There's something about an 'X' plate

[carlo]

Don't know about you people but I've always fancied an old car with an X plate, preferably as the suffix.

 

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Ford-Granada- ... 1e792f5433

 

They just look cool. I'm attracted to cars because of their plate; for example I'd overlook any car with one of those revolting 51/02 plates in favour of a Y or an X prefix (usually with the old petrol shite I look at, an X plate is cheaper to tax anyway).

 

Plates just looked better before 2001.

[Conrad D. Conelrad]

Plates just looked better before 2001.

 

Britain is one of very few countries with non shit numberplates. They're lovely and plain, just a number in block text on a plain background. It'd be great if we could put white ones on the back, but on the whole they're okay.

 

Most recently I wrote about how horrible Irish plates are* in Largactil's 205 thread, but I'm sure if there was a random post button on the site it wouldn't take many presses to land on one of my posts whining about how horrible [American/French/German/etc] plates are.

 

*very

[Guest]

Who could fail to love a car that has its very own "electric chair"? Some of my cars have deadly gas chambers, and others make me long for a noose, firing squad, or lethal injection, but an electric chair would be da nutz.

[RichardMoss]

I had a Renault 20 TL with the plate YKO 126 X which looked really smart (both plate and car)

[Shep Shepherd]

I've never seen a white Granada Ghia saloon before. Looks like a car which would have been used in The Sweeney, had the series carried on into the 1980s

[greengartside]

That Granada looks like an ex-press/manager's car for Ford. It has the 'Ford font' number plates too.

[andrew e]

You got an electric chair in a GL too and come 1993 it was the huge* selling pint of the GLX Mondeo

[ShiteRider]

Buy it! buy it now!

Though i'm biased, as i've three X-reg cars and two of them are cortinