DVLA declares J14 HAD on BU14 SHT and SL14 AGS

Blighty's Drivers and Vehicles Licensing Authority (DVLA) has announced a list of vehicle registration numbers which won't be available to wags looking to take advantage of the latest "63" and upcoming "14" plates. The 14 plate will hit the streets in March next year, and the authority's staff have weeded out potentially …

[Khaptain]

Not so obvious

I learned to speak Hebrew many years ago, it was far easier than trying to understand some of these plates

I still can't see what the following are TR14 DDS, LU63 FER ( Lucifer ?)

and what's wrong with SK14 NKY ( Skanky, I presume)

And this takes a fair bit of imagination SP14 STK.....( Spastic ?)

The only one that was remotely intelligent was HU63 NOB .... As it used both of the numbers, whereas the others only used one, or required the fusion of the the two....

Someone at DVLA has a very OR16 NAL job...

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Not so obvious

But then UR16 NAL ought to be included or they could be accused of taking the piss

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Not so obvious

I think they hit A5 NAG with this

[Sarah Balfour]

Re: Not so obvious

HU63 NOB...? SOMEONE ought to buy that and secretly affix it to Bojo's motor... I don't get 'BU14 SHT; I'm assuming it's 'bullshit' but, surely, 'BU11 SHT' makes more sense...? You can't have OM6 WTF, either.

[Anonymous Coward]

TR14 DDS - triads.

-1 DVLA

[Anonymous Coward]

Being an ex- DVLA employee, technically DVLA don't sell you the registration, you lease/licence it from DVLA. The registration mark is the property of the Secretary of State for Transport (the position, not the individual), what you purchase is the right to display it on A vehicle.

[Anonymous Coward]

Technically, you buy the plate from a registered plate producer.

You can't rent or own a "number". "Numbers" are entirely conceptual.

[dervheid]

NO63 NDS

That is all

[TitterYeNot]

DVLA

So this is the DVLA's attempt to stop people embarrassing themselves in public and looking slightly knobbish.

Hang on, doesn't that mean they should stop selling personalised number plates full stop?

[katjap]

You must have some very sensitive people on your side of the pond to be so offended by a number plate that says SP14 STK that you have to ban it. Very sensitive indeed.

[Lester Haines]

"Spastic" is a lot more offensive on this side of the briny than it is stateside.

[JimmyPage]

@katjap

this from a country that banned "WTF" in licence marks ?

[Anon5000]

No senses of humour allowed

Shirley only a disabled motorist would choose to have the number plate CR14 PLE and thus is not offended bye it.

Red tape bureaucrats with sense of humour surgically removed.

[You have not yet created a handle]

Re: No senses of humour allowed

Ohhhh.. I read it as CRAPPLE and assumed Apple had been in discussions with the DVLA!

[Andy The Hat]

If people are stupid enough to pay the money, and others are stupid enough to try to interpret them let them.

If the DVLA droids actually thought about things and introduced a decent system when they changed the regularions (2001?) we wouldn't be discussing it ...

[Anonymous Coward]

DVLA have no involvement with creating or ammending regulations. Any ammendments are done by central government.

[wyatt]

BO11LUX isn't on the askMID database, DVLA must have retrieved it.

[Khaptain]

Then I suppose that M I4 NGE, is not available either

[JimmyPage]

BO11LUX isn't on the askMID database

or it's not insured

[jacobbe]

UT02SER

B'ah. That just means its not insured.

Last time I heard, the owner who paid £400 for it, had it up for sale for £22,000

[frank ly]

History

I once saw the famous PEN 15 on a car in the late 70's. I can't even remember what car it was on. Is that still around/allowed? (You have to ask questions about the character of someone who wants that on their car.)

[thesykes]

Re: History

I remember seeing OBO 110X on TV when I was younger, possibly on That's Life or something.

Seems that one is still in circulation.

[Mike Wilson]

Re: History

I saw PEN 15 on a white Roller, a Silver Cloud I think, near Kew Bridge (London) in around 1974. Made my day.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: History

About fifteen years ago, PEN15 was on a read Porsche 911 in the South London area. There's some plonker who drives a top of the range BMW around Hampstead with the number plate MAF1A. My Siciiian wife spotted it at a petrol station in Belsize Park and actually made a point of telling the driver he was a twat!

