enough to personalise it that little bit further than everyone else who just uses it as A>B transport.

Even the big Execs that buy big Mercs and Audis etc with just normal plates on, they're not interested in spending time looking after it, they just drive it and get the locals to clean it as usual so couldn't care less about a private plate. More likely than none anyway.

That is a ridiculous generalization. The latter paragraph I would argue the opposite, the sort of people buying cars to be ostentatious are precisely the same sort of people who would purchase ridiculously expensive number plates, for exactly the same reason.

I also object to the fact it's a trade based irrefutably on gullibility and profit. If private plates didn't exist, no body would care. Anything that enables a human being in Western society to have some sort of status symbol above the rest seems to become popular. Private plates are a perfect example.

Barks · 13 Jan 2009 at 02:27

mrk said:
So because "You" wouldn't buy one even one 100k a year means that nobody else should buy one because you said so.

Good plan.

/Thread.

I'll remove that because I'll admit it's counter productive to the argument and a bit personal. What I was getting at is even a plate as cheap as £250 can be viewed by many as a complete waste of money, and could be more effectively invested in improving the car. Maybe I should have said if someone bought me a plate for my birthday I'd be disappointed and would rather had the money put towards a driving experience day or something more rewarding.

Barks · 13 Jan 2009 at 02:33

I honestly would not have a problem if all plates were the same price and it was done on a first come, first served basis. That is personalisation but without ostentatiousness and exploitation.

Fact is there's a status symbol-wealth element involved and the DVLA make millions from it which is utterly ridiculous.

Barks · 13 Jan 2009 at 02:37

rypt said:
In the grand scheme of things £250 is not that much

Really? That takes the average man or woman in the UK 20 hours to earn before tax. If you have that attitude towards everything, it slowly adds up :eek:

Barks · 13 Jan 2009 at 02:43

mrk said:
Adds up to what exactly? you only buy a personal plate once...and it's with you for life so it goes with you from car to car, not just stuck onto the same car forever!

Mine for example means something to me and those who know me by name will instantly recognise it too - But it would mean jack all to anyone else, well except for that Canadian rapper who has the same name as me...

It still doesn't mean a firm should make millions of pounds of profit through it purely because they have the sole ability to do so.

Barks · 13 Jan 2009 at 02:57

gareth.e said:
Do you know what the purpose of a business is?

To provide a good or service thus generating money via exploitation

The Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA), (Welsh: Asiantaeth Trwyddedu Gyrwyr a Cherbydau) is the organisation of UK Government responsible for maintaining a database of drivers and a database of vehicles in Great Britain; its counterpart in Northern Ireland is the Driver & Vehicle Agency (DVA). The agency issues driving licences, organises collection of vehicle excise duty (also known as road tax and road fund licence) and sells "cherished marks" (private number plates).

So who the hell gave the government permission to start selling "cherished marks" for profit?