Customised number plates have captured the nation’s imagination and thanks to the likes of Rambo, Beast and Pacenzja, Transport Malta raises more than a million euros every year.
The sale of customised and personalised number plates is quite a reliable source of revenue: there are in total 1,477 car owners who paid €1,500 for a customised number plate. Another 76,369 own a personalised number plate, choosing the three letters and the three numbers for €200.
Customised number plate owners who spoke to The Sunday Times of Malta said they regarded it as a statement of individuality, a trinket, a type of automotive jewellery. To the vast majority who own a random plate, customised number plates are an ostentatious waste of cash.
However, it is not only owners of luxury cars who buy these plates: it is often the case that you see cars chug past and you instinctively know the number plate is worth more than the car.
Normal non-personalised number plates cost €70. On average, every year 4,222 car owners pay €200 for a personalised one, which allows the buyer to decide on the combination of the name/numbers on the personalised plates.
About 184 car owners opt to pay €1,500 for a customised plate every year. On average, Transport Malta makes revenue of €1.12m every year out of fancy car names.
When the customised number plates were introduced in 2005, the names were originally auctioned with the bidding starting out at Lm500 (€1,165). The system was discontinued that same year and replaced with a fixed price.
Personalised or customised number plates cannot be sold or auctioned. They can, however, be transferred.
A Transport Ministry spokeswoman said requests for personalised and customised plates were vetted to ensure no obscene or offensive words were issued on number plates.
€1,500
the cost of a customised number plate
The Sunday Times of Malta has been compiling a list of customised number plates seen on the road. Several are a mere letter of the alphabet or a solitary number or two.
Most often it is the first name of the car owner, such as Antonella, Ariadne (not our head of news, we hasten to add) Chaya, Josielle, Shanice, Shannon; or the surname such as Ciantar, Cucciardi, Cremona, Dingli, Mallia, Bezzina.
Others such as Alfsons, Twistees, Fairplay, 897Bay, Eden, Paqpaq and Parrucan are clearly adverts for companies, products or media enterprises.
Football fans seem keen to immortalise their favourite clubs and footballers on a number plate, cue Hotspur, Maradona7 and Manutd.
The same can be said of music aficionados with Bowie, Beatles and The Verve spotted on the road.
Singers Ira and DeborahC have christened their cars after their stage names and it is very easy to spot where they are performing.
Renowned nicknames also make it to the plate namely, Cancu and Caqnu. There is also a Qoccu, Ququ, Tabexxaq, Tagolu, Taccinell, Xadin, Zozz, Rabti and In-Nutar.
Quite possibly members of the same family opt for group number plates such as Admor, Admor 1 and Admor 3; TG1, TG2; and Uboat, Uboat1, other simply state the family role: Daddy.
Sometimes the name is already taken up and a number or a letter is added to make the plate ever so slightly different, hence: Caroline, Caroline7; Fenek, Fenek001; Martina, Martina 26.
There are some menacing ones: Baghdad, Rambo, Fury, Kaiser, Phantom, Revenge, Trouble, Topgun, Beast, Charger, Cobra, Diva, Viking and Storm.
And then there are the more harmonious ones like Angel, Godbless, Halo, Harmony, Heaven, Love, Lovebug, Miracles, Rainbow, Soul and Relax.
Idleness is most certainly a very laidback car owner, and so must be Pacenzja. Then there are the cryptic ones like 4U2C and XXS.
And the more kooky ones like: LadyDiana, Lost, She, Sweetman and Chess. Psalm121 is quite intriguing and makes you want to open the Bible and check it out (“The Lord is your keeper and shall preserve you from all evil”, in case you were wondering).
Number plates are also lovey-dovey: Honey, Babes, TheOnly, Kinky, Swanky and Conamore. There is also what are presumably his n’ hers ones: Drina, Drinu; Burbinu, Burbina; and Zunzan, Zunzana.
Hereby ends the analysis of the names of cars on our roads, and in the words of one customised number plate: Bye.
Boosting egos?
According to new research, people are prepared to pay such a sum to boost their egos. A survey based on personalised number plates, conducted by professor Andrew Oswald, of the University of Warwick, found that having such a plate was purely a status symbol. The research surveyed a sale of nearly 3,000 number plates in the UK.
“Where diamonds and watches have a function – to look pretty or tell the time – number plates don’t have a function apart from status, yet people will spend thousands of pounds on them,” Prof. Oswald said.