The new ’23’ number plate will be launched early this month for registered vehicles.
But while a new number plate – usually – means a boost in sales, it also spurs the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency into action to ban a slew of potentially rude and offensive combinations that can be made using the new numbers .
This year D23 UGY, EU23 OFF and UA23 ASE have all been removed from availability, carwow revealed today exclusively to This is Money after executing a freedom of information request.
Rude and Offensive: The ’23’ number plates are banned, as revealed by carwow to This is Money
Carwow.nl, said: ‘Few drivers will want to be told GO23 HEL or EA23 POO by the car in front, for example, while no one wants to share the road with a BA23 TRD, a PS23 CHO, a TO23 ERR or an AA23 OLE. BO23 OKS and MU23 DER are also likely to cause perpetual fouls.”
It added: ‘More recent events have resulted in plates such as RU23 UKR, NO23 RUS and YE23 WAR being suppressed, alongside CO23 ONA and EU23 BAD.’
Senior members of the DVLA have a biannual meeting at their base in Swansea to choose those they want removed from sale for being too rude.
The team of experts investigates possible offensive meanings that can be created using the latest registration number and scrupulously tries to prevent anything that could be considered offensive from being available.
Rude license plates that could slip through the DVLA’s net prior to the change could still be withdrawn at a later date, but the DVLA said “the vast majority of registration numbers are being made available” as most are unlikely to be offensive are.
Hugo Griffiths, Carwow’s consumer editor, told This is Money: ‘Personalised number plates are a huge business, generating £2 billion for the Treasury since the DVLA started selling them in 1989, with around 400,000 cherished plates sold each year .
Despite this lucrative revenue stream, there are some license plates that are simply too rude for the road.
And while few would argue against the elimination of offensive license plates, the biennial meetings where DVLA employees sit down and deliberately come up with gross combinations should be one of the highlights of the organization’s agenda.
Even for those not interested in personalized registrations, it may be a wise idea to change cars during the license plate change months of March and September, both for people who want the latest registration and for bargain hunters who can get a good deal. on a car with the previous registration.’
Borrow more to pay for cars
The amount British drivers borrowed to pay for cars hit a new all-time high in 2022, an increase of more than £4bn compared to the previous year, according to a report published this week.
Despite fewer new and used car sales and fewer financing deals signed last year, analysis of full-year data published by the Finance and Leasing Association shows that lending has risen to £40.7bn.
It has been driven in part by average financing amounts per vehicle reaching unprecedented levels for both new and used cars, according to The Car Expert.
This is despite rising interest rates in 2022 and the rise in the cost of living, which insiders say are putting worrying pressure on household finances.
To put the increase in borrowing into perspective, in 2009 about £11.2 billion was tied up in motor financing.
That means that there has been an increase of 263 percent between then and last year.
New car buyers borrowed an average of £25,325 in 2022, up from £23,746 the previous year – and more than double the amount earned in 2019, which was around £12,000 13 years earlier.
Used purchases left debt at £15,475, up from £14,113 in 2021 respectively, the FLA’s data shows.
Stuart Masson, editor at The Car Expert, said this week: ‘The UK’s addiction to car finance has grown significantly since 2009, and with another record year of total lending last year during the cost of living crisis, we can of households decreased. increasing pressure.
‘The average borrowing capacity for both new and used cars has also risen again, despite rising interest rates.’
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