SIMI call for changes to registration plates

pburns

I'm surprised this hasn't been mentioned today, heard it on the wireless a few times.

In a nutshell:
- The SIMI want a special ‘identifier’ such as an extra character on the registration plate for all vehicles registered after 1st July in 2012 to create a second new car sales peak (basically like the UK so sales are spread more evenly throughout the year). They claim this could generate an extra €20 million in VAT and VRT each year.
- They want to allow a registration plate to be re-designated to the county of residence of its new owner. Based on a charge of €250 for this re-designation, it could deliver an additional €20million for the Exchequer in year one alone.
- O yeah and they want no changes to the tax bands (i presume this means pre 08 cars are stuck in high tax limbo).

http://www.simi.ie/utilities/news_details.aspx?id=419

I've long been a critic of the system in this country. It is logical but very rigid - no interesting vanity plates (either by accident or design). Also having the year so prominantly displayed increases consumer pressure - even old grannies can distinguish what year a car is. The system in the UK is a bit more discreet I think. We'll probably end up with something worse (and uglier) like '12A D 12345' & '12B D 12345'.

In short, I can see more advantages for wheeler dealers than consumers in all this!

What does everyone else think?

Eoin

Nothing concrete to base it on, but I think there's as much - if not more - snobbery in England over the plate, as they have the two plates per year that SIMI are suggesting.

MugMugs

If it ain't broke then don't fix it and our wee system designed by a teenager of the 80's certainly ain't broke.

Screw the SIMI.

There's a global recession on, adapt.

-Corkie-

12D 12B..... Visitors to ireland will think we are going around with bra sizes on our reg if we didnt look bad enough allready...

charlemont

Nothing wrong with it as it is.

CiniO

Option to change a county of reg to the one owner resides at the moment seems to be good thing.

In general I think they should do something about the amount of digits and letters on the number plate.

Generally speaking you might have 05-D-123456
That's 9 characters on a plate.

AFAIK there's only about 2 million vehicles in this country.
Considering both letters and number can be used, I'm sure there can be system designed which will limit the number of characters to something like 5 or 6 characters maximum.

MetzgerMeister

-Corkie- wrote: »

12D 12B..... Visitors to ireland will think we are going around with bra sizes on our reg if we didnt look bad enough allready...

Well in fairness, a lot of car owners are tits!

Atlantic Dawn

charlemont wrote: »

Nothing wrong with it as it is.

Yes I think it's fine as is, doesn't need to be tinkered with, my only worry was in 2000 when the plates went over 100,000 in Dublin it looked a little odd but I don't think we will be hitting this for a while again.

I do think they should reduce the "personalised" number purchase price back down to €315, having it at €1000 is ridiculous. It should be easy money for Revenue.

Eoin

CiniO wrote:

Option to change a county of reg to the one owner resides at the moment seems to be good thing.

Wouldn't disagree with that. Edit: Agree with the logic of it, but don't think it's worth the hassle.

CiniO wrote:

Generally speaking you might have 05-D-123456

Six numbers only happened in Dublin in 2000 as far as I know. Even if it was more common, I don't think there's any need to overhaul the system; there are so many other worthwhile projects that could be done.

pburns

pburns wrote: »

..................
- The SIMI.................
- O yeah and they want no changes to the tax bands (i presume this means pre 08 cars are stuck in high tax limbo).

.............

What does everyone else think?

I'm quite sure the folks in charge of such things will be increasing the bands for everyone, there is no limbo for the pre 08 folk, dunno what you're on about there tbh.

SIMI have the voice of a mute banshee, it doesn't really matter what they think, call for or want.

CiniO

Eoin wrote: »

Six numbers only happened in Dublin in 2000 as far as I know. Even if it was more common, I don't think there's any need to overhaul the system; there are so many other worthwhile projects that could be done.

If reg numers profile has to change anyway to accommodate a new idea of changing character twice a year, why not do it in some smart way.

UK which is a huge country and has tens of millions of vehicles, somehow manages to have only 7 character on their number plates.

kn1

SIMI ????
what a joke of an outfit
i left them long ago
only interested in the annual golf outing "dont you know"

Eoin

CiniO wrote: »

If reg numers profile has to change anyway to accommodate a new idea of changing character twice a year, why not do it in some smart way.

IF they did have to change, then maybe they should. I just don't think they should bother at all. I don't see what major problem is being solved.

EPM

Thought the SIMI had been a bit quiet lately. I hope some day they can manage to come up with some realistic plan to help the industry they represent. This is just relying on people wanting the latest reg/wanting to change their reg. Not exactly a hard plan to come up with.

