Re: And this ladies and gentlemen...
My parents' cars were LNG070 and IOZ782. They upgraded in 1983 when I was 6 and I can still remember them.
As a Victorian, number plates have been letter-letter-letter-number-number-number since the 1950s, and they changed to number-letter-letter number-letter-letter about 5 years ago. Unless, of course, you choose your own. So if you get it wrong, you get it wrong by choice and not by chance.