Private plates, what is driving the R15 ING trend?

 

The trend for private plates has never been higher, something of an irony in an era of increasing individuality. Indeed the DVLA sales of private number plates grew by 12% last year to an annual total of 374,968 with business just as good for private number plate retailers, their market share steadily rising for the past five years or so.

The reasons for such continued growth aren’t too hard to fathom. For one thing, a personalised registration can make the age of a car difficult to determine, however social media also plays a large part. People post images of their cars on Facebook, Instagram etc. and a private plate certainly adds a touch of ‘look at me’ to the post.

And why not? It’s very much a feel good factor and in these austere times, we all need lifting from time to time. More importantly of course, these private plate sales add a lot to the economy with the DVLA’s sale of personalised plates bringing in £100 million to the treasury each year.

At entry level, personalised private plates could set you back around £250 plus reassignment fees and there are approximately 800 of these sold every day. At the opposite end of the scale, some registration plates can patch upwards of £500,000 and these ‘higher level’ plates have become increasingly seen as investments. Indeed the general rule is that the costlier the plate, the more it will grow in value in years to come. A notable example is ‘F 1″ which was bought for around £400,000 in 2008 but is now reckoned to be worth anywhere between £10 and £15 million.

One thing is for certain, private number plates are big business and they will continue to be for may years to come!

Scroll to Top