Dubluc

My tuppence worth for what it's worth is that there should be a county identifier for each county so the former county of Dublin which ceased to exist in 1994 should now have three identifiers for Fingal, South Dublin and Dun Laoghaire Rathdown and one for Dublin City.
Seeing as how Limerick City and County and also North and South Tipperary are being amalgamated this could I imagine be easily achieved at the same time.
My suggestions for new reg identifiers for these counties would be
Fingal - FL
South Dublin - SD
Dun Laoghaire Rathdown - DR
Dublin City - DC
Tipperary - TY
Limerick - LE (the use of E is kinda arbitary in that i didn't want to repeat any of the old identifiers and it's the first letter in Limerick not either causing a duplicate identifier or which could be confused with a number).

Dubluc

RoverJames wrote: »

I'm quite sure the folks in charge of such things will be increasing the bands for everyone, there is no limbo for the pre 08 folk, dunno what you're on about there tbh.

Except that people who have pre 08 cars pay far higher road tax for the same cars and if you're not able to afford to change your pre 08 car to something more up to date then surely you are stuck in a limbo of sorts?

I know somebody is going to come up with an exception but it applies to most cars and I know it's 'greener'.

Sofiztikated

Dubluc wrote: »

Except that people who have pre 08 cars pay far higher road tax for the same cars and if you're not able to afford to change your pre 08 car to something more up to date then surely you are stuck in a limbo of sorts?

I know somebody is going to come up with an exception but it applies to most cars and I know it's 'greener'.

Balls.

Pre 08, I could tax an RX8, if I wanted to. Due to the emmissions, now I can't.

CiniO

Dubluc wrote: »

I know somebody is going to come up with an exception but it applies to most cars and I know it's 'greener'.

Can I be the first one /?????:D edit: I was not :mad:

2004 Mazda 6 2.0 petrol. CO2 emissions 192g/km
Current system - €614.
New system - €1050.

mickdw

Replacing numbers on the plates with letters would allow many more unique plates with less characters given that there are 26 options for each character compared to 10 when using numbers.
Using letters would also open up the personalised plate idea too where they could charge for various letter combos.
The characters saved would allow space for an mark for early or late in year registration

Dubluc

CiniO wrote: »

Can I be the first one /?????:D edit: I was not :mad:

2004 Mazda 6 2.0 petrol. CO2 emissions 192g/km
Current system - €614.
New system - €1050.

I knew there'd be at least one! Lol (but not at you!)

Dubluc

Dubluc wrote: »

Except that people who have pre 08 cars pay far higher road tax for the same cars and if you're not able to afford to change your pre 08 car to something more up to date then surely you are stuck in a limbo of sorts?

I know somebody is going to come up with an exception but it applies to most cars and I know it's 'greener'.

See below

Sofiztikated wrote: »

Balls..................

I drive a 9 year old 2.5l car, I wouldn't drive want to drive many of the post 08 cars that are cheap to tax. My car is worth close to sfa which is close to what I paid for it 14 months ago.

Dubluc

RoverJames wrote: »

See below



I drive a 9 year old 2.5l car, I wouldn't drive want to drive many of the post 08 cars that are cheap to tax. My car is worth close to sfa which is close to what I paid for it 14 months ago.

Lucky you!

Al Capwned

Seriously lads, isnt there better things to be worrying about than changing a registration number system that worked f*cking grand since 1987..... Another complete waste of time and money - leave the bloody thing alone, it works.

ei9go

A better question is who is going to buy a new car with 13 on the plate.

Unlucky for SIMI me thinks!

Chimaera

Leave it alone!!

It's logical, simple, and is not likely to run out of registrations in any practical sense (how many cars are going to survive a hundred years to the next time a plate will be needed?).

Personalised plates are a scam IMO and I'm very happy we don't have them here. Just another excuse for people to flaunt their vanity!

Dubluc

Dubluc wrote: »

Lucky you!

Dunno what that's about, I just don't agree with you

CiniO

Chimaera wrote: »

Personalised plates are a scam IMO and I'm very happy we don't have them here. Just another excuse for people to flaunt their vanity!

Why is that?
I still think there should be a personalised plates available.
F.E. something like 07-G-JOHNY
I'm sure some people would pay extra for it, and everyone would be happy.

Eleganza

Strange that Germany which is the biggest car producing country in Europe doesn't see the need to identify the year on number plate.
Plates identify your municipal district, then two characters which are often a person's initials or model of car e.g JD for John Doe or TT for an Audi TT or just random and then numbers at the end.

This move would be only to the benefit of the industry and not the consumers.
If you don't want the car you have parked up on your driveway to depreciate faster than it already is then resist this change.

Ireland is not run for the benefit of it's citizens.

VolvoMan

In my opinion, there will never be a registration system that is perfect. If we get a new system then I'm sure there will be some other aspect of it that will be criticised.

SIMI should focus on the real issues in the motor industry today, like the lack of professionalism shown by around two thirds of the dealers they represent in this country.

