12 strange car licence plates

 

Why girls laugh at the guy with WOLF on his car

A GUY WHO LIVES near me (actually, he lives in the adjoining, much swankier neighborhood) drives a low-slung, super-sleek, jet black sports car. His car “number” plate is just a single word: “WOLF”.

I was standing at the bus stop the other day when WOLF growled past. The two women next to me saw the license plate and laughed.

Now I’m quite sure this was not the reaction he paid so much money to achieve. “Why is it funny?” I asked. “It’s so male,” said one. “It’s so stupid,” said the other. “Is that tautology?” I asked.

Countries around the world are flocking to earn tax dollars by selling vanity plates to car owners. Where I live, people are racing to get them. At the time of writing this, a guy in a black Mercedes bearing the word “VERSACE” on its license plate has just zoomed past.

That night, I asked women at the bar why guys buy vanity plates to impress females, but women sneer at them. “A guy thinks that we see his number plate saying ‘COOL DUDE’ and we think he is a cool dude,” said one gal. “But in fact what we think is, there goes a guy with more money than sense: I’m glad I’m not dating him.”

A second female interrupted. “Not true! I LIKE guys with more money than sense. They’re my favourites. I collect them.” A third woman, with a bitter curl of her lip, said: “ALL men have more money than sense.” After a thoughtful pause, she added: “Even the ones with no money.”

In defense of motorists in Asia, male and female, I pointed out that one does occasionally see intelligent number plates in this region. Indonesian violinist Idri Sardi has B10LA on his car, which looks like “biola”, the Bahasa Indonesian word for violin. Jakarta actress Leoni has a plate on which is written: L30NI.

But I’ll admit these aren’t as witty as those you see in the west. Like the divorced US woman with the sports car carrying a plate saying: “WAS HIS”.

Or the one owned by a self-deprecating blond that says BLOND, spelt correctly, but attached upside down.

Or the Porsche labeled IXLR8 (“I accelerate”). Here are some more classics, mostly from the US, home of the odd license plate:

Also, there’s a language issue. Bangladeshi plates are in Bengali, Burmese ones are in Burmese, Chinese and Sri Lankan ones usually have one character from the vernacular language, and Pakistan has plates in Urdu, Farsi and Hindi. Creating wit is not easy.

But this doesn’t mean that Asian motorists can’t do it. Consider the infamous events of the summer of 2002 in Beijing. A new law allowed citizens to design their own license plates.

A motorist was soon spotted driving in USA-911, which was considered insensitive.

People started registering famous names such as IBM-001. When someone took to the road in SEX-001, officials were shocked.

Then someone registered “250” which is an insult in Chinese. Money was historically kept in batches of 500 units, so if you say, “you’re a 250”, it means “you’re only half there”. Officials quickly changed the laws and wit vanished once more from China’s capital.

Meanwhile, if the owner of WOLF is reading this, don’t pick up the girls at the 58A bus stop. They’re not impressed.

 

Technorati Tags: funny license plates,vanity plates

Comments

[Laura]

Hi I'm chinese, but I hv no idea what "250" means....

[farah]

if there's ever any hit and run case with the customized number plate it would be easier to remember and track the car. with normal serial plates one would have to go like this, "dhaka gha 00425" or was it "dhaka ka 98547" or .....

see how difficult it is to remember random number and words?

[Nury]

Laura, I think using 250 as an insult must be a Beijing thing.

Farah -- good point, I wonder if WOLF and his friends have considered that?!

[Jason]

Ah Nury, I hate to have to reeducate you, but your geography is as bad as well...Americans! Now I know Americans are hopeless at finding anything on a map, let alone their own countries, but that WAS HIS plate, just above it says Ontario. Ontario my friend is in Canada, a place to which Americans flock for cheap drugs...if they could find it!

[Jason]

And I always thought this was the most clever one:

http://www.plak.fr/photos/15_300.jpg

[TS]

Once worked with a guy who thought it was clever with the company name on his license plate. Two months later the company was bought out and renamed.

Another guy I knew had: Pb ft

[Jason]

I saw a plate once, they guy had the model number of his car. What do you do when you sell it and by something else? doh!

[Clare]

I saw a heavily tinted 4WD in Kuala Lumpur bearing the plate number MAF14.

[Sham]

You know Clare, I have seen the same number plate in KL on a Proton Waja too. Which ones the fake number plate???

[Nico Ni]

hello,“you’re a 250” dosent really mean “you’re only half there” at most of time. it has multiple meanings like "stupid", "idiot","bold but has no brain" ...hah, what a number!
from a chinese girl's view,strange car plate also means the owner "had become rich in one night"--have money but no taste

[Christy]

Maybe it isn't really so cool to have a witt license plate -- the dumb guy behind you might crash into your car while trying to figure it out...

[Ricardo Cabeza]

Nury, I may have sent you this one years ago, in Lai See days -
I was walking down the street in Toronto with a friend when we spotted HER 280. My friend commented, "I bet there's another with HIS 280."
A few days later, after seeing the car, I telephoned him. "Well, you were partly right. It's HIS 450."
And I was about to jump on you over the Boxster with the WAS HIS plate but Jason got there first. If there's one thing Ontario is not, thank all gods, it's in the USA.
But in the USA I did see a plate - FUQ2. I didn't think one could get something like that past the authorities. But...?

[Harry]

Maybe "Wolf" is his name.
Btw, don't you get a laugh out of the name "Wolf Blitzer" on CNN? Who made that up? Can't be real.

[Mike]

My favorite plate was in Virginia you can pay extra for a plate that says "kids first" on the bottom and the money goes to schools.

Some one got a personalized plate that said "eat the"

[TS]

A few years back in Queensland they introduced a new license plate motto, in addition to the old Sunshine State, that said The Smart State.
People from other states teased them because traditionally Queenslanders are considered a bit hillbilly and nobody would tick the box for The Smart State when they applied for license plates.
We left our car with my wife's parents when we moved to the UK and had to change the plates to Queensland plates so that they could drive it in our absence, but all the Sunshine State plates had gone so we had no choice...

[Angela]

Wow! So much to catch up with. I just came back from 5 hrs hike through some rough terrain and my shoes gave up :-( at the end of the hike the view is rewarding, a town port where you can get ice cream and go yacth wacthing. The car plates i have seen so far, from frankfurt to here were quite tame but the boat names were interesting. So my hobby now is boat watching. I spotted a cheeky "why knot" and also someone told me that on summer months an arab prince sail in with his family in an impressive yacth named "Tits" flanked by two smaller boats for his entourage, aptly named "nipple 1" and "nipple 2". Beat that :-)

[fardel]

WOLF?
Like in :
We Oblige Lusty Females?!
We Outbid Lehmans' Financers?!

[Bill]

Some years ago I saw a plate in NZ - ONOYME. A short distance down the road I saw a wild-haired woman driving a rusty station wagon. It had a bumper sticker announcing "My other car is a broom".

[Harry]

Angela - The yacht and boats to which you refer is, or was, owned by a prince of Brunei.
And, in a great put down of the "My other car is a Porsche" bumper sticker, normally seen on rusty old VW beetles, I saw a pristine Porsche 911 with a "My other car is a piece of shit" bumper sticker.
And I saw a seven litre AC Cobra with an engraved silver plaque in the middle of the instrument panel - "Toad of Toad Hall".

[kartini]

i saw a black 4WD in malaysia with the plate JED1. kinda kewl, doncha think?

[Kay]

What if the license "number" is a rude word? If the police have to stop the car, can they arrest themselves for saying indecent behaviour?