..with a spare £10k+



http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2168215035

Gareth

And the reserve is higher?!? Wow.

Think I'll leave this one for Hugo. I'm sure it will look great on his Noble :-)

I should have put "for rich UK nerdo".

It's currently owned by Gareth Bult, MD of Frontier Internet Services. I read ages ago that he paid £1,100 for it (to the DVLA) in 1992ish.

Amusingly the car is a Fiat Seicento Sporting!

Gareth

Oddly, when I tried to register L1NUX in about 1994 DVLA told me that it had never been issued and they had no intention of issuing it. So I was very surprised when I learned of it's existance a couple of years ago...

I'm really not sure I could justify that amount of money for a vanity plate... but it would be lovely...

Hugo

Go on! You know you want it!

Perhaps we should have a wip round for Hugo?

when I tried to register L1NUX in about 1994 DVLA told me that it had never been issued

I read in the Sunday papers that the DVLA have lost A1, so losing LINUX must be a doddle. How do you lose a number plate? How do you lose the original, most precious, number plate?

At the height of the cherished numbers boom, a client of mine phoned me up and said: "I thought of you, I've just brought, DB 1, they had GS 1 at the same auction, but I didn't know if you would want me to spend £40,000 of yours, without asking".

Oops, what a giveaway, if you're ever held up by a motorhome with GS 3294, that'll be me, my office brought it for a 50th present.

Sorry to hear about your being laid off, hope you get fixed up soon.

And the reserve is higher?!? Wow.

I think that the owner is going to be disappointed, the days of silly cherished number prices are long gone, I've just spoken to a dealer who thought £2500 to £3000 was top wack, it only appeals to a limited market.

Why do people pay good money to pay for numberplates like; BMW or MGF, you know what make it is by how the car looks, without overdoing it?

Footnote: I hadn't looked at the site, when I put this post up - somebody's already offered ten grand? - they must have lost it, completely.

In reply to:

---

the days of silly cherished number prices are long gone

---

Except in Northern Ireland, but then we're years behind the rest of the world anyway
The local TV news carried a story last week about the registration number 'WIL 1' which sold at auction for £40,000. By the time all the auctioneer's charges, tax and whatever were added, the total cost for the number was £52,000! They sold a second-hand Ferrari for a couple of grand less than that!
That would practically pay off my mortgage!

the DVLA have lost A1

Okay, I'm officially confused.

You can arbitrarily sell license plates in the UK? And ``losing'' plates? Someone explain this to me.

And a bonus question for 10 points: what is that car ? (I'm assuming that is the back of the car in the shot).

the days of silly cherished number prices are long gone

But the silly number plates are still popular

Okay. Anybody with a better eye than me want to tell me what the plates actually say?

- Trevor

Well - license plates are generated by an automatic process (eg you would get L1 AAA, then L1 AAB etc for all 1 letter, 1-3 numbers then 1-3 letters, although now it's 2 letters, last 2 digits of year, 3 further letters) and in general you would get a plate with your car. The DVLA (or DVLC as it was) pulled a lot of plates - rude ones were not allowed, and ones which looked like they would make money were kept back. Various other companies have jumped on the bandwagon, buying likely ones from the DVLA to sell to folks with too much money. They keep calling me up to try and sell me RMA 150P, but it ain't gonna happen. Incidentally I've got a number plate which is P KOX (if you ignore the pesky numbers) as it was on the car when I bought it. I enquired into getting a normal one, but it was going to cost too much. I've got used to it now.

But basically - you can buy and sell plates, it just costs money (various registration fees etc) and is a PITA.

Erm, I think it is a Fiat Seicento Sporting. See g_attrill's second post:-)

You can arbitrarily sell license plates in the UK?

Yes you can, and brokers take large ads. in our Sunday papers listing numbers, or you can buy them from the licensing authority. They also have auctions, at one time the prices were astronomical, but it's died down a bit.

Each time you move a plate from car to car, you have to pay a transfer fee of around £80.00

My reference to "losing" a number plate was sarcasm, how can the licensing authority, who are supposed to be able to tell a police officer instantly, on the phone, who a plate belongs to, lose A1, which was the first number plate given to Lord somebody at the inception of car licensing!

My reference to "losing" a number plate was sarcasm, how can the licensing authority, who are supposed to be able to tell a police officer instantly, on the phone, who a plate belongs to, lose A1, which was the first number plate given to Lord somebody at the inception of car licensing

Because when the system started it was a non-centralized (lots of regional offices), paper based system...

Well, I can tell you what two of them say, but I can't quite read the middle two either. I could have sworn we got a better pic of just the plates, but I couldn't find it.

Mine is the minivan on the left which says "SAX MCHN"
ClemsonJeep's is the Jeep on the right which says, not suprisingly, "CLEM TGR"

The middle two were husband/wife cars. One had a Mark1, the other a Mark2, but can't remember which. I can't quite read them, though.

Sadly, the rest of the people at that meet don't seem to post here anymore (not to my knowledge, at least). That's why I hope I can make it to a big meet some day! I've got to meet some more of you!

looks like CUTEVUU and NICEVUU

Maybe VW and not VUU?

Ahh, that's right. V double-U

I'm pretty sure he told me that VW was taken

My uncle got his amateur radio callsign (G4 ODM) at an auction a few years back - I think he paid the starting price of around £250, which includes the transfer fee. His son, at the same auction had to bid against somebody for his - I forget what his callsign was but I don't think it was obviously valuable.

For anybody interested, all UK registrations tell you where the vehicle was registered. The new ones are more obvious - H?03 ABC is Hampshire, L?52 ABC is London etc. The 03 or 53 is for 2003, 02 or 52 is 2002 etc. The older ones (pre 2001) are more difficult - again two letters the town/city but you need to be a nerd to pick them out (I know a few!). Eg. for J123 DAP the AP is Brighton. My car J758 LRV was registered last year in Portsmouth (RV) - but because it was imported and manufactured in1992 it is issued with an old registration number. Portsmouth also has BK and a few others. Vehicles registered in the Isle of Wight (through Portsmouth I think) have the letters DL.

This is probably the most comprehensive list I've found.

I smirked at my boss's hire car today - CL52 JFK.

Gareth