[micheal]

Re: History PEN 1S

Steve Parrish had it on his Merc Sports

[Shrimpling]

Re: History PEN 1S

Steve Parrish still had it back in August this year... he also owns 6OCK.

www.bennetts.co.uk/bikesocial/news-and-views/racing/motogp/20131/august/you-ask-steve-parrish-answers/

"You have to ask questions about the character of someone who wants that on their car."

He claims it was to stop his wife driving his cars.

[DiViDeD]

Re: History PEN 1S

I do remember, when I lived in South Wales, there was a neighbour with a dark grey 5 series BMW, plated ADM 1N. To his favour though, he also had a bright red Ferrari plated RAT 10N.

There was also a Daimler I often saw with the plate JOI 1N, but he'd put the fixing screws in the centre between the I and the 1, making JOHN

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: History

I saw it in the early '80s parked outside the student house I was living in. It was Lotus of some sort, an Esprit if memory serves.

[Sarah Balfour]

Re: History

One of my mum's late friends had that as her number for years; she didn't mean it to be offensive - it was supposed to be 'Peni's' but, obviously, you can't have punctuation on plates.

[Anonymous Coward]

I need a break from the Reg...

Am I the only one who saw CR14 APL and thought of crApple?

[Michael Habel]

Re: I need a break from the Reg...

no you wern't

[Khaptain]

Re: I need a break from the Reg...

I fell into the same trap....

[Miek]

It's rather clear that the DVLA cannot spell properly.

[Anonymous Coward]

Back in the dawn of time my teenage chum had a Triumph Herald with 505 EXY as the plate.

I bet he wishes that he still owned it :)

[Anonymous Coward]

Wy would he still wish he owned a Triumph Herald?

[JimC]

Heralds were neat, that's why. Just as long as its got the original bonnet, not the later pseudo-vitesse one.

[xyz]

Woman down the road from me has

O S0 5EXY

and back in '99 I was terrified my new Merc would turn up with V 51 GNS. Luckily I missed it by 8.

[Crisp]

Dirty minded people at the DVLA

It's a bit of a stretch to see those strings of letters and numbers. The DVLA are acting like schoolboys that have just discovered that they can look up "rude" words in the dictionary.

[VinceH]

Re: Dirty minded people at the DVLA

Wait! What?

You can look up rude words in the dictionary!?

But these things are available in schools! BAN THEM!

[Irony Deficient]

Re: Dirty minded people at the DVLA

Wait! What?

VinceH, where will the kids go on weekdays if schools are banned?

[VinceH]

Re: Dirty minded people at the DVLA

Down the mines, where they belong!

[Great Bu]

Let's face it, we're all just marking time.....

....until August 2019 whan we can get all those '69' plate cars - they can't ban them all !

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Let's face it, we're all just marking time.....

September 2019

[Jamie Jones]

What a load of sh11 tee

Talk about tenuous, and prudish.

By this criteria, I'm sure there are many older plates already out there that would fit the criteria.

Vanity plates are so sad anyway. Besides, why would I want a plate that was easier to remember? Harder to get away with fleeing an accident that way :-)

[Sarah Balfour]

Re: What a load of sh11 tee

That'd be 'criterion' - criteria is plural.

Yes, I'm a pedant. GFY! ;oP

[MYOFB]

A bit late aren't they?!

I can confirm (as I've seen it with my own eyes more than once) there is a vehicle in the northwest of the UK bearing the registration number: PE51 NIS. They missed that one by a country mile and then some.

Offensive? Fuck Nooooo!!

Funny? Sure is.

DVLA (or any government dept for that matter) should get a life or over themselves. There's too much misery in this country (let alone the world) to be so anal about such innocuous things. Anything that brightens my day by making me smile or laugh is more than welcome in my world.

Even though it could be construed as "toilet humour", it produced a positive outcome even if only for a few seconds. I'll take that each and every day of the week thanks!!

ICON?

Cos I'm sure there's a few cars out there registered with that combination of letters!!

Wankers!!

[Anonymous Coward]

It's weird what they let through and what they don't.

