Iconic Number Plate Symbols

The River Dart has just missed out on being Devon’s car number plate icon.
The magnificent river which runs through Totnes was beaten by a cream tea.
The Dart made it to the top five suggestions of what should feature on a Devon car number plate if the UK ever followed the USA which has state personalised number plates.
British vehicle leasing company Leasing Options organised a fun vote to see what people across England thought should be featured on their county number plates.
In Devon, the River Dart came fourth in the top five suggestions, clocking up three percent of the vote.
The Devon cream tea came top with 32 per cent, Dartmoor and beaches joint second with 26 per cent and Powderham Castle fifth with two per cent.
Other key features of Devon which just missed out on the top five included a primrose, Tom Daley and Sir Francis Drake.
Mike Thompson, brand manager at Leasing Options said: “British drivers are passionate about their car aesthetics, but at the end of the day, a Ford Fiesta is a Ford Fiesta, no matter how shiny and clean.
“Using quirky interior accessories is one way to personalise your vehicle, but we believe showcasing your home county through an eye-catching number plate would be an amazing way to show off your home pride.”
Londoners opted for a picture of Big Ben; Merseysiders wanted The Beatles; Tyne and Wear backed the Angel of the North sculpture; Nottinghamshire plumped for Robin Hood; while South Yorkshire people said they would like to be represented by a Yorkshire pudding.

In Other News:

Another special number plate series is now available for Malaysian motorists, and joins ‘RIMAU‘, ‘PERFECT’, ‘NAAM’, ‘VIP’, and ‘GT’ from 2016 and the ‘PATRIOT’ plate from 2015 on the unique plates list. Officially introduced a couple of months ago, the latest special plate is ‘SMS’, and as usual, the numbers in the series run from SMS 1 to SMS 9999.

The SMS plate is in celebration of the Sultan of Kedah’s two-term reign as the Yang di-Pertuan Agong, and honours Sultan Abdul Halim Mu’adzam Shah via the initials of the vehicle plate series. The plate has been released by the Yayasan Sultanah Bahiyah (YSB) foundation, with the numbers being marketed by Perintis Jerai and issued via the Road Transport Department (JPJ).

The foundation says that main objective of SMS is to raise funds for its cause in helping needy citizens, especially the elderly and children. Fancy SMS-ing your car, then?

So what are the top selling number plates in the UK? The DVLA has been selling private plates to UK motorists since 1989. During this time, there have been a number of records set, but most of the top 10 have been bought in the past 15 years. Here’s what currently makes the list:

25 0 – A Ferrari dealer bought this for £518k in 2014. It is now on a £10 million Ferrari 250 SWB.
F 1 – A businessman, Afzal Khan, bought this for £440k in 2008 and put it on his McLaren-Mercedes SLR.
S 1 – This was bought in 2008 for £404k by an anonymous buyer.
1 D – Businessman Nabil Bishara bought this plate in 2009 (before One Direction was formed, so it is not a reference to the band) for £352k.
M 1 – Businessman Mike McCoomb bought this number plate in 2006 for £331k, apparently for his son, who was 10 at the time.
VIP 1 – Chelsea owner and businessman Roman Abramovich bought this plate for £285k in 2006.
51 NGH – This number plate, which looks like the surname Singh, was sold in 2006 for £254k.
1 RH – Businessman Robert Haverson bought this in 2006 for £247k.
K1 NGS – This reg plate, which looks like the word “kings”, was bought anonymously in 1993 for £231k.
1 0 – This very simple but striking number plate was bought anonymously in 2009 for £170k.

These are large amounts of money, but they are all small compared to the top-selling number plates found in other parts of the world. Abu Dhabi, in the UAE, has the record for the most expensive number plate ever sold. That number plate was a simple “1”. It was bought in 2008 by businessman Saeed Abdul Ghaffar Khouri for £7.25 million.

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