Written by Menswear Style in Cars on the 19th December 2018

Do you ever play that game when you’re on a road trip where you spot private number plates and try to work out what it's trying to say? With a mish mash of letters and numbers and abbreviations, it can be quite tricky. Cherished number plates are a great way of setting apart one car from another and enables the owner to create a unique, personal tailored on-road identity. Cherished number plates are indeed one of a kind and very easy to acquire if you have the right advice. Here we look at the reasons why people buy into this long loved car accessory.

Hide The Age of A Car 

Perhaps the most practical reason for buying a private plate is that you can use them to hide the age of a car. By purchasing dateless plates, a type of private number plate that contains no year of registration, you can essentially obscure the age of a car. Of course, this doesn’t change the miles on the clock, or hide any of the car’s history regarding services. However, it does mean that people can’t tell the age of your car just by looking. This means if you keep your car in great condition, you can make an old car look brand new! Furthermore, many of the oldest ageless plates are real eye catchers - like ‘F1’ which was bought for a whopping £440,000 back in 2008.

As An Investment 

This may come as a surprise, but some people look at buying private number plates as an investment. The simple idea is that private number plates are valuable and are unique. Whatever plate you buy, there can be no other like it. So, if you grab a plate that is a popular name or perhaps something clever or funny, it should retain its value. In fact, if you manage to get one at a good price, chances are you’ll be able to resell it at a profit to yourself. Of course, like with any investment, there’s some risk involved and no guaranteed successful tactic, but then maybe that’s part of the charm. The fact that there is a little bit of risk involved makes it more exciting! 

Make Your Car Unique 

For many people, adding a personalised plate is a way of making their car stand out from the crowd. The simple truth is that lots of cars these days look pretty similar, and some people don’t like the fact that their car just looks like everyone else’s! This is especially true if you’ve bought a popular car in a common colour. Now, of course, you could just choose to paint your car a wacky colour, but this can have a knock on effect regarding resale value. So, the wiser choice, and also the classier choice, is to get a private number plate to achieve that uniqueness!

Showing Off! 

Now, there’s no getting round it, some people just like to show off that they can afford to buy a personalised plate. It makes sense, after all lots of people take a huge amount of pride in their car, seeing it as an extension of themselves. Viewed this way, personalised number plates can function the same way that expensive jewellery does on footballers and rappers - it’s simply a way of showing people that you’ve made it to the big time! 

A Form Of Branding 

Finally, if you run a business with a small fleet, it can be a great piece of branding to invest some matching plates for your vehicles. It catches the eye, and it sticks in people’s minds - especially when you have a captive audience at red lights or in traffic jams. Something funny or clever might just win you that little bit of extra business by setting you apart from competitors. Viewed this way, maybe the plates will pay for themselves in business won!

An Investment, Showing Off and Making Your Car Unique are just a few in this guide to 5 Reasons We Still Buy Private Number Plates.