Why is there a year on a number plate?

Allinall

Donal55 wrote: »

And yet others feel it's perfectly acceptable to compare wages in two completely different economies.

I would strongly disagree with those, too.

Cee-Jay-Cee

Live65a846d0ee wrote: »

They would but they wouldn't know exact year. On some years there is only subtle changes. I prefer no year like the rest of the world or at least more similar to UK

The uk reg system is almost as clear with regards age as ours is. You may not understand it but everyone in the uk understands it with simplicity and they're the only one that matters. If you lived in the uk you'd know in an instance what age a car is without having to think about it.

I'd imagine you are part of an extremely minuscule minority who doesn't like the irish registration system. Most reg systems in Europe are completely random and confusing. I think the irish system is the best and simplest there is.

Nonoperational

5 pages about a perfectly good and sensible registration system!

Vic_08

newacc2015 wrote: »

The age of the car has nothing to do with its road worthiness. The maths guys in the insurance companies look at risk constantly. They noticed cars older than than 15 years old were statistically more likely to be used in sham car accidents, as it is cheaper to buy a 92 golf and do a sham claim, than a 2012 golf. So to stop people buying bangers and committing fraudulent claims, insurers have don't insuring cheaper cars ie older than 15 years.

FYI is possible to get insurance on that 1998 VW Golf Mk4. It is just very expensive, as I have stated it is based on the extra risk of that car being used in a claim. Think about it for a minute. If there was no risk of that 1998 Golf being used in an accident, it would make sense for an insurer to sell a policy for it as it is risk free money.

Post hoc ergo propter hoc.

It makes no sense, none at all. It is the scumbag making the claim that is the risk not the car, if they price a 15 year old car out of the insurance market the scummer will just use a 12 year old car for their scam.

All they are doing is passing the risk on to other unloaded categories, if car buying was not effected by insurance premiums then it would be a reasonable policy as the higher risk individuals would be paying the extra loading but it doesn't work that way.

The insurance industry has priced large engines out of the market and now are shrinking car age ranges but the risk is all still contained in the ever narrower group of car types they will give "cheap" quotes for, all the bad drivers and criminals will still be out there, just in whatever category the insurers are currently not disapproving of.

In a few years once all the 10+ year old cars have been priced out of the market the industry will pick out another section that has seen a spike of claims and the tail wagging dog cycle of stupidity will churn around again.

This is primary school level logic but apparently is beyond the wit of our insurance companies who seem to consist of idiots in thrall to their historical risk tables without any grounding in the reality that the entire system is disfunctional.

Allinall

Vic_08 wrote: »

Post hoc ergo propter hoc.

It makes no sense, none at all. It is the scumbag making the claim that is the risk not the car, if they price a 15 year old car out of the insurance market the scummer will just use a 12 year old car for their scam.

All they are doing is passing the risk on to other unloaded categories, if car buying was not effected by insurance premiums then it would be a reasonable policy as the higher risk individuals would be paying the extra loading but it doesn't work that way.

The insurance industry has priced large engines out of the market and now are shrinking car age ranges but the risk is all still contained in the ever narrower group of car types they will give "cheap" quotes for, all the bad drivers and criminals will still be out there, just in whatever category the insurers are currently not disapproving of.

In a few years once all the 10+ year old cars have been priced out of the market the industry will pick out another section that has seen a spike of claims and the tail wagging dog cycle of stupidity will churn around again.

This is primary school level logic but apparently is beyond the wit of our insurance companies who seem to consist of idiots in thrall to their historical risk tables without any grounding in the reality that the entire system is disfunctional.

It makes perfect sense to me.

If insurance companies identify 10 + year old cars as representing a disproportionately high level and cost of claims, then they will be loaded proportionately.

Different categories of drivers are similarly assessed- age, occupation, accident history etc.

Classing all insurance staff as idiots is ignorant.

stefanovich

Nonoperational wrote: »

5 pages about a perfectly good and sensible registration system!

Funny right? Year, county, incrementing number. It's flawless.

Sam Russell

stefanovich wrote: »

Funny right? Year, county, incrementing number. It's flawless.

Except for the variable length of the code - how do you know how many digits there are?

171 D 1, 171 D 11, 171 D 111, 171 D 1111 - too easy to confuse and fake, and digits can fall off.

They should not allow more than two 1s together - too easy to get numbers mixed or confused.

They should not allow less that 3 digits, nor more than 5. Dublin could use 171 D1 78905 instead of 171 D 178905 for example.

It could be a much tighter code with built in checking, it is daft having 3 digits for the year.

The font used should be specified, and not allowed to be chosen by user. 'German Style' should be (and probably) are illegal.

737max

stefanovich wrote: »

Funny right? Year, county, incrementing number. It's flawless.

