Anyone seen any good number plates on cars lately?

[twofortyexpress]

Last week I saw a nice young lady exit an E200 reg "CEX" .

 

[Bobby Dazzler]

MR5 5OPH on a Corsa I think

 

[christopherwk]

OOO5LKO on a blue SLK 350 on the A40 near Hanger Lane.

 

[RaceDiagnostics]

My other car.

 

[Charles Morgan]

V8 OAF seen on a Morgan Aero 8 today parked on the Sarf Circular, somewhere between Dullwich and St. Reatham.

 

[MBK]

I saw 007 770 on an Aston Martin something silver getting off at Burpham (yeah i laughed when i read that too).

thought it was James B.

 

[mercboiuk]

I spotted this, last Sunday, while at Duxford. On a 208 CLK, it was rather fitting for it's location!

Darren

 

[tali]

M1 now on Toyota LAND CRUISER INVINCIBLE D-4D 8STR


sTeVe

But also no show on DVLA

And they also have 5 BMW, 100 BMW, BMW 518 and 518 BMW. Probably many others, too, as in common with other UK car companies, they tend to buy cheap, dateless plates to use in advertisements.

The odd thing is that they never use the BWM regs on any of their press cars.
The dateless ones in the paper adverts- don't seem to list afaik and might just be created

 

[MOCAŠ]

The dateless ones in the paper adverts- don't seem to list afaik and might just be created

I think they would avoid doing this as there is a risk of duplicating a genuine number. More likely they've bought these numbers, but have not actually assigned them to any car, giving them free rein to swap them amongst various models for photographic purposes.

Another trick employed by manufacturers for publicity shots is to use a number in the current series with a Z in one of the first two positions, eg: ZX10 ABC, safe in the knowledge that the DVLA does not issue these combinations.

 

[wallingd]

in addition they use combinations that read the same if mirrored e.g OYO 818 to make it easier for other markets (I think).

 

[MOCAŠ]

in addition they use combinations that read the same if mirrored e.g OYO 818 to make it easier for other markets (I think).

That certainly used to be the case, particularly in the 1990s (MG Rover, for instance, used to be fond of using 'reversible' numbers), but I've not noticed it so much recently.

 

[Gridlock]

The difference, of course, being Photoshop

 

[MOCAŠ]

A few more from the weekend just gone (mixture of A40 and around Westminster):

SDU 1 on a VW Golf
LEW 7 on a Fiat Panda
NIL 7 on a Porsche Cayenne
WR 35 on a BMW 3 Series
HRC 99 on a Mini
17 HW on a Vauxhall Corsa
75 RL on an S Class
29 WAR on a Renault Clio

 

[Gridlock]

B121 CKS on a refurbed-brick wagon - spaced (illegally, along with a non-standard font) as BRICKS

 

[MOCAŠ]

The difference, of course, being Photoshop

That reminds me of the laughable attempts that BL used to make at doctoring number plates on the cars in their brochures in the 1970s, such as drawing in an extra (wonky) stroke to turn a P-reg into an R-reg. They were following in a long tradition of 'airbrushing', which BMC – and no doubt others – had used as a cost-effective way of updating brochures in the 1960s.

Also, the production team behind The New Avengers and The Professionals were not averse to using a bit of black tape to doctor number plates. In the former series, Steed drove a Rover SD1 (press car) registered MOC 229P, which was also used by Cowley in early episodes of The Professionals but with the (same) plate modified to read MOO 229R.

 

[Mike Walker]

1 ENT (Ear Nose and Throat) on a BMW 6 series owned by the Consultant who just carried out an operation on my wife's nose.

JE51CA J on a new Mini on the A21 near Cheslfield Lakes Golf Club

 

[MOCAŠ]

1 ENT (Ear Nose and Throat) on a BMW 6 series

That one went for £4100 at a DVLA auction back in June 1998.

Its counterpart, ENT 1, lives on an E Class estate in Belgrave Square.

 

[Gridlock]

1 GDR - ex-embassy plate, Comrade?

 

[MOCAŠ]

1 GDR - ex-embassy plate, Comrade?

Hmm, sounds familiar, but I think they may have had GDR 1.

1 GDR was sold at auction in March 1993 (£5400), and I'm not aware of the DVLA ever having auctioned off a former embassy-issue plate (so far...), although some may possibly have been included in sealed bid sales.

Incidentally, I just tried putting another former embassy plate – NN 1 – into tyre-shopper.co.uk, and the result was kinda surreal: 45MM FLEX SHAFT POKER I've seen tyre-shopper come back with some odd data, but that just about takes the biscuit!

 

[Howard]

' MSG 2 ' on a Rangie in Hampton today