County Reg's

Volvoboy

What ya think about them?


I remember my 1st car had a W reg

Was slightly put off about it but bought it anyway, and i did use it haggling them down, after that the majority of my cars were a D reg.

At the moment i've got 2 D reg cars and one MH.

I can understand that it would be crazyness to have registrations as 09-123456789 And to take away the counties from the regs.

What ya think?

Also why was the old reg system done away with, gonna guess that they were running out of number.

biko

I wouldn't have anything other than G, unless I get it at a bargain.
Had a D for a while and it always irked me.

Removing both year and county would be best I think, no reason other than to show off. English plates ftw (although they show year if you can read them)

Gumbo

ive had all D reg's on my cars up until the current one which is LK.
My most recent bike is a C reg too.

unkel

This discussion usually leads to trouble...

Berty

I think people view the county symbols are a way of pigeon holing people into their own predetermined demographics.

Its like think people with L reg's are dangerous.
People with KY reg's are complete boggers.
People with DL reg's mean the cars are in worse condition than a D reg.

I had a KY reg and people in Dub used to stare at me.

I have an LH reg and people dont really notice.

I had an MN reg and some people asked was it a Northern reg?(I know, I know)

I have had an L reg and a person in Dublin once said "Well I better not ding your car with a Limerick City reg"

Come January I will have a CE reg and who knows what people will do then.

I remember going on Holidays in France through the 80's and the early 90's. People in the 80's used to ask where you were from and when the new reg's came in people used to know where you were from.

With the advent of AutoXchange sellings D reg's all over the place and leasing companies its now harder to tell where a person is actually from.

I have a Munster sticker on my LH reg so it cancels out the LH for me.

Should we do away with the system?

On the basis of snobbery NO and on the basis that the sytem works just fine then NO.

Berty

Magnus wrote: »

Removing both year and county would be best I think, no reason other than to show off. English plates ftw (although they show year if you can read them)

Do a little survery of middle aged people you know. Ask ten people to exlain a number plate after 1988 and you will be surprised how many people haven't a clue what the thing actually means.

ShatterProof

I have an LZK reg

L1011

Magnus wrote: »

Removing both year and county would be best I think, no reason other than to show off. English plates ftw (although they show year if you can read them)

GB plates have the county and year in them! Gx09xxx = Kent or Sussex, 2009; etc.

Marlow

I've had 2 x KE, 2 x D, MO, Couple of G-reges, WH, CE, RN the whole bunch. In general, it shouldn't matter.

Even though inside Dublin people look odd at you, when you've not got a D-reg and outside Dublin people look odd at you when you have a D-reg.

Beyond that, yep .. every county has their prejustice manners (like be careful with unpredictable MY drivers, RN are cultchies, CE are knackers), in general i probably couldn't care less.

Right now I've got one on a G-reg and one on a WH-reg, live however in neither county. Foreign alien

In Germany you have to change reg, everytime you move from one county to another, so the reg is always where you live. In Denmark and in the UK you don't know where people are from and you can only guestimate, what age the car is. I prefer that anonymiousity, but well, we don't have it here.

/M

L1011

Marlow wrote: »

In Denmark and in the UK you don't know where people are from and you can only guestimate, what age the car is. I prefer that anonymiousity, but well, we don't have it here.

/M

You know how old the car is *down to 6 months* and the local large town of the original owner, let alone their country.

Its LESS anonymous than here! Just because people here don't know what the system is...

SX09 means Inverness, March to August 2009, YU58 is Sheffield, August 08 to March 09; etc, etc.

corktina

the UK system is i guess easy to decipher but ridiculously complicated IMHO. (a vehicle with year 05 (say) was registerd in the six months from Feb 2005 and a 55 is the second six months including january of the next year (:rolleyes:) The first letter indicates WHERE it was registered... S Scotland C wales W West Country B Birmingham etc .The last three letters are in effect the vehicle "number"

PS i dont care what county is shown, cant see any good rason for it being there anyway.

NLane

really dont think it makes too much of a difference... i live in kildare and im driving a C reg.... a friend of mine says he uses his KY reg as an excuse to get away with poor driving on the M50!

byte

MYOB wrote: »

You know how old the car is *down to 6 months* and the local large town of the original owner, let alone their country.

Its LESS anonymous than here! Just because people here don't know what the system is...

SX09 means Inverness, March to August 2009, YU58 is Sheffield, August 08 to March 09; etc, etc.

