News just in: sales of personalised plates in the UK are on the rise. The DLVA saw an increase in personalised registrations of 12%, hitting an astounding 374,968 in the year 2017. About 800 private registrations are sold every day, which means big bucks generated for the Treasury.
In fact, in 2017, personalised number plates earned more than £110 million and since 1989, sales have raised over two billion pounds. More than 4.5 million registration numbers have been sold thus far, and the trend isn’t expected to slow down any time soon. So, if you’ve ever wondered what drives people (sorry) to get a personalised number plate, we’ve got it covered. Here are 5 IDEAL reasons to get one.
TO LOOK COOL ON INSTAGRAM
Nowadays looking the part on social media seems to be the primary motivation for doing just about anything. While there was always a crowd that wanted to express their personality through their vehicles, the new Instagram era has been identified as one of the reasons for the rise in the demand in personalised car registrations lately, according to many industry insiders. Lots of people like to show their new cars on various social media platforms, and private number plates are seen as a great way to gain even more social media reach. Gaining traction, it seems, is all in your car’s traction.
MAKE SOME MONEY
Private dealers who sell pre-owned personal plates are seeing a similar upward trend in the resale of plates as is being seen with new plate acquisition. High demand personal plates that sold for a thousand pounds in 1980 are now selling for up to a hundred times that today. For example, Robert Haverson paid almost a quarter of a million pounds for the private registration “1 RH” – and that was back in 2008. In interviews, he compared it to spending a lot of money on a car or boat.
At the top end of the market, private plates have sold for half a million pounds. Yet we know the market can go higher; Abu Dhabi allows for the selling of personalised plates and set the world record for the most expensive plate back in 2008 when a businessman paid 7.25 million pounds for the number plate “1”.
GIVE A PERSONALISED PRESENT
In a world where everything is public, everything, it seems, can also be copied. Imitation, when once considered a form of flattery, is now just annoying. Finding a personalised gift for some, unique to them and not available anywhere else, is a tough ask. A personalised number plate – initially sounding like a strange present proposition – is a great gift idea indeed.
Once you have acquired a new personalised number plate to use on your pride and joy, whether that be a motorcycle or even an imported car, companies can manufacture the physical number plate at a reasonable price. A style currently popular across the UK is 4D Number Plates, which can help give a contemporary look to any (well, within reason!) vehicle.
ADD INDIVIDUALITY TO YOUR WHEELS
We already mentioned the impact of social media on personalised registrations. Another trend in the world of peacocking is the purchase of personalised plates as a way to add individuality to a car without something as drastic as a radical paint job. It also serves as a way to update an older car, by giving it something new and novel, an added bonus being that putting on a plate that doesn’t include the year identifier for the year it was first registered.
There are rules, however, against putting a plate on a car specifically to make it look newer; you’re not allowed to put a Y plate on a 1994 car and then hope to sell it as newer than it actually is, for instance.
If you’re looking for a particular plate or want to see if the one you want is available, you could use a site like britishcarregistrations.co.uk and check their database.
SHOW OFF
The status symbol and wow factor also play a role in the recent popularity of vanity plates. The attempts to get number plates that resemble one’s name or simply paying the premium to own the plate that spells your name is driving (ahem) up prices today. A certain amount of novely value is definitely at work, especially as more previously banned combinationsbecame available.
Personalised plates are setting a record for sales and the trend shows no signs of slowing down. For some, it is a form of individual expression. For others, they are a status symbol or investment. Regardless of the reasons for their popularity, they’re generating significant cash flow, both for the Treasury and those who secured sought after plates early on.