Why do people buy personalised number plates?
Feb 12, 2020
Last year the UK\'s Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency raised £67m from the sale of personalised number plates. However, private registration sales have most probably surpassed £67 million.
But why do people still purchase them?
Afzal Kahn himself owns the F1 number plate, purchased for a cool £460,000. However, the BBC recently reported the British designer recently turned down a bid of £5 million for the number plate.
However, it\'s not only the rich and famous who buy these cherished number plates. We are talking about an industry that seems to have forgotten about the recent economic downturn.
For those of us who have purchased personalised number plates, they are viewed as a statement of individuality or an investment due to yield extensive dividends. However, to those of us who don’t have one, we are talking about a monumental waste of cash.
However, The Independent Newspaper’s Charles Nevin believes number plate owners should be saluted for their contribution to the UK’s economy.
“Illustrating the bureaucracy that inevitably attaches to any British activity: the DVLA is fussy about plate conformity and anything it thinks a bit rude, like BA11 SUP (concentrate: BALLSUP). Banned, I\'m afraid, which will be a blow to the Shadow Chancellor. But sales have raised over £1.5bn for the Treasury in the past 30 years, which is why passing proud owners should always be saluted.”
Kahn Design owns several prestigious number plates, including the regal 4 HRH number plate, 00 77, 4 AK, IIII T and 180 which was recently purchased at a DVLA auction in Leeds.
Speaking to the BBC, Motoring journalist Quentin Wilson said the number plates fall into two distinct groups. “The number plate market is polarised between the cheesiest, chosen by people with the literary sensibilities of vampire bats, and those that look really quite good, hide the age of your car and can look really quite classic.\"
“It really is about being visually pleasing. They are great fun but much abused. It seems to have caught the nation\'s psyche. For a motoring-obsessed nation they are a suburban trinket. A number plate is a form of automotive jewellery. You can either change your car or change your number plate, and changing your number plate is cheaper.”
People can buy individual plates online from A. Kahn Design’s web site at any time, and there are many registrations currently available.
At Kahn Design, we have many clients who have been satisfied with our no holds barred advice on which private number plates are likely to not only hold their value, but increase in the future. We also discuss the merits of each registration mark, the positives and the negatives, in a positive and transparent manner and show you exactly how to minimize your risk. We can proudly say we never have and never would advise a client to invest in a poor quality personalised registration.
If you are looking for an investment, or interested in selling or advertising a personalised registration – contact our team to discuss your interest and requirements. There’s no obligation and no fee to take your interest further.