Unless they change for "personalised" plates.

On a mildly related note, I wonder how much extra dosh is generated from personalised plate sales in UK?

cascade35

I have a C reg and a D reg, im in tipp south and have only ever had 2 TS reg cars.

VolvoMan

Couldn't give two sh1ts to be honest.

EPM

VolvoMan wrote: »

Couldn't give two sh1ts to be honest.

Me neither to be honest. I'll still bargain on it though if it wasn't a C reg if I was buying at home in Cork. My old fella will only buy a C reg. He's passed us cars in the past because of this. Madness!

zilog_jones

corktina wrote: »

the UK system is i guess easy to decipher but ridiculously complicated IMHO.

Yeah, you have to go out of your way to find out where it was registered. The 1963-2001 was even more cryptic as most regional codes were not relevant to place names or anything, although they were for more specific regions. For example I used to live in Somerset in the '90s, and I knew YA, YB, YC and YD (the last two letters in the 3 letter segment of an old UK plate) were from the county (Taunton office), but I only knew this after looking this up in a book in the library (no internets back then - well there was but it was expensive and crap ). More info:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vehicle_registration_plates_of_Ireland
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vehicle_registration_plates_of_the_United_Kingdom
http://www.londonbusroutes.net/miscellaneous/regs.htm

Volvoboy wrote:

Also why was the old reg system done away with, gonna guess that they were running out of number.

The old system started in 1903, so originally it was part of the UK system. County codes beginning with I or Z or ending with I or Z were resevered for Ireland (including NI), and by 1986 they were running out of combinations (Dublin being the main problem). I guess they didn't want to start making registrations that overlap with the UK system which is why they came up with the completely new system for '87.

I have a D reg, feels a bit anonymous (not being from Dublin myself). Doesn't make much sense either as the car originates from a Charleville dealer.

Personally I think having the blatantly obvious year on the plate is more of a problem than the county codes. I hate the year snobbery it has caused, spawning stupid conversations behind people's backs e.g. "I'm surprised he's only got a 01 car" (refering to someone high up in a business) and similar prejudiced bollocks. I'd have more respect for someone who has a nice old car kept in good condition than an unloved example of this year's blandmobile.


I thought about suggesting that we could have a per-owner registration system like in Germany, where the number plate is relevant to the owner, not the car, so the county code would then be correct. But then again this would just allow the stereotypes to be more accurately deployed upon the owners.

Marlow

MYOB wrote: »

You know how old the car is *down to 6 months* and the local large town of the original owner, let alone their country.

Its LESS anonymous than here! Just because people here don't know what the system is...

Yes and no. It's maybe less anonymous to somebody that has an interest and sits down and figures out, how to decifer the registration plates.

But to Joe average, it makes no difference whatsoever. For them it's just another numberplate, where they can maybe guestimate the year with 1-2 years preciseness.

In Denmark it's two letters, 5 digits, running number, and recently they started filling the gaps after hitting Y reg'es so now it's really not to spot anymore.

I find both those systems a lot better than the irish one.

/M

Marlow

zilog_jones wrote: »

I thought about suggesting that we could have a per-owner registration system like in Germany, where the number plate is relevant to the owner, not the car, so the county code would then be correct. But then again this would just allow the stereotypes to be more accurately deployed upon the owners.

It's not per owner. It's per car/county and everytime you move you've got to change the reg plate on every car that you take with you.

If you sell your car within a county to another owner, the plate can stay with the new owner.

The french are similar. The two digits in the end are the arrondisement.

Anyhow, yes, I agree, that would foster even more the stereotype thinking. A generic numbering system mixed of letters and digits would be the most anonymous system really and you wouldn't have those issues.

/M

ottostreet

Ive had a CW reg, a LS reg, a D reg, a MH reg, a C reg, and my current is CE. i really havent noticed any difference in behaviour towards me, regardless of my reg, and regardless of where i am in the country!

zilog_jones

Marlow wrote: »

It's not per owner. It's per car/county and everytime you move you've got to change the reg plate on every car that you take with you.

Ah, I'm thinking of other countries so. I think some US states are per owner, I forget where else.

A generic numbering system mixed of letters and digits would be the most anonymous system really and you wouldn't have those issues.

