Does it matter what county a car is registered in when buying used

montytheferret

This came up in convo earlier...

Somebody said that they wouldnt buy a car with a kerry reg because its likely to have had a hard life driving up and down hills?!?

And they also said that they wouldnt buy a donegal reg car cause they drive like lunatics??

Also that dubs wouldnt like to buy any other registration plate except for dublin...

And also one last time... westmeath is the best reg to go for because its nice and flat there so the car would have had it handy!?

Does the reg really matter!?

robbie_998

registered in one county.... lived in another


nobody knows for sure

buyer beware and all that crap

challengemaster

Reg plates just mean thats where the first owner was - unless you can figure out where the rest of them were (and where they drove) it's a fairly pointless exercise

I'd be more concerned with important things like service history and the condition of the car rather than the numberplate...

Big Nasty

Depends totally on the car!

High end stuff gotta have a D reg.

Audi's are best with a 'Dun Laoghaire' reg.

Anything peasant like beneath that are all preferable with country reg's. The jewel in the crown is a Toyota Carina E with a Clare, or 'CE' reg.;)

mickdw

D reg seems to be preferred to dubs alright. I dont buy the whole thing about cars from different counties being in better condition.
I dont like certain county plates for some reason simply from an appearance point of view.
I cant stand KE & TN plates for some reason.

-Corkie-

IBTL.

It dont matter Ffs..

Anan1

-Corkie- wrote: »

It dont matter Ffs..

Sure it does - it affects resale. On this issue, people seem unable to differentiate between 'doesn't make sense' and 'doesn't exist'.:)

Big Nasty

-Corkie- wrote: »

IBTL.

It dont matter Ffs..

It does yeah - I had a car years back with a Carlow reg and a chap I knew whose initials were 'CW' went mad trying to buy it from me!

CiniO

MCMLXXV wrote: »

It does yeah - I had a car years back with a Carlow reg and a chap I knew whose initials were 'CW' went mad trying to buy it from me!

Heh i never thought of it.
My initials are KT and when I used to live in Poland, all my cars were registered KT as it's the reg from my area.

I never though of it, as my initials.
Nice idea thought

headmaster

Also, cars with a coastal reg might be affected by salt water spray and have rust problems, city cars would have their clutches used as stop and go all the time, hilly counties cars overworked and all that. In my humble opinion, there would be serious issues with where cars have been driven, most definitely, yes sir.

CJhaughey

Matters not a jot, it might mean something on high end motors but for an average car the condition is the deciding factor.
Remember the Top Gear test where they put a Jag up against a BMW 645 and a Porsche on the Beach in Wales?
Driving them at high speed through salty sandy water for hours, powersliding and so on.
I wouldn't fancy buying one of those motors after that episode.

oregano

When I worked for a BMW dealer in the good days we used to dock a trade in by up to 1000 pounds if it had a number plate from outside the Pale. We found that preparing the "country" cars for resale would cost extra, and that a lot of Foxrock mummies didn't want to be seen in, say, a Roscommon reg car.

Ah, the memories...

OldmanMondeo

oregano wrote: »

When I worked for a BMW dealer in the good days we used to dock a trade in by up to 1000 pounds if it had a number plate from outside the Pale. We found that preparing the "country" cars for resale would cost extra, and that a lot of Foxrock mummies didn't want to be seen in, say, a Roscommon reg car.

Ah, the memories...

This is very true, I remember trying to trade a longford reg car before. Car had motorway milage, Full dealer service history, very well maintained in excellent condition, yet dublin dealers didn't want to know about it.

CiniO

All these numberplate snobbiness seems to be strange for me.

Anyway - why do they bother putting county sign on numberplate at all, if it doesn't change according to address of the owner.
Usually first owner holds on to the car only for few years max, and very often as well first owners are companies, leasing companies, car rental companies, etc, which usually have D reg and doesn't show at all where car is used.

In general I'd say vast majority of cars in Ireland are driven elsewhere to the sign on numberplate.

In that case, putting county signs into numberplates should be abandoned at all.

like instead of 11-TN-1234 should be something like random letters.
12-ABC-123

headmaster

I'd have thought a Roscommon car would be more desireable than most. A dublin reg would suggest a gear box prob, with all the stopping and starting, etc.

veetwin

-Corkie- wrote: »

IBTL.