Zubeneschamali

I agree that we should allow people to reregister their car to another county. This whole extra cash for a D reg. thing is ridiculous. I also don't like the way the current system makes a car bought in December a year old in less than a month.

On the other hand, the current system is straightforward, and probably good for IDing cars: people can recall the year, or year and D reg, even if they don't remember the whole number.

Overall, I'd prefer is we issued regs. to people rather than cars, as they do in Switzerland.

subway

i propose adding dublin post codes to the reg and linking it to the garage rather than the purchaser, this will generate huge amounts of infighting and bitterness amongst neighbours who not only have to buy a new car every 6 months, but are also forced to buy from the local dealer or be shunned forever more

a diamond could indicate that the car is bought later in the year

eg: 12* - D4 - 123

Wolverine_1999

Dubluc wrote: »

My tuppence worth for what it's worth is that there should be a county identifier for each county so the former county of Dublin which ceased to exist in 1994 should now have three identifiers for Fingal, South Dublin and Dun Laoghaire Rathdown and one for Dublin City.
Seeing as how Limerick City and County and also North and South Tipperary are being amalgamated this could I imagine be easily achieved at the same time.
My suggestions for new reg identifiers for these counties would be
Fingal - FL
South Dublin - SD
Dun Laoghaire Rathdown - DR
Dublin City - DC
Tipperary - TY
Limerick - LE (the use of E is kinda arbitary in that i didn't want to repeat any of the old identifiers and it's the first letter in Limerick not either causing a duplicate identifier or which could be confused with a number).

That's a bit mental.. but changing the reg to your county of residence would be a good thing.

€250?? Go **** yourself :mad:

MOSSAD

Will SIMI pay the extra cost???

Cookie_Monster

Zubeneschamali wrote: »

the current system is straightforward, and probably good for IDing cars: people can recall the year, or year and D reg, even if they don't remember the whole number.

^This^, it's the only reason for reg's on cars anyway, ID, not cosmetic or any other BS. Our system makes it easy to get a partial or full reg and changing to any other system takes away from that IMO. I've yet to see another countries reg system that simpler to read and remember.

BobMc

Zubeneschamali wrote: »

I agree that we should allow people to reregister their car to another county. This whole extra cash for a D reg. thing is ridiculous. I also don't like the way the current system makes a car bought in December a year old in less than a month.

On the other hand, the current system is straightforward, and probably good for IDing cars: people can recall the year, or year and D reg, even if they don't remember the whole number.

Overall, I'd prefer is we issued regs. to people rather than cars, as they do in Switzerland.

I agree plate should be reg'd to a person, and taken with them from car to car, help police track and trace them etc, they do this is Ontario in canada, keeps it very simple regards road tax etc also

jsd1004

Wolverine_1999 wrote: »

That's a bit mental.. but changing the reg to your county of residence would be a good thing.

€250?? Go **** yourself :mad:

Just scrap the year and county identifier and give cars a random 5 digit no plus a random 3 digit letter. Let the personalised brigade pay whatever for the fancy ones.

PCPhoto

pburns wrote: »

I'm surprised this hasn't been mentioned today, heard it on the wireless a few times.

In a nutshell:
- The SIMI want a special ‘identifier’ such as an extra character on the registration plate for all vehicles registered after 1st July in 2012 to create a second new car sales peak (basically like the UK so sales are spread more evenly throughout the year). They claim this could generate an extra €20 million in VAT and VRT each year.
- They want to allow a registration plate to be re-designated to the county of residence of its new owner. Based on a charge of €250 for this re-designation, it could deliver an additional €20million for the Exchequer in year one alone.
- O yeah and they want no changes to the tax bands (i presume this means pre 08 cars are stuck in high tax limbo).

http://www.simi.ie/utilities/news_details.aspx?id=419

I've long been a critic of the system in this country. It is logical but very rigid - no interesting vanity plates (either by accident or design). Also having the year so prominantly displayed increases consumer pressure - even old grannies can distinguish what year a car is. The system in the UK is a bit more discreet I think. We'll probably end up with something worse (and uglier) like '12A D 12345' & '12B D 12345'.

In short, I can see more advantages for wheeler dealers than consumers in all this!

What does everyone else think?

I didn't bother reading the whole 3 pages of this thread I just wanted to express my opinion.

its horse drivvel !! ....

changing the identifier will not create a second boom of car sales - it will force car sales to drop because people will say to themselves that if they wait only a few months they get a brand new car (it might bring a double peak with the rest of the year sales will slump)

Why not get ride of VRT, lower the prices of cars and maybe this will create an increase in sales. .... stop charging stupid amounts of money for a car when its cheaper to purchase it in England, France, Germany, Poland etc and pay the government taxes legit.

Lord Trollington

Its terrible to see people come out with horse drivvel whom have no grasp on the Motor Industry in Ireland or in Europe.

