Biases towards some counties on the car reg plates

mczandre

Hi folks.
Need your help to understand some particularities of the motor industry here in Ireland.

Some while ago I bought a car from a BMW dealer in Tipperary. Great car, right spec, reasonable price... all good. Worth to mention that the car was firstly registered in Tipperary hence it has the "T" on the plates.

Now that I am trying to sell the car, I keep hearing that the "T" on the registration is an issue, and I will have problem to sell it in Dublin due to the fact that people in Ireland are still very biased towards buying cars from counties other than the ones that they live in.
When I challenged the salesmen, both said that this is all about "cultural matters". One of them even mentioned that it is always advised to buy cars from big cities such as Dublin and Cork, and avoid "countryside" places.

Does that make sense for you?

Thanks!

Toyotafanboi

It is a thing for some people, some cars and some places.

Plenty of people on here and in the real world say it doesn't bother them and thats fair and true, but for others it does.

User1998

Bit OCD here but my preference would be D, and then after that I’d take any single letter reg. I wouldn’t be mad on a reg with two letters. No idea why tbh

The Tipperary reg being T annoys me far more than it should.

TP_CM

I never heard of T being a problem. But I've heard problems with Donegal on a reg plate because of the boy racer culture up there. But depends on the car and on the buyer

Harry Palmr

Dublin cars have wrecked clutches.

Might be true.

In the way Cavan cars struts are shagged.

TP_CM

TP_CM wrote: »

I never heard of T being a problem. But I've heard problems with Donegal on a reg plate because of the boy racer culture up there. But depends on the car and on the buyer

A DL will most likely have been driven to death on kerosine for its life. And you’ll probably be taxing it for the first time no matter what age it is.

carsfan2

Whether people agree with it or not it is definitely easier to sell a “premium” brand car if it had a D reg. I presume the snob factor of Dublin buyers not wanting others to know they bought their car used is what drives it.
I had experience of this when trying to trade in a BMW with country reg in Dublin. One dealer even wouldn’t take the car.

madmac187

If it were me I’d say **** them and take business elsewhere. Any salesman that says **** like that to any customer is going to do you, whether it will be warranty work, poor job to get car cleaned or whatever. I was in a main dealer looking at a new car and the salesman was so ignorant in regard to me and my vehicle I told him I would take my business elsewhere. In another main dealer I drove a secondhand A4, went on the motorway, the plastic under tray flies out from underneath the vehicle shatters and very close to causing an accident. I contacted the salesman straight away and he asks is the car alright, not am I ffs. I bought the vehicle afterwards, but pointed out the clutch was on its last legs. Salesman says no bother fixable under warranty. He noted it in paperwork and initialled it. I said ok, have the vehicle 4 weeks flywheel pops, the dealer call me with an estimate of 1500. I speak to salesman then he says I didn’t agree to that. After a lot of arguing on a dealer floor in front of customers, they fix it, for the master cylinder not to be put back right and car breaks down 40 minutes after pick up. This is a main dealer.

Rant over.

LillySV

I’ve regularly heard that D is the reg that holds the most value .... which I think is mad.... I’d prefer anywhere but D! The way I’d look at D cars, they were more likely to get a slap in car park so might be partially resprayed.... if it’s a diesel there would be worry that it only got short slow drives most of time in traffic... which wouldn’t be ideal for a big diesel... and then maybe it was robbed/tampered at some stage or another also ....a lot of undesirables up there at that ...

Btw my current car is D reg but that’s only coincidental .... the car I got is rare enough and didn’t think twice when it came up

PauloMN

I'm in Meath so our cars are usually MH or D. I'd have a slight preference I guess for a "region" plate like D or MH as that's where I spend most of my life. I'd buy a car with any plate in reality if the car was 100% what I was after, but being honest DL would be absolute bottom of my list.

ari101

My current car happened to be an import when I bought it (outside Dub) and I was specifically told if I had a Dublin address to register it there for resale value; that some Dubs are unwilling to buy non D reg cars. I lived in Dub anyway so it made no difference to what I was doing. Single letters are aesthetically nicer but it wouldn't make a difference to me buying a car, finding the right spec car on the other hand...

I was also told I'd lose my 'culchie allowance' - switching from a country to D reg in Dublin I'd be more likely to be treated as local by other drivers, so less tolerance for being unsure of my lane, for example, or not making fast progress at lights, etc.

micosoft

Interestingly WW seems to have snob effect over D plates in North Wicklow and parts of South Dublin... less common and from "posh countryside"...

Del2005

Plenty of people will only buy D or their county plate. A sales persons job is to big up their products and say that yours has issues.

I'll buy a car on its condition and couldn't care less what letters are on the least important bit of a car. But it's handy if people do over look then as it makes it cheaper for me to buy a good car.

The tyres and paint condition will tell you at a glance if the car is worth buying quicker than the letter on the reg plate.

