Quote: DaButt @ 9th August 2017, 9:17 PM

We'd never go for that (I hope) because it's too much of an invasion of our privacy. Cops need a good reason to stop a vehicle and the fact that the owner might have had previous drug or drinking charges is not reason enough, especially when there's no way of telling who is actually driving. The vehicle itself shows indications of the registration/inspection status and that's really all the cops should be able to tell at a distance.

There's also the cost factor, as we have 4 million miles of roads to monitor. My state isn't even the largest one in the country, but it's 3 times the size of the UK.

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It's not massively widespread, not on every street corner or anything. The average driver is most likely to come across number plate recognition when entering a shopping centre car park, so they can easily work out how long you've been in there and how long to charge you without the hassle and waste of a ticket.

To clarify: you can't just make up your own registration number. They all ultimately conform to the same licence patterns. Some just happen to appear to spell words or have similar meanings, and some of those ended up being traded as 'personalised'. A registration is always unique, but can be transferred from vehicle to vehicle, and plates are essentially forever, not dependent on regular inspections or re-licensing as in some US states.

The DVLA themselves now hold back from the regular pool of numbers issued to new cars, registrations that they think people might pay more for. They also act as sales agent for older registrations: I think these are probably ones where the car has been scrapped without the registration being kept, so it's effectively an unused number again, rather than them selling on other peoples' behalf. Some are sold, some are auctioned. As long as the paperwork is done correctly, anyone can buy and sell their registration number.

Here's the official website: http://dvlaregistrations.direct.gov.uk/

Here's a spreadsheet of the next formal auction lots, plates and reserves: http://dvlaregistrations.direct.gov.uk/auctions/DVLAAuction-September2017.xlsx

I probably won't put a bid in for 'AA08 RON'.

AMU53D

I was driving through my neighborhood about an hour ago and I passed a large pickup truck with personalized Texas plates that said BOLOX. I'm surprised that one made it past the censors. I guess they need to read up on UK slang.

I recall reading the word "bollocks" -- possibly written as "bollicks" in an old Donald Duck comic (possibly a Carl Barks story).