Or even no grasp on the Economy either.

mb1725

And the various ANPR systems would probably be obsolete overnight!

alias no.9

If it ain't broke dont fix it. Dublin is the only county that has ever or will ever see a six digit postfix, but that is mitigated by only having one letter. Other Cities (L & W) or City/County combos (C & G) also have just one letter to mitigate against overly long reg's.

Changing Dublin to DC/DR/FG/SD won't fix anything as you're adding in an extra letter and the resultant sub-counties are likely to hit 5 digits every year while D will only hit 6 on rare occasions. Using postal districts won't help either as you're going to hit at least 5 digits after the 2 digit postal district making things worse.

Going to twice yearly changes is just a load of balls and the SIMI trying to justify their existance and subscription fees at a time when some garages may be considering dropping their affiliation.

How about we make the year almost indeterminable to eliminate the january spike in sales and even things out over the year? It's a better idea for consumers.

subway

alias no.9 wrote: »

Using postal districts won't help either as you're going to hit at least 5 digits after the 2 digit postal district making things worse.

for the record, i was not being serious :pac:

alias no.9

subway wrote: »

for the record, i was not being serious :pac:

I realise that, but things like this have been put forward by people who were. One of the most retarded was fromer Green Party TD Mary White suggesting the year would be replaced by the tax band :eek:, imagine the length of A and B rated car registrations. In an interview at the time she also raved on about her veg oil converted vw produced no CO2 saying that it had been verified by her previous NCT, even though CO2 is not measured by the NCT.

CiniO

PCPhoto wrote: »

Why not get ride of VRT, lower the prices of cars and maybe this will create an increase in sales. .... stop charging stupid amounts of money for a car when its cheaper to purchase it in England, France, Germany, Poland etc and pay the government taxes legit.

But what gain for the Irish economy would that be?
Except from VRT there is barely any gain for economy because people buy new cars.
None of the cars are made in Ireland. So all money spend on cars, are actually money extracted from economy.
Newer cars means lower motortax. Newer cars means less maintenance cost in garages, do less work for mechanics, and less taxes paid by garages.

Generally speaking, I can's see any positive side for economy because of people buying new cars.

TomMc

I think the system here is generally pretty good as it is. The UK system works because it is not simply dividing the year in two, but carrying into the following year as well. It appears to take account or is more aligned to model year (spec) changes as well.

If they had a Jan to June and July to Dec identifier, surely the decision of a buyer is whether to buy now in July or wait until January. It isn't going to increase sales, just try and spread sales out better over the course of the year, rather than everything front loaded. Yes, tt would suit the motor trade but isn't going to increase sales much.

Allowing changes to counties (reg plate) on the used market does make some sense from a sales angle, but also helps to disguise a cars past for the wrong reasons as well. They would certainly need to make sure that old reg numbers remained on a vehicle's paperwork.

Maybe SIMI and their dealers would be better served if they gave buyers much better deals from July onwards and not just the last two or three months of the year, if they want to balance out sales.

Beagslife

I think the Irish system is pretty good.The only change I'd suggest, would be to adopt a part of the Portuguese system. On the extreme right of their reg, in a different colour panel (yellow) and in smaller font, the year is displayed above the month. This is not the dominant part of the plate but the information is there to be seen.

So an Irish plate would look like - *IRL* DL 12345 *10/8*.

A clearer plate with more information and none of the new '12 reg crap!

My thoughts anyway.

Lord Trollington

CiniO wrote: »

Generally speaking, I can's see any positive side for economy because of people buying new cars.

Absolute complete and utter bullsh!t. Another person commenting on the Irish Motor industry which obviously know nothing about.

subway

Lord Trollington wrote: »

Absolute complete and utter bullsh!t. Another person commenting on the Irish Motor industry which obviously know nothing about.

have you nothing to add to the thread at all?

Eoin

I like year-on-the-reg-plate snobbery; so should anyone else who buys second hand!

Tea 1000

I propose we do away with the reg number and just use a QR code! A quick scan gives the car make and model info, when it was purchased, how many previous owners, and a code for the current owner that can only be linked to a name and address by an official.
Then we can all be tracked everywhere we go, and taxed on our fuel usage accordingly, and heavily penalised for clocking our cars, and all sorts of fun stuff!

aristotle25

I like the idea of re-registering a car into your country of residence. There is no way I would drive reg's from certain neighbouring counties! Yeah its a bit petty I know.

Tea 1000

aristotle25 wrote: »

I like the idea of re-registering a car into your country of residence. There is no way I would drive reg's from certain neighbouring counties! Yeah its a bit petty I know.

A bit petty? Try pathetic! And I'd also like if they introduced it, so that I can actually sell my car to fools who won't buy it based on whatever letters of the alphabet are on a plastic plate.