Who would have thought the Scots are Britain’s vainest motorists? Bankstone News was certainly shocked to the core to read the shock findings of a shocking new survey from also-ran comparisoneers elephant.co.ck.
The price-comparing pachyderms insist that Scots (or Scotch folks as they prefer to be called) are by far the most likely of UK motorists to have vanity plates on their cars. Eight of the top ten postcodes identified in elephant’s 3.5m policy survey were north of the border, with the effluent Renfrewshire commuter village of Kilmacolm topping the table, just ahead of millionaire’s sandbank Sandbanks down south in Dorset.
The most-personalized vehicles identified by elephant included Bentley Continentals, of which 36% carry a personalised plate, Ferrero 360s, and Aston Martin DB7s, of both of which 35% are vanity plated.
Elephant director Brain Martin said of personalised plates: “It looks like they’re being used as some kind of status symbol.”
Who are these terminally insecure individuals for whom driving a fancy motor is insufficiently individuating? Elephant found that 16% of company chairmen have vanity plates, 12% of bankers and 11% of property developers.
The most expensive V-plate so far purchased in the UK was the registration M 1 sold at auction in 2006 for £330,000. The world record is the understated 1 plate sold in Abu Dhabi for a cool US$14m. Money well spent squire!
One unfortunate Australian woman had the misfortune of being legally required by NSW authorities to remove her personalized KIKI plates, after local Filipinos complained the word translates as lady bottom in their native tongue of Tagalog.
Accountants are well known for coming up with crazy plate ideas like AUD 1T and TAX 1NG, but what about insurance types? Bankstone News, of course is proud owner of CL4 1MS R US. And doesn’t Admiral’s Henry Angelheart have P1 FEE5 or something on his VW Schwimmwagen? But maybe you know some others. Email us your nominations to [email protected] and you might win a prize or something. Although probably not.
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