Dipping back in again.
No. County means nothing other than it was registered in that county however many years ago and a large proportion of the population is using their friend or relative's address in Dublin because of prejudice against registration numbers from other Counties.
In Germany the number plate shows the local authority area where the owner has registered their residence so it helps to establish where the car is originating from. e.g S for Stuttgart or B for Berlin.

Year doesn't come in to it. Do you think the victim of a hit and run cares one jot whether they were hit by a 1998 or 2004 Mk 4 VW Golf.

A typical German car registration number consists of "region" followed by two letters which owner has some input in to if they so wish e.g. PK for Pat Kelly and four digits(not 6digits). In my case that would be 8765 which I chose for myself but is easy for everyone to remember
German registration numbers are easier to remember than Irish, don't result in billions of euro being pumped out of the country and don't discriminate on the basis of age.

...but what would the Germans know; they only invented the car.

bear1

CiniO wrote: »

Irish system has probably reg numbers with the most characters on the plate all over EU.
More characters is more difficult to remember, and even more importantly more difficult to read from running away vehicle.

You're wrong.
Most EU countries have 7 or 8 characters in their number plates.
Ireland has the same.
If a car is running away from the scene, then forget the year and focus on the county and numbers.
Very easy for authorities to figure out the year if you give them the rest.

.........

I don't see why the year of the car and the county of the first vehicle's owner must be used for number plates. Seems very backwards and parochial to me. I'd say the SIMI and any of the politicians they sponsor love it though.

CiniO

bear1 wrote: »

You're wrong.
Most EU countries have 7 or 8 characters in their number plates.
Ireland has the same.
If a car is running away from the scene, then forget the year and focus on the county and numbers.
Very easy for authorities to figure out the year if you give them the rest.

Most countries in the EU have up to 7 characters and that include the biggest ones like UK, Germany, France.
8 characters not to mention 9 would be rarity.

Most countries size of Ireland are happy with 5 or 6 characters.

5 would easily do in Ireland.

Beside you're saying forget about the year - its hard to read the plate without it considering its the first thing. Absolutely natural for anyone to start with reading the year.

Del2005

It's hardly as if our old system, which ran out of numbers, wasn't age based. You could know the year and county from the reg, all we did in 1987 was make it easier to decipher.

bear1

CiniO wrote: »

Most countries in the EU have up to 7 characters and that include the biggest ones like UK, Germany, France.
8 characters not to mention 9 would be rarity.

Most countries size of Ireland are happy with 5 or 6 characters.

5 would easily do in Ireland.

Beside you're saying forget about the year - its hard to read the plate without it considering its the first thing. Absolutely natural for anyone to start with reading the year.

No Germany can have 8.
Poland too.
Italy max 7
France I believe 7 or 8
I fail to see how 5 would be enough. And if you are comparing countries solely on size then it's not the right approach.
You need to compare it to a country which has the same number of cars on the road.
The letters anyone should know the county so off the top of your head it's mayo 12345 and that's it.
It's not an impossibly difficult system. People just seem to want to have a good moan about any **** they can.

Guy:Incognito

Nonoperational wrote: »

5 pages about a perfectly good and sensible registration system!

2 if you're boardsing properly

Guy:Incognito

Sam Russell wrote: »

Except for the variable length of the code - how do you know how many digits there are?

171 D 1, 171 D 11, 171 D 111, 171 D 1111 - too easy to confuse and fake, and digits can fall off.

They should not allow more than two 1s together - too easy to get numbers mixed or confused.

They should not allow less that 3 digits, nor more than 5. Dublin could use 171 D1 78905 instead of 171 D 178905 for example.

It could be a much tighter code with built in checking, it is daft having 3 digits for the year.

The font used should be specified, and not allowed to be chosen by user. 'German Style' should be (and probably) are illegal.

Its only gone to 6 numbers once , in 2000 ( barring that shambles they made of it for imports for a year or so ) . its not going to go over 100k in 6 month period.

jca

Icaras wrote: »

My understanding is the troubles influenced a change into the new style, they were made simpler for people to understand and remember to help the guards identify cars used in robberies.

Not sure how true this is as I heard it in a pub but it did make sense to me.

Rubbish, complete rubbish. Drink in a different pub, one with customers with more than one brain cell.

pa990

Sam Russell wrote: »

Except for the variable length of the code - how do you know how many digits there are?

171 D 1, 171 D 11, 171 D 111, 171 D 1111 - too easy to confuse and fake, and digits can fall off.
and digits can fall off.
and digits can fall off.
and digits can fall off.
and digits can fall off.
They should not allow more than two 1s together - too easy to get numbers mixed or confused.

