On 09/08/09 09:34, Adrian wrote:
Ivor gurgled happily, sounding much
like they were saying:

It is purely a mistaken belief by operators that a Northern Irish
registration disguises the age of a vehicle when it does the exact
opposite and highlights its elderly state.

Erm.. so my 2007 car looks older than it is purely because of its NI
registration then..?

Probably not, but it almost certainly looks far chavvier than it could.

Congratulations, you've just managed to alienate the entire
vehicle-owning population of Northern Ireland.

I was talking from a mainland perspective, of course, since a Nor'n Iron
plate would not provide any differentiation in NI itself.

True enough I suppose, but you don't know whether I'm there or not..!
(I'm not as it happens, but that's not the point).

Personally, I've never understood why plates in the UK have to show the
year of issue anyway. Most other countries don't seem to think it
necessary. And why change *twice* a year..?

I've always been an advocate of the US system of registrations - you can
have whatever you like as long as it isn't obscene and someone else
hasn't already got it. Also none of this silly conforming to the normal
standard issue format, meaning someone can't have a plate that might
have (say) their initials on purely because their initials might be I or
Z for example.

Also in the US (and this one is particularly important for me) radio
amateurs are *automatically* entitled to have their radio callsign as
their number plate and *nobody else* can have it, whether or not the
amateur chooses to or not, and if your callsign happens to have a 0
(zero) in it or a Q or a Z you can still have it, unlike here.

Also they don't charge silly money, the typical cost of a "vanity" plate
as they're called there is around $25 - $30, not the hundreds (or
sometimes thousands) they rip you off for here.

Ok rant over..!

checks under own car for "suspect packages"

A wise move ;-)


Ivor