Tippman24

I was told it years ago about certain rural registrations are a no no with Dublin car dealers. The two mentioned to me were Tipperary and Kerry.

manor

Wish I read this, just traded my D reg car for a T reg!!!!!!

colm_mcm

It’s about being conspicuous. Driving a T reg in Dublin immediately labels you as either being a culchie or having bought a used car.
It’s the buying public that influence prices, dealers will charge what they can get away with. Much as a certain colour might be unpopular, it has to be reflected in the price for it to sell.

BorneTobyWilde

How funny it is that an island as small as Ireland needs to have different regs for every 40 miles. Comical, should dump it asap, should be an ROI reg across the board

PaulRyan97

Obviously a 'C' reg is by far the best one can hope for in a car. C is closer to the start of the alphabet and therefore superior. Also it is in the humble opinion of us Corkonians the best county in Ireland.

BorneTobyWilde

211-ROI-7777

colm_mcm

BorneTobyWilde wrote: »

211-ROI-7777

Approx 80000 vehicles registered every year though. Makes recalling reg numbers way more difficult without the county identifier.

fryup

KY = muck savage inbreds, drive cars like tractors

DL = mad boy racers, clocked/stolen nordie cars re'reg'd to southern plates

LH = provo'land, cars used for smuggling, racketeering and dead bodies in the boot

*it's just the above three counties that i have a hang up about, the rest are fine

It’s true, the D reg appears to hold more weight when trading up but it’s such a load of BS. Mine is D reg and while it spends some time in Dublin it spends a lot more of it in a lot of other counties. It’s all about how it’s looked after.
Notions of the highest order

Doublebusy

Never bothered me of the county on the reg
Its the dealer stickers badges and reg plate surround thats annoying - first things i take off

BorneTobyWilde

colm_mcm wrote: »

Approx 80000 vehicles registered every year though. Makes recalling reg numbers way more difficult without the county identifier.

Why would you need to recall it though. I can't think of a reason, it's right there on your number plate if you forget it.

Skipduke

noticed how D regs have a habit of slipping into drains and lacking the ability to reverse once outside the m50


my reg is KY, thankfully. wouldn't want to be seen as a pretentious snob or tourist. Most D reg's here in kerry are hire and drives or tacky west brits with a superiority complex. hard avoid

Any time I see a 'D' registration plate I think "taxi".

Dublin plates also look manky with their five sequence numbers.

nsnoefc1878

I know Ireland is a country full of materialistic snobs, especially since the celtic tiger days, but this reg snobbery is beyond a joke.
It simply wouldnt even occur to be to concern myself over it.

JustAThought

fryup wrote: »

KY = muck savage inbreds, drive cars like tractors

DL = mad boy racers, clocked/stolen nordie cars re'reg'd to southern plates

LH = provo'land, cars used for smuggling, racketeering and dead bodies in the boot

*it's just the above three counties that i have a hang up about, the rest are fine

So true! Definately a thing.
I’ve walked away from otherwise acceptable cars because of the reg - and not just these. Who wants an Offally or Laois or Carlow reg - Galway might be OK but the car might be used for hauling hay or sheep or be driven into the ground over huge distances daily.

OP - it’s definately a thing and a big thing. Unless you’re selling locally in your rural village/town which also brings its own issues.

And no - I wouldn’t drive or buy a T reg. Or Cork or Kerry for reasons already outlined. But if I was moving to a new area for 10 years or so and needed a new car then I’d consider a culchie plate - but only if I had to buy a new car. I wouldn’t like all the mucksavage gardai with chips on their shoulders singling me out for tickets and locals ID’ing my car wherever I went because of the plate - not to mention lunatic Cork heads with aspirations to belong to real capital keying it because of their notions or capitol envy.

Reg plate hate is real!!!

Mullaghteelin

fryup wrote: »

LH = provo'land, cars used for smuggling, racketeering and dead bodies in the boot

*it's just the above three counties that i have a hang up about, the rest are fine

Plenty of LH plates around rural North County Dublin from Drogheda based dealers. Provoland would most accurately describe south Armagh.

nsnoefc1878

ari101 wrote: »

My current car happened to be an import when I bought it (outside Dub) and I was specifically told if I had a Dublin address to register it there for resale value; that some Dubs are unwilling to buy non D reg cars. I lived in Dub anyway so it made no difference to what I was doing. Single letters are aesthetically nicer but it wouldn't make a difference to me buying a car, finding the right spec car on the other hand...

I was also told I'd lose my 'culchie allowance' - switching from a country to D reg in Dublin I'd be more likely to be treated as local by other drivers, so less tolerance for being unsure of my lane, for example, or not making fast progress at lights, etc.

Aesthetically nicer?! Its a code on a piece of plastic ffs!
And aesthetics are subjective anyway, so there is no hard and fast rule to it.