Aberdeen is tops for personalised number plates
Ever wondered who and where are the biggest spenders on personalised car registrations?
With personalised plates now more popular than ever, car insurance company Admiral has researched more than one million motorists to reveal the people most likely to have them on their cars.
Motorists in the South East and South West are the least likely to have private registrations with residents of south east London residing at the bottom of the list, followed by Taunton and Bath.
Admiral managing director, Sue Longthorn said: “I think the reason Aberdeen has come top for personalised plates is the fact that its Europe’s oil capital. There are a lot of wealthy people in the city and they want to display their wealth through the cars they drive”.
More surprising is just why these number plates are so popular in the rest of Scotland.”
When it comes to occupations, private plates are most popular with haulage contractors, followed by dental surgeons and shop proprietors. Also in the top ten are traditionally “wealthy” occupations such as property developers, company directors and airline pilots. Oil rig workers come in at number ten reinforcing Aberdeen’s place as top town.
Sue Longthorn continued ”The list of occupations suggest that private plates are still more popular with the wealthy, but they are becoming more available to all motorists.
What is interesting to note is that on the whole it is still men who have them. 41% more men than women are likely to have a personalised number plate on their car.
Equally, the older you get, the more likely you are to splash out on a private registration for your car. The age group most likely to own one is those in their fifties. This is probably because the older generation has more disposable income than everyone else.
Finally Admiral looked at which cars are most likely to have a personalised number plate. Perhaps predictably, high end cars are more likely to sport one, with BMW exposed as the overall top make of car for personalised number plates. There are a total of six BMW models in the top twenty with the BMW M5 model in first place.
Lee White from Cardiff has two private number plates, W111TEO and W111TEU. He said, “I bought my first personalised number plate before I even had a car! A private plate is for life and can be passed down through the family. It will also only increase in price. I have been offered double the price I paid for it from people in the street and it was recently valued at £500 more than I paid.”
The price of personalised number plates can range from £95 to half a million pounds.