The item photographed doesn't appear to conform to The Road Vehicles (Display of Registration Marks) Regulations 2001 which requires a 33mm gap between groups of letters.

(http://www.ukspeedtraps.co.uk/plates.htm)

"But the problem is when people change the letter spacing and make the plate hard to read. Cars with these plates fail MOT tests and there is a maximum £1,000 fine."

"The DVLA plans to work with the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) to crackdown on drivers. From 1 March people without correctly displayed plates may have their registration marks withdrawn permanently without compensation."

in October 2005, on a motorbike. One of the truly saddest sights I have ever seen.

So not matter what the Beast of Redmond says, Vista _does_ cost 135 times what Linux costs? The market says so...

Limux users are sufficiently mature and above fan boy nonsense like personalised plates.

Says a lot about the users mentality. I'm surprised that anyone's prepared to pay even a tenner for a L1NUX plate, never mind bid a grand.

What's the point?

Mind you I've never been able to understand the mentality of people who pay good money for personalised plates - so perhaps I'm missing something.

I don't mind people having private plates. I think it can look quite nice, depending on the plate. and it de-ages the car which is nice. would I have one? possibly, except I can't work out what I'd buy. any ones I might conceivably want are waaay too expensive I think. also the paperwork whenever one buys and sells a car seems like a lot of hassle...

dave

Around Peterborough i see on occasion W1NNT on a Honda Accord estate

I think you'll find the car has a new MOT (!)

I once saw "0RA DBA" on the back of a very, very expensive Merc, obviously one of those over-payed Oracle DBA contractors we all employ somewhere in the company!

I checked and I believe the number plate "1 DBA" is currently available for £23,000!!! Why so? I have no idea!! You'd think if youer were one, you'd want to keep it quiet!

Read it as you would see it in the mirror

T1 3VOM

Bidders beware the L7NUX number plate

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2001/08/23/bidders_beware_the_l7nux_number/

The owner of L1 NUX admits "The police have stopped him five times for having the incorrect spacing between letters on his cherished plate."

"In London they're very very sensitive about the spacing of letters. I've been taken to court once," he said. Bult had changed the letter spacing on his plate within the seven days of being instructed to, but an admin cock up meant he still had to appear in court"

"He now lives in the countryside outside Cardiff where the number plate special squad is more relaxed. Which is not to suggest he doesn't adhere to the DVLA's regulations. He currently drives a BMW 528."

May be he has a revolving number plate switching from L1 NUX to L1NUX.

Which version is on the car at the moment?

VE DUB01 seen on a new style beetle near reading.

D15 TRO would be a better choice.

Has anyone actually got BMT 216A ?

Now THAT'S a number plate worth covetting.

Private plates in the UK really are a joke. Trying to massage a sequence of letters and numbers into "words"? All because the UK public is being held hostage by a computer system designed in the 1970's that nobody can change in any meaningful way? If they could change it, they could allow REAL personalized number plates, without all the faffing about with numbers and letters. But no. They've got the gullible UK punters who will pay loads for "personalized" numberplates that aren't actually at all personalized.

Anyone who gets one of these things is simply supporting bad programming and bad design, and obviously has more money than brains. P.T. Barnum is proven right yet again.

XUNIJ might work too.

Steve Parrish, current BBC MotoGP commentator and former well-known 80's GP paddock prankster, used to have PEN1S on his truck...

M7 JAG (with a curved "7" to look like a "Y") lives on a sporty Jaguar near me these days.

Why do people do that?

My car is the only 'cool' thing I've got going for me. If I'm ever to have any hope of getting laid more than once per decade, I think I'll pass.

Post by Kenny reminds me of one I saw in Brighton maybe 5-6 years ago (they'd got it on one of those 2 line number plates like you get on some 4x4's):

H1

5LAG

Classic

The Irish (Republic) system is even more restrictive -

The standard for regs is YY-C-NNNN, where YY is the year ie 07, C is the county e.g. D=Dublin, C=Cork etc, NNNN is a sequential number eg 34704. Nice and simple, the age of the car is easy to pick out, and where it's from.

One problem with this is that while at the start of the year all is fine eg. 07-D-123 is nice and easy to read, towards the end of the year the numbers get longer eg. 07-D-110573. Try reading the numerical part of the reg after the car does a hit and run. Not too easy. And think of all the regs that it could look like if you're out by a digit!

Right, back to the matter in hand - customising - you can't. Even down to the format of the plate and the font itself. Changing the font is an offence (afaik), and will certainly fail your NCT (MOT equiv) if you do.

The "creative" types try to do things with the number part. So every single Porsche in the country has some variation of YY-D-911. Well done. Its a 911. We know. (This technique also works for Peugeots, Rovers, BMW etc)

Having said all this, I do think that in Cork, in 2036 or Dublin in the same year, there will be sniggers as all the regs start with either 36-C or 36-D and a few lucky punters will get their grubby mits on the 7175th car, or even the 80085th car in their county. (Squinting may help, also having a juevenile mind!)

Fnar fnar.

F46GOT

Didn't stop to see if he was!

And when it ends some unfortunate sod finds out it's just for the plates (i.e. worth £20) rather than the actual reg number. Wouldn't surprise me really.

Seen in Northern Virginia, proof that Yanks can have a sense of humor: 2DV8S2B

BEG 4 1T

He was about 20, and quite pretty for a boy.

Instantly hated him.

I guess you guys have to pay a private company to do vanity plates .

Here the state does it no problem.

Cheap and with real choices :) http://www.dmv.ca.gov/forms/reg/reg17.pdf