Good idea too, but I guess we'll be waiting until 2087 before they bring in a new system anyway :pac:

JHMEG

MH reminds me of John Bruton
KY reminds me of jelly

Silvera

I agree that the 'year' part of the reg plates probably cause more annoyance to many people(...though the current system suits the motor industry and the govt as so many people buy new cars to have the "latest" plate).

What could be introduced to give ppl the option of 'disguising' the year are 'County Plates'
i.e. issue plates with the county and numbers (i.e. no year on the plate)
e.g. if you lived in Clare you could apply for 'CE 1234' or Wicklow 'WW 1234' etc etc. These plate could be sold to drivers, or be subject to an annual fee-and moved from car to car when you do decide to change vehicles.

my 2c.

jaffa20

I've had a D reg and i now have a KK reg. I don't care to be honest. Dunno why people seem to prefer D, WW and MH reg plates. I had someone come from Kerry just to buy my 97 D Polo :eek:

I got some strange looks with a D reg in Donegal, even though i'm from there.

dudara

It doesn't bother me at all, but I had to laugh when I bought home my current car (D reg) to Cork for the first time. My mom looked at it and said "Nice car, pity it's a D reg".

I've driven around the back roads at home in it, and you do get distrusting stares when you drive a D-reg down in the country, even if you're a local.

Berty

dudara wrote: »

It doesn't bother me at all, but I had to laugh when I bought home my current car (D reg) to Cork for the first time. My mom looked at it and said "Nice car, pity it's a D reg".

I've driven around the back roads at home in it, and you do get distrusting stares when you drive a D-reg down in the country, even if you're a local.

I lived in a terrible estate in Limerick and people used to stare at me because I had A NICE CAR let alone a car with an "outside" reg on it.

When I used to take home the LK company jeep all the boys on the horses would salute me assuming I was a horse dealer.

I also had an MN registered Passat and always got funny looks. I never figured that one out but when I drove that car around my mother in laws estate people used to wave me through tight spaces(that could only fit one car at a time through) and lower their heads when they passed the car when I was parked up. I was really confused until I learned my car was IDENTICAL to another Passat with an MN reg in the area who was a drug dealer. :rolleyes:

Senna

Was shopping for a car a few weeks ago, and i was very tempted when i seen a Navy D reg Mondeo, up here in Donegal everyone assumes their a Garda car and so drive better around you.:D

Victor

Marlow wrote: »

The french are similar. The two digits in the end are the arrondisement.

Not arrondisement (there are 342), but département (there are 100). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Departments_of_France

They actually changed their system last month: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vehicle_registration_plates_of_France

Marlow

Victor wrote: »

Not arrondisement (there are 342), but département (there are 100). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Departments_of_France

They actually changed their system last month: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vehicle_registration_plates_of_France

Ta. Interesting, that they follow the italian scheme now.

/M

baalthor

Before 87 you would recognise your own county's reg and maybe some neighbouring ones. Unless you were a number plate nerd, the year was not apparent from the plate

The post 87 system has the advantage of being very easy to understand but unfortunately has significant market distorting features

Putting the year on the plate causes year snobbery. Many people want a car with the newer year even if it has higher mileage than the older year car.
It also means that the bulk of new car sales occur in the first quarter of the year. So if a new model is launched in June its sales in Ireland don't kick off until the following January when it's not that new anymore

Then we have the county snobbery. Most people buy a car with their own county code but unfortunately not all counties have the same population. This means that the county with a much bigger population will have a more desirable plate i.e Dublin. If you look at ads on Carzone, D reg is flagged as a desirable "feature" by many sellers. This is because people in Dublin want a D reg but since there are so many of them, they are common in most counties (at least in the Eastern half of the country). So if you are buying a used car, D is an acceptable choice after your own county reg for many people. Also people registering higher end models (e.g BWM, Merc etc) try to get a D reg rather than the local reg. (I think the above may apply to C reg to an extent in the south of the country)

In short, the value of your car should be determined by its current condition and history and not by the numbers and letters printed on the number plate, which is the case with our current system.

Absurdum

only ever had a D reg, wouldn't want anyone thinking I'm a smelly bogger


/troll

WestWicklow1

Once upon a time in the Dublin motor trade (maybe its still the same I don't know) anything other than a Dublin reg was referred to as a "farm yard" number!!

Traumadoc

If I buy a 2nd hand car from the North I can get it registered to my home county, but if I buy it in the south I am stuck with the original irish owners home county/town reg.

The department of the environment could make a fortune if they charged 200 euro to re register cars to different counties.

