How do you feel about "vanity" plates?

[grey]

So, just how vane is it to have one? How good or bad is that? Does anyone even care? I have been mildly curious about vanity plate people, and hopefully this is a reasonable place to collect a little data.

Some vanity plates suggest that I might like the driver. Others clearly indicate the opposite. Things like QWERTY or ROY G BIV seem related enough to nerdy states of mind that I could see someone I liked selecting them. But they might be too much of a, "Hey, look at me!" for my own taste. I generally assume that someone who drives a car with a plate like PRINCESS on it isn't someone I'll get along with terribly well. Then again, if I had a suitably shitty car (To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 2 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.), I might decide it was worthwhile to go that extra mile for a PRINCESS plate on it.

Additionally, does anyone here drive a motorcycle? They seem like a horribly unwise method of transportation, to me. I see them providing a certain thrill function I don't especially want or need in my own life. I can't think of many things that lose my respect faster than bikers without helmets.

...

I was iffy on the correct location for this poll on the boards, but as I think it is more of a behavior question than anything else, I settled on this spot.

[thegnat]

:) hehe This reminds me....

In pchem the prof said someone told her that they got a vanity plate for their vehicle, it read PV NRT Which is the ideal (perfect) gas law (Pressure)(Volume) = (n moles)(R gas constant in appropriate units)(T Temperature in Kelvins)

Edit: I'm too poor to own my own car as I am a college student....But I do drive a hand me down from the parental units...

[Rei]

My family car has a license plate that starts with "AKWD"
...
No we didn't ask for it.

But it's cool nonetheless.

[wolf]

What about the option for someone that could have one, but didn't want to burn the cash? My primary car is el cheapo grande especial, so paying anything beyond the normal fees, maintenance, and so-forth isn't fitting. They don't even swap plates for new owners here - the plates stay with the car. That's the way it should be...

If I had a car suitable for expensive plates, I'm not sure what I could even get to put on them because I can't imagine anything isn't taken here... Besides, why would you want to draw attention to yourself? I'd rather blend in better so the police, criminals, etc, have less interest in me. My car looks like any random little econo-box with some damage that someone medium-poor might drive here, with stock everything. I keep it clean inside to further deter interest in my little car... In fact, I can't imagine there are many cases where I park next to a car that wouldn't be a riper target for a criminal or vandal, which is fine by me, because my old car was pretty uninteresting, but it still got broken into because I had an upgraded stereo (nobody ever stole anything from it, though, it was always just a broken window, then the person got chased off, so it was nothing but expensive and time-consuming).

[Jezebel]

What about the option for someone that could have one, but didn't want to burn the cash?
"I chose to have no vanity plate for my vehicle, though it would have cost additional money."?

What about the option that you don't know whether or not it would have cost money, because you never cared enough to find out? I chose "I chose to have no vanity plate for my vehicle, though it would not have cost anything.", even though I don't know that it would have been free. But I wouldn't accept a free one if it was offered.

Similar to Wolf's reasoning. I wouldn't want my car to stand out. While I do value functionality over aesthetics, I'm not above occasionally getting items for looks. I just don't see the point in vanity plates. They aren't in my view often enough and I see any attention I get from others because of them as being more negative than positive.

Oh, and I also had a so-so car that my upgraded stereo system was stolen from. I agree that it's better to blend in and look like there isn't anything that makes the car worth breaking into.

[wolf]

What about the option for someone that could have one, but didn't want to burn the cash?
"I chose to have no vanity plate for my vehicle, though it would have cost additional money."?
I never cared enough to check, either, but they always do as far as I'm aware.

The problem with that option is that it is incorrect - "though" is incorrect in this case, and everything from the comma to just prior to the period should be removed from that option.

[Jezebel]

The problem with that option is that it is incorrect - "though" is incorrect in this case, and everything from the comma to just prior to the period should be removed from that option.
You're right, I just took it to mean that because another meaning wouldn't make sense. I went ahead and changed it to be less contradictory. I also removed the last half of the sentence on the assumption that they usually do cost money. If someone knows that not to be the case for their situation, they can vote the other option. And I moved my vote over, because now mine fits there too.

Hope you don't mind, grey.

[generalowk]

I used to have custom plates, but gave them up about 7 or 8 years ago. No practical use, and it saves me $15 per year.

[grey]

I also removed the last half of the sentence on the assumption that they usually do cost money.

I'm not totally clear on what makes a plate a vanity plate. Here in Illinois, it's possible to pick out a combination of letters/numbers that would appear on normal plates, for no additional cost. I know someone who has her initials with her birthday, and it didn't cost anything, but it doesn't really look like a vanity plate at all. There are some more universally meaningful combinations that might work, like WTF 1337, that I think might still qualify as custom plates without requiring as much.fixed broken quote tags

[klokpsykl]

I don't care for pure novelty much.

[HackerX]

Vanity/Personalised Plates cost a fortune over here. My pick would be something like:
I would have one, but I don't want to fork out the money

[Tegyrius]

I chose "no vanity plate, would have cost money," although I do have one of Kentucky's special-issue plate designs on both of my vehicles:

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That's the law enforcement memorial design. Not really a vanity plate, as the number is assigned in standard series, but I liked it better than the default design for several reasons.

[rwyatt365]

I've considered getting one, but the cost is prohibitive so I do other things to make my vehicles unique. Besides, I haven't come up with something original, or clever enough to put on one.

[snoogit]

Not so much a vanity spelling, but in Michigan we have a variety of plates that have pictures in the background, or a proudly displayed college logo on the left hand side. I inherited a license plate that had an image in the background, but a rather mundane license plate number. If I had to choose I probably would just go with the plain white plate with random ABC 123 number system.

[ShaiGar]

I want a Peugeot 4002 in black and British racing green. Vanity plate ShaiGar.
But I cannot afford it out of the spare change so I'd rather just buy books. It is something that I WOULD like to have, but couldn't be arsed paying for.

[Oversphere]

I have standard plates on my extremely-ordinary-looking car for two reasons:
1. I'm cheap.
2. Driving is much safer, both physically and financially, when you go unnoticed.

Something about driving seems to bring out aggressiveness in a lot of people. I've seen a lot of road ragers (including both idiotic civilians and ordinary cops) and I've had the pleasure of interacting with a few of them (when I had a car that people noticed). If these people notice you and don't like what they see, they can and will assault you and/or cost you money.

Paranoid ranting aside... I also have a motorcycle. I realize that it's a dangerous mode of transportation, but honestly, it's not about transportation; It's a toy. It's fun to ride, of course, and also interesting to maintain. I know that makes me sound like an SP, but the resemblace is coincidental. When I was riding today, the road was wet in some places. I was thinking about the difference between the coefficient of friction of rubber against dry pavement versus rubber against wet pavement while deciding how fast to make the turns. Of course, I didn't know the radius of the turn, and I didn't actually exceed the force of friction (I might have wrecked if I had), so I could only estimate.

[technomouse]

Why isn't there an option for "I wouldn't have a personal plate even if THEY paid ME!"

I saw one at Henley's Corner the other week, the reg plate was B1C3P. Yellow ferrari, obviously...