There was a Focus (RS I think) near us for years that was "KN03 OFF" Which I think is clearer than many of these banned ones.

[Anonymous Coward]

Spoilsports

They wouldn't let me have C11NTS for some reason...

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Spoilsports

I should probably add, my name is Clint.

[Anonymous Coward]

The vanity plate system in Britain is ridiculous. The DVLA make a lot of money by selling plates that could, if you try really hard, be interpreted as a word. Yet it is illegal to alter the font or spacing so that it actually reads like the word you paid for - because that could confuse the OCR on the traffic enforcement cameras.

They screwed up with the current system by putting a number in the middle of the letters which makes it harder to form a readable word and thereby limits the revenue available from selling vanity plates.

If they had any sense they would follow the US system. Allow people to have anything they want as their plate - as long as it's unique. That would earn them lots of revenue from vanity plates and people wouldn't have any reason to mess with the font or spacing.

[Jamie Jones]

They should use a system that is more vanity-plate friendly???

NOOOOOO!! Isn't this country dumbed down enough already?

[DiViDeD]

I'm all for dumbed down car rego

Because it allows me to drive round Australia with the number plate IT GURU

[phil dude]

vanity plates, peh!

of course here in the US you can also hang bulls balls from your bumper....

P.

[kmac499]

Escaped Plates

As an Avid watcher and spotter of 'cherished' plates here are a few of the ones I've noticed. Personally I lke the ones with a bit of humour in them

SAR IN on a relatively modest saloon in London

YE11 SFU on a Mums Taxi \MPV\Van thing Now imagine that rearanged on a fre breathing Lambo or the like.

STE 4 K on a Butchers Truck

M1 KES used to be on Ferrari I think (just ask Mike to find out)

M15S YU or M 15 SYU on a Jag XK8

M155 YOU on a 1 series BM

T44 KUP rearranged to T44K UP (in a slightly non standard font) on a horse box

M155 TLC on a mini Driven by a nurse maybe ???

Y1 LAY on a Carpet and flooring Van , (Or a geordie chat up line?)

V15A UK on an X5 bit of a banker

1 FER on the back of some shiny big red sports car ( probably a ferrari)

On the ultimate WAG Mobile, an All Black Bentley Continental

VE 55 SEX respaced to V E55SEX

[Steve Davies 3]

Re: Escaped Plates

H1HBB

On a Hogs Back Brewery Truck delivering HBB naturally.

[Steve Davies 3]

Re: Escaped Plates

The other neat plate I used to see in Kazakhstan was on a British Truck carrying oil & gas parts from the UK.

H1KGB

Think about it....

[Soruk]

Re: Escaped Plates

A while back I saw TB02 FAB on a truck painted with International Rescue graphics!

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Escaped Plates

BJ04 ZOE is my fav, it's on a truck.

[Shrimpling]

Re: Escaped Plates

Somebody near me used to have B16NOB but I haven't seen it recently.

[swoosh]

Re: Escaped Plates

There used to be a strip club in Edinburgh who had a people carrier with PU51 KAR on it. The club is now gone, but the reg lives on and is now attached to a bog standard Japanese saloon of some sort.

[Steve the Cynic]

Re: Escaped Plates

I once saw a lorry owned by Cosi-Bed (or with their logos on it anyway).

CO 51 BED

[mrfill]

Lennon's Roller...

... the psychedelic paint job one, had FUC100C

[ducatis'r us]

Re: Lennon's Roller...

'Fraid not

http://www.rockstarscars.co.uk/images/john_lennon_rolls_royce_1.jpg

[Anon5000]

Airstrip One

In other news, calculators are being re-designed without the numbers 3, 5, 7, 8 and 0 so that children are not exposed to upside down words such as BOOBLESS as this is insensitive to cancer victims.

[Anonymous Coward]

UK "Vanity" Plates

People actually pay good money for these "non-words" to appear on their car registration plate?

Unless you can have real words they are utterly pointless.

Another case of trying to aping the US but getting it horribly wrong. Sigh.

Oh and having the year in the registration so you burn through the combinations faster is stupid too.

[Jamie Jones]

Re: UK "Vanity" Plates

The current year-in-numberplate system will last us until 2049, though.

