The best, most fitting UK number plate I've ever seen...

[_pb_boi]

!what! yup you can get personalised number plates in other countries, why wouldn't you be able to? i don't know if they are really popular in the states but in the UK you don't see them every day. When you do see them they're usually on cars owned by yuppies! all they do is draw attention to yourself and your car, celebrities don't tend to have them on their cars because it draws too much attention to themselves.

I live in Northern Ireland, and I have to say, I see personalised plates ALL the time, loads and loads of times every day. Some are just the basic plates costing a couple quid extra to get a shorter one, while others go all out. One guy has a Roller with 'Uzi' as the plate. Don't like the car all that much though...

andy.

 

[musicpyrite]

My favorite:

 

[emw]

My girl and I have the MAC plate, which is the newest one.

Dang, I thought the license plate would read something like

00:0b:85:67:59:d0

Illinois has a number of plates as well: http://www.sos.state.il.us/departments/vehicles/license_plate_guide/specialty_plates/home.html

But 180?? Ouch.

 

[edesignuk]

My favorite:

Like the plate, hate the car!

 

[cheekyspanky]

I saw "Y 5AVE" on a very expensive looking Merc driving through Portsmouth, and I've also seen "3D" in central London, and last week on a Bentley Azure "B8"..I wonder if it was to be used in a police sting or something..!

 

[DarkSilver2]

My personal favorite

My favorite is the plate that says:

Insured By Mafia​

You Hit Me, We Hit You!​

 

[petej]

You're right, of course. There must be a whole trade in number plates in the UK, as I've seen several advertisements in Car and Top Gear. However, the plates always have to start with a letter, don't they?

There is a massive trade in UK number plates. Not all numberplates have to start with a letter. The early numberplates issued in the UK were formed from either 1,2 or 3 digits followed by 1,2 or 3 letters. or vice versa. i.e 999 AAA or AAA 999. The UK has never really planned ahead on number plate and of course rapidly ran out of available combinations - and kept on running out of combinations. There was a series of number plates that followed with 3 letters, 1,2 or 3 digits followed by another letter. Then came a letter followed by 1,2 or 3 digits and then 3 letters. And now we have progressed onto a system which should be ok for the next 50 years: 2 letters, 2 digits, 3 letters. So you can imagine the possibilities for designing number plates that somehow represent a word. Remembering that not all letters have been permitted to be used ( I for example since it can look like 1)

Despite the fact that deliberately misrepresenting a numberplate to look different from that intended (such as putting a 1 and 3 close together to look like a B or putting a black screwcap between 11 to look like H) is an offence, the UK government has capitalized on this market by auctioning off those number plates that would be the most marketable if misrepresented - turns out that the do-gooders from years ago didn't want number plates of this type appearing so they didn't issue them for new car registrations. Of course this turned into a big pot of gold for the government who sold them off.

For me I just say thank you to those who willingly paid extra tax to the Government when they purchased the numberplates and pay tax again each time they get fined for displaying the plate incorrectly (though this doesn't happen too often)

I realise that this all sounds very anal but the question was asked and I elaborated a bit

 

[kaylee]

We have personalised plates in Queensland (Australia) with all different colours and themes. The prestige plates let you have the most freedom with what you can have on them but they go for a little over $AU2000. For around $AU400 you can pick a 2 number 3 letter, or 3 letter 2 number combination on a themed plate. $AU255 lets you colourise (choose background and text colour) a standard plate.
http://www.ppq.com.au

 

[WinterMute]

Not bad, but my favourite is the high-maintenance stunner in the Toyota Supra in Ealing, West London with the plate:

B1 TCH

Gotta love taste and money...

 

[robbieduncan]

There's a whole thread of great plates on Pistonheads

I particularly like the TVR at the bottom of the first page.

 

[JFreak]

Although, until this, I don't think I'd ever seen a personalized plate outside of the US.
Can you get them in other European countries as well?

at least in finland it costs 500 euros to have a special plate, and it's not for life but per-registration-fee (so every time you change car you have to buy it again if you want to keep the plate). it's not actually 100% custom, you still have to have three letters first followed by one to three numbers, but anyway.

the best i know is a ferrari that has "FANI" plates. (that's "FAN" in english in case you all can't read finnish). the car is located in tampere and belongs to a local gold smith; though he's a friend of my friend i have not yet got to drive it it is however nice enough just to be in it sometimes

(distant second is a lexus that has "OPTIO" plates, which means stock options. haven't seen that one for a long time...)

 

[Wyvernspirit]

at least in finland it costs 500 euros to have a special plate, and it's not for life but per-registration-fee (so every time you change car you have to buy it again if you want to keep the plate).

Here in Massachusettts, our "custom plate," casts $40 to get and $80 every two years. Most of the money goes to Animal Protections so i guess its all good (i wonder if that can be used as a tax deduction )

 

[173080]

I saw a car (I believe it was a Corolla, not sure) in Mexico City with "UNIX" on it's license plate.