They should not allow less that 3 digits, nor more than 5. Dublin could use 171 D1 78905 instead of 171 D 178905 for example.

It could be a much tighter code with built in checking, it is daft having 3 digits for the year.

The font used should be specified, and not allowed to be chosen by user. 'German Style' should be (and probably) are illegal.

:rolleyes: :rolleyes:

PrettyBoy

Slightly off-topic but while we're here could someone please explain why we are legally obligated to have the name of the county where the car was registered in Irish at the top of the plate? The county is clearly identifiable in English as it is. For example, we have 'D' for Dublin - we know the car is registered in Dublin. Why does the law say we have to have Baile Átha Cliath at the top of the plate in addition to the D? Why does the so-called 'simplest' system require the same piece of information to be displayed twice in two different languages?

pa990

PrettyBoy wrote: »

Slightly off-topic but while we're here could someone please explain why we are legally obligated to have the name of the county where the car was registered in Irish at the top of the plate? The county is clearly identifiable in English as it is. For example, we have 'D' for Dublin - we know the car is registered in Dublin. Why does the law say we have to have Baile Átha Cliath at the top of the plate in addition to the D? Why does the so-called 'simplest' system require the same piece of information to be displayed twice in two different languages?

Some TD (female) who was mad about the irish language kicked up a fuss after the new reg system was introduced in 1987.

The county to be displayed in irish is only required from 1990 onwards

colm_mcm

PrettyBoy wrote: »

Slightly off-topic but while we're here could someone please explain why we are legally obligated to have the name of the county where the car was registered in Irish at the top of the plate? The county is clearly identifiable in English as it is. For example, we have 'D' for Dublin - we know the car is registered in Dublin. Why does the law say we have to have Baile Átha Cliath at the top of the plate in addition to the D? Why does the so-called 'simplest' system require the same piece of information to be displayed twice in two different languages?

As it's technically a state issued legal document, there should be an Irish version

Or something.


The county name thing is the compromise.

.........

Slightly off-topic but while we're here could someone please explain why we are legally obligated to have the name of the county where the car was registered in Irish at the top of the plate? The county is clearly identifiable in English as it is. For example, we have 'D' for Dublin - we know the car is registered in Dublin. Why does the law say we have to have Baile Átha Cliath at the top of the plate in addition to the D? Why does the so-called 'simplest' system require the same piece of information to be displayed twice in two different languages?

When coming up with the system, the usual piss poor planning prevailed, and the Government completely forgot about the Irish language requirement. Because Irish is the official language of Ireland, and in theory has the same rights as English has here, some very cheeky Irish people wanted to use the Irish 'BAC' letters instead of the English 'D' on Irish reg plates. When the plates came in, the government then panicked, didn't allow the Irish e.g. 01 BAC 123456 reg to be used in Ireland, but as a passing nod, came up with the fudge of later putting the Irish language version of the county above in small writing on Irish plates.

colm_mcm

It was a great solution to be fair.

Marcusm

PrettyBoy wrote: »

Slightly off-topic but while we're here could someone please explain why we are legally obligated to have the name of the county where the car was registered in Irish at the top of the plate? The county is clearly identifiable in English as it is. For example, we have 'D' for Dublin - we know the car is registered in Dublin. Why does the law say we have to have Baile Átha Cliath at the top of the plate in addition to the D? Why does the so-called 'simplest' system require the same piece of information to be displayed twice in two different languages?

An even more important question would be what DTTAS idiot decided that Dublin was Baile Atha Cliath rather than Ath Cliath

OldMrBrennan83

This post has been deleted.

Guy:Incognito

PrettyBoy wrote: »

Slightly off-topic but while we're here could someone please explain why we are legally obligated to have the name of the county where the car was registered in Irish at the top of the plate? The county is clearly identifiable in English as it is. For example, we have 'D' for Dublin - we know the car is registered in Dublin. Why does the law say we have to have Baile Átha Cliath at the top of the plate in addition to the D? Why does the so-called 'simplest' system require the same piece of information to be displayed twice in two different languages?

See : every street sign in the country

PrettyBoy

Guy:Incognito wrote: »

See : every street sign in the country

So what? Every street sign in Dublin has a post code - should that be on plates too?

The Irish county name on the plates looks like a complete afterthought and, by the sounds of it, that's exactly what it was. Any time I buy a new car I order new plates for it without the Irish county on them as there's no reason for it to be there and it just looks better. Just wish I didn't have to hang onto the old plates for the NCT but what can you do.

OldMrBrennan83

This post has been deleted.

colm_mcm

Bonus points if you have a Laois car.

jca

colm_mcm wrote: »

Bonus points if you have a Laois car.

CI?

colm_mcm

Nope. Laois is the same in Irish and English.