Saw this on a car today: "I miss my ex - but my aim is improving" My plates: BMER BMERII A few years ago, saw someone that had: TTFN
Currently... See my Avatar for my personalized plates. The frame says 'Freude Am' and 'fahrEn' was already taken in Wisconsin -- I'm on the look out for that guy. It better be on a German car... Totally unrelated here is what I have on the back of my truck. Until I pointed it out, the wife never noticed the archer...pointing toward...the deer. (Click thumbnail to see larger.)
All-time smile-inducing vanity plate is the one Car and Driver showcased on a Cadillac project car that, if I recall, the owner slipped past the DMV in Texas: 1FASTMF. Do you ever see possible vanity plates where you're not sure if it's an inside joke you don't get, or just the random combination of DMV-generated digits, and you wonder if it's really a vanity plate after all? Is LUD-E36 L.U. Davidson's car, or just random? Plus any time you see a 3, is it meant to be an E read in a rear view mirror?
My cars had FUN2DRV and MINIMUM. Also had FIRST 1 because I thought I was going to get a 135i. My last hobby had 02BFLYN.
Misunderstood vanity plates Nice! And somewhere there's a guy reading your last plate on the freeway and remarking, "Jaysus -- and don't we all want to be Irish, now." Does anybody else besides me steer clear of vanity plates because a) you're a cheapskate like me and b) you don't want to stand out in the eyes of the law?
Oh I don't know. I think the Roundel stands out enough. BMW=tickets, other makes=warnings. At least in my case.
I don't worry about it too much; I figure if I'm doing something ticketable, the speeding/driving/etc. will get scoped out and be what's drawing attention long before they get a view of the license plate. I suppose there's the potential scenario of getting clocked at short range and the cop actually noticing the plate, but again, there's so many vanity plates I would guess most cops are hunting the biggest tax, err, tickets. Of course, I'm not driving the latest and greatest either. 20 yr. old bimmers look a bit more generic these days than a shiny new one. As for actually getting out of a ticket? I think only once did I get a warning.
Apparently not. At one point, I was doing about 90 in a 55 zone in the left lane and the cop was following me for a while but didn't realize till a bit later. I slowed my arse down, went to the middle lane and he just got off the next exit and that was that. He was following pretty close too, close enough to see the shiny roundel on the back. Aaaaand, countless times I went speeding past a cop on the side of the motorway and he didn't bother coming after me. I don't have a radar detector, so it would have been too late to slow down by the time I saw them. Just the other day, I was following an almost new Mercedes C-class at a good 85 and there was a cop ahead. He went straight for the Mercedes. I guess it does matter whether your car is new or old. Old cars they probably don't bother with. Maybe they think they can rake more money in from those with new cars, I dunno.
The fine isn't proprotional to car cost... just the satisfaction of sticking to a rich person when you live on a cops salary.... FWIW, the wife and I have some personalized plates... DR OBNXS, cause it's my nickname. And when I pulled over, I usually get asked about it and the story leads to some chuckles that normally break some tension and get a lower speed written. CARMOIR, for our MDX. My wife never really takes stuff out of the car so it ends up being a closet in wheels.... SUMRNYT, for my 65 mustang convertable. Gift from a past girlfriend..... My old FIAT doesn't have one, nor did my wifes former Honda Civic SI. I actually haven't noticed a bias one way or another about tickets and vanity plates. Im sure one like FUCOP wouldn't help though..... I used to have some track stickers on my Mini... Took them all off and just left the "Actual Size" sticker. Humor does better than bragging about speed and racing, I"ve found. One time when pulled over at about 90, the cop asked my why I was driving so fast, I admitted that it was cause the car was so much effin fun, he laughed and wrote me up for 5 over.... Matt
Last year, my dad was cleaning out the garage when he found a pair on non-custom NY plates he had on his Jeep CJ back in the mid 70's. He thought of me and gave me the set... 7788-BMW! Beverly and I immediatly started looking for a car to put them on and just recently purchased a 83 Euro 635CSi. We have to wait until Jan 1, 2009 to have it officially turn 25 years old and then we can register it as a vintage vehicle and can use the plates.
I thought about the vanity plate, TETZEL since the BMW is a bit of an indulgence, but the reference is too obscure. As far as stickers go, there's a BMWCCA cling on the passenger side of the windshield and a KC BMW sticker in the passenger side Hofmeister kink. And then, since I hit various local dirt tracks during the summer where the pickup to import ratio is ~ 1,000:1, I have a 'The Fabulous Trashwagon' decal low on the rear light. Of course I have an Age & Treachery Racing roundel next to the rear license plate. Best plate I've seen slip past the censors, 'IVQ2' on a VW Rabbit GTI years ago. But IIRC, Satch had a column in AutoWeek years ago on slipping plate names past the sensors - his favorite was SMEGMA.
mine is an MD state plate supporting the National Capitol Chapter of the BWWCCA, so it's kind of personalized and kind of not.
Kool! Mine too! If you look closely I have the NY chaptor logo on the left and the bottom of the plate reads ''BMW Car Club of America''. Very nice. =) I had to fax the DMV a copy of my member ID card. What about you?
Complete opposite for me, every ticket I have gotten has been in our Toyota while I have been let go in the 2002 and even in the Orange E30 M3.
License plates Hey, the SMEGMA plate was on an Army-green SAAB, so it was perfectly appropriate. The funny thing is that when I sold the car to a friend and released the plate to him, the DMV wouldn't let him have it. I think they were smarting from the 55SUX and FUGAWE plates that were then extant. One great Alaska plate case occurred when the DMV tried to retrieve CMFIC from a certain retired military hombre who---well, I gues he WAS the CMFIC. Anyway, when his lawyer stood up in court and said, "Your honor, my client is a religious man, and follows the fcredo, 'Clergy Make Friends In Church'" the judge threw everybody out and retired to the nearest bar. When Kelly bought the twin-turbo she sort of corrupted that into TWUBBL (by the way, she once parked next to a different BMW with TWUBBLE). I think she is looking forward to saying, "Offisuh, am I in TWUBBL?" So naturally I had to put WOADSTR on the Z4. We sound like the illegitimate children of Elmer Fudd. Other plates from my checkered past include NIFTY SEDATE LOST WE BAD WE BADD TROLL (another Saab) WAY L8 EVN L8R MIXDUP (325iX) IMZ14U UZ14ME ROTRAT SAAAB and probably a few I've forgotten.
