Now, if there's a thing guaranteed to cause controversy it's personalised number plates on cars. I am generally of the opinion that they are for people with more money than sense but I'm sure there will be those of you out there who think otherwise. The thing is, there seems to be no rule over here as to what you can have. At home, I'm used to seeing the occasional one, and people have to use a bit of imagination to find their desired monicker in some previously issued template of the UK DVLA system. Here it seems if you want to pay for it, and nobody else has already got it, you're laughing.
And so are we.
Might I just clarify. There are occasionally reasons to approve these things. A couple we know have both got "personalised" plates which were bought as part of a fundraiser for their son's school and read very discreetly something like the school's initials plus a number. Fair enough. Well done for visibly supporting your school and joining other parents in doing so.
Also there are some tradespeople who for work purposes obviously thought it would be a fun bit of advertising. I've seen a builders van with the plate "chippy" and another with "briklayr", an air conditioning engineer with "ice cool" and an estate agent with " Im selling".
Getting further over an already fine line, some people like to show an allegience of some kind. A teacher at Ru's kindy has "Arsenal" and I saw in a local car park the other day "Arsenal2". Obviously the latter was beaten to it by the teacher and had to settle for second best. Today I spotted an apparent Pink Floyd fan driving a 70's mustang with "crzydimond". I'm guessing he had to drop the "shine on you..." prefix as it wouldn't fit on.
Going rapidly downhill are the ones who fall into the "rich kid" category. These guys have parents with more money than sense as evidenced by the likes of "cottn candi" and "rav4 jen" (yes, it was a Rav4, and I'm guessing an 18th birthday present)
But what really fascinates are those who have been truly deluded by the money they own. The really cringeworthy plates that make one wonder what they were thinking...... In my short time here I have seen examples from "shazzer" (White BMW, plate set on a pink background) to "numero uno" , "ker chingg" and, worst of all, "agent 007"
Arrrggghh, how bonkers can you get? Perhaps that's why so many of them have darkened glass in their windows.
I know I would.
As a Brit who, long ago, spent a year in the US, I was struck by personalised number plates there too. This was before they were common in the UK (1988-89), and I still remember one that read simply 'Poocoo'. It was obviously a shared 'Pet Name',and the horror of it lives with me still.
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