Win - win for everyone but you are dealing with the civil service so it will never happen.

Flat2dmat

only time is was ever an issue was a few years ago, we had an MH reg and were in Belfast. stopped at a garage to ask for directions to the hotel. he looked out at the car then decided to send us through the worst part of the city, with all the murals and everyone was staring at our car. nearly ran a red light because we didn't want to stop there!!

on way home, realised the garage was two minutes in the opposite direction to the way he sent us.
maybe he was just a pr*ck!

me_right_one

I cant understand why people would want a D reg. There's 3 times more people outside dubland than in it. D reg's conjures images of either smelly knackers who leave dirty nappies in the boot and half eaten sweets stuck to the seats, or posh-nosh fagg0ts who use nivea for men and wouldnt know what the oil filler cap looks like

Max Power1

I've an MO reg, in Kildare - dublin

mikemac

TN reg in Dublin

Dealer gave the option of getting a D reg with a Dublin address.
Why bother? TN is fine, all the same to me

Dubliner28

Berty wrote: »

I think people view the county symbols are a way of pigeon holing people into their own predetermined demographics.

Its like think people with L reg's are dangerous.
People with KY reg's are complete boggers.
People with DL reg's mean the cars are in worse condition than a D reg.
.

So whats wrong with a DL reg

Mr. Presentable

Magnus wrote: »

. English plates ftw (although they show year if you can read them)

They show both the county and the year. In fact they show whether it was an early or late reg in the year. More specific info than ours.

To labour a point already made

Mr. Presentable

Dubliner28 wrote: »

So whats wrong with a DL reg

Stereotypically, it will have been driven hard by a 15-25 yo wannabe rally driver.

Dubliner28

Would that affect your insurance

Toyota_Avensis

Went to Dublin looking around Car Dealers as I was in the market at the time for changing my car. I spoke to him on the phone regarding the car's Mileage etc and he was interested. However when I got to the dealership, he seen it was an LH reg, then apolagised, and told me they wouldn't be interested in selling non D-Reg cars.
He also told me a D Reg is often valued higher in the motor trade than a non D reg.
What's your thoughts on this?

Berty

Toyota_Avensis wrote: »

Went to Dublin looking around Car Dealers as I was in the market at the time for changing my car. I spoke to him on the phone regarding the car's Mileage etc and he was interested. However when I got to the dealership, he seen it was an LH reg, then apolagised, and told me they wouldn't be interested in selling non D-Reg cars.
He also told me a D Reg is often valued higher in the motor trade than a non D reg.
What's your thoughts on this?

He's a freakin moron for wasting your time.

Although he is also not stupid because why have a non D reg in Dublin because there is obviously D reg snobbery out there so he may as well stock up on D reg's.

McGrath5

I went out to have a look at a civic last week, was a decent looking car, in good condition, but the MN reg was a complete no-no for me.

zilog_jones

So you care more about the piece of plastic (or metal) on the front and back of your car than the car itself? It's your loss, I guess...

SuperGrover

Perfect Choice wrote: »

I went out to have a look at a civic last week, was a decent looking car, in good condition, but the MN reg was a complete no-no for me.

Why?

here.from.day.1

My car is in Dublin more often than not and has a G reg (bought the car there and its quite likely it will never be going there again!) Whats the stereotype for G?

Victor

here.from.day.1 wrote: »

My car is in Dublin more often than not and has a G reg (bought the car there and its quite likely it will never be going there again!) Whats the stereotype for G?

http://news.yahoo.com/nphotos/The-Galveston-County-Daily-News/photo//091113/480/e41ba5427b314babb6e6e4b05bc997ea//s:/ap/20091113/ap_on_fe_st/us_odd_lagoon_bugatti

here.from.day.1

Ah thats Galveston County, I meant Galway!

Drummerboy08

Volvoboy wrote: »

.

VolvoMan wrote: »

.

Aw man, I'm confused.

Anyhow, different reg numbers make no difference to me.

In Dublin, a D reg is worth slightly more than any other reg, only because of the snobbery associated with it.

My first car was a WX reg, me second car was a WX, as was the third, and my current set of wheels has a D reg.

Max Power1

Perfect Choice wrote: »

I went out to have a look at a civic last week, was a decent looking car, in good condition, but the MN reg was a complete no-no for me.

Ridiculous IMO. Its only a record of where the car was first registered!