It dont matter Ffs..

OK a car dealer with 2 identical cars for sale in a Cork dealership...one has the C reg the other KY...Which one will he sell first?

challengemaster

veetwin wrote: »

OK a car dealer with 2 identical cars for sale in a Cork dealership...one has the C reg the other KY...Which one will he sell first?

I'd say the KY one will slide out easily... :pac:

Eoin

If people think that it's only Dublin people who can be precious about the reg, you're quite mistaken.

Even in this forum, you'll see people who won't want a reg from their neighbouring/rival county, or won't want a D reg car because the clutch will be shagged.

I won't ignore a car because of the reg, but I will be looking to get it cheaper. As Anan1 said, it affects the resale value - or at least exclude a lot of potential buyers. That might perpetuate it, but I'd rather not take the hit.

bbsrs

It does matter , just thought I'd like to have my input to your convo

challengemaster

CiniO wrote: »

In general I'd say vast majority of cars in Ireland are driven elsewhere to the sign on numberplate.

In that case, putting county signs into numberplates should be abandoned at all.

like instead of 11-TN-1234 should be something like random letters.
12-ABC-123

Would mean the re-issuing of millions of number plates if you were to apply it retrospectively, if not then it's still pointless as the majority of cars on the road would still have the old-style plates.

CiniO

challengemaster wrote: »

Would mean the re-issuing of millions of number plates if you were to apply it retrospectively, if not then it's still pointless as the majority of cars on the road would still have the old-style plates.

No point in re-issuing on number plates.
If you changed the system now, in 10 years most of the cars would have new system.

dgt

And what about imports? We imported a van 2 years ago that spent most of its life in the north. To look at the van you'd think it was an original irish reg van (except for the blatent "Water is Precious" and "Northern Ireland Water" glue marks :pac:) My E34 is a uk import on WW plates...

Didn't we all have this conversation before that concluded that the pale and its immediate surrounding counties were the most desirable reg plates to have...?

L-M

Tbh a reg would bother me, but it'd be the very last thing that I would look at.

I'll just never touch an OY reg, plainly because I think it looks ugly.

dgt

Limerick man wrote: »

Tbh a reg would bother me, but it'd be the very last thing that I would look at.

The local constabulary used to keep at me the whole time when I drove about in my KK registered car. It was torn out and searched 3 times (twice by the same people), stopped at least once a month

Now have an MH yoke and no-one passes any remarks

If I'm buying a car it'd have to be registered somewhere nearish, going by my past experiences. Except Louth, that's a no-no...

opinion guy

MCMLXXV wrote: »

It does yeah - I had a car years back with a Carlow reg and a chap I knew whose initials were 'CW' went mad trying to buy it from me!

Did he not know there was a whole county full of them ?

Big Nasty

opinion guy wrote: »

Did he not know there was a whole county full of them ?

He happend to like the car itself too!

dr.fuzzenstein

Any car with an Irish reg.
Poverty spec, wheels buckled, suspension shagged, engine oil will have congealed into tar, guaranteed 100% to never have spent a day of it's life in a garage, service only scheduled after failing third NCT (and complain it's a lemon), dinged, abused by kids, puked into, driven at potholes at full speed, maybe driven through carwash once a year and then sold on at 20% over list price because it's a gem and one careful lady owner, etc...
New, UK import, Jap import, any other country import, knit your own car out of two tons of brillo pad, taking the bus, walking, then buying 2nd hand Irish. In that order.

bazz26

Just to put a cat among the pigeons regarding not buying a car with a reg from a particular county. I had a company car once which was registered in Dublin because that was where the company HQ address was. From the day it was registered to the day it was sold, it never seen or drove on a Dublin road.

Buy the car for what it is, not what a stupid reg number represents.

mondeo

DL reg cars I just avoid, especially a performance orientated car with such reg. Means baldy tyres and fooked suspension bellowing blue smoke, howling across the border at all hours of the morning like a Demon about to be exercised.

I would have no problem with any other reg though.