Whilst on the subject, what was the original purpose of the year in the reg? And what is its current purpose, other than letting someone (potentially) know whether a vehicle is old or not

[VinceH]

Re: UK "Vanity" Plates

At least part of the purpose is, as you mention, to identify the age of the vehicle - or at least to prevent the vehicle looking newer than it is; you can't apply a registration mark to a car if the car predates the year of the mark*. This was also true with the LNNN LLL plates, where the first letter identified the year.

* Although there are ways around it, such as (IIRC) importing a vehicle with the number you want and then transferring that number.

[Jamie Jones]

Re: UK "Vanity" Plates

Vince, thanks for the reply.

I'm sure that as a kid, we had a car that seemed newer than it was because it was imported second-hand from Ireland by the previous owner, and then registered over here with new plates. I guess that would fit in with your importing loophole.

It's always something I never really thought was strange - having grown up with it. It wasn't until a few years ago when a friend visiting from abroard questioned it that I started to wonder. After all, accurate age info. Is readily available when needed these days!

[Don Jefe]

Start some campaigns that recognize perfectly benign plates as horribly offensive things. Some of the combinations in this story are really reaching anyway, just go all out and confuse the hell out of the DVLA.

[Jamie Jones]

OY! ARE YOU CALLING ME A "R277 BTX"???!

[Ken 16]

0 FFS WHY?

I was annoyed enough when they didn't use '13' registrations in Ireland this year. The only people who can make words out of license plate numbers are the people who buy them and the ones who sell them, noone else cares.

[M7S]

If you really want to cause confusion and upset

Think of a three letter word not currently banned, for the sake of example, lets choose "mim"*. Start something on the internet, mumsnet or the Daily Mail website might be good, about how this is a secret term for something really vile (remember "hobby"? http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/09/10/nominet_review_of_registration_policy_dot_uk_domain_names/)

Then whip up a furious campaign about how hundreds of vehicles are driving around with this message concelaed in their registration (eg LB56 MIM), exposing the kids to this vile term and they should all be revoked before the kids google it and clearly the DVLA don't care etc etc, the sort of meaningless froth which panics public figures into soundbites.

*if this is a term for something nasty already, your author is in genuine ignorance of this.

I say M15 SPY for sale many many years ago. I wonder if there's a "BT repair van" with blacked out windows and the registration NS4 parked around the corner from the Ecuadorian Embassy? On the topic of offensive registrations, does Eadon (where is he by the way, the place doesnt seem the same without him...) drive around with L1NUX?

[clatters]

Two minutes of (ahem) "research" and I found these

WA14KER (WANKER)

for £1,599 http://dvlaregistrations.direct.gov.uk/howtobuy.html?plate=WA14%20KER&price=1599

PS51LAP (PISSFLAP)

for £250 http://dvlaregistrations.direct.gov.uk/buy.html?plate=PS51%20LAP&price=250

AA14NGE (MINGE)

for £399 http://dvlaregistrations.direct.gov.uk/howtobuy.html?plate=AA14%20NGE&price=399

AN14LLY (ANALLY)

for £399 http://dvlaregistrations.direct.gov.uk/howtobuy.html?plate=AN14%20LLY&price=399

DH11DOS (DILDOES)

for £399 http://dvlaregistrations.direct.gov.uk/buy.html?plate=DH11%20DOS&price=399

Hours of fun to be had...

[Kash]

WTF is wrong with the word AL14LAH?

Why is having a number plate saying god or Allah or Jehovah or Jesus or Bhudda offensive?! Why have they only banned AL14LAH, not JH14 OVA, BU14 DAH, JE14 SUS ?!

[Sarah Balfour]

Re: WTF is wrong with the word AL14LAH?

Simple. They're obviously members of the EDL.

[Anonymous Coward]

The problem with the DVLA is that they only look at English plates, my wife being dutch is always amused with all the KUT plates about (apologies to any dutch readers) I was very tempted to get her RS11 KUT for her (RS is the initials of her rather odious ex-husband) but he knows enough dutch to complain.

[Anonymous Coward]

Dirty...

Pretty sure that I've seen a fancy sports car driving around Harrogate with a classy "8 POO" (or was it "8 P00?" licence plate; and I know someone owning a car with "P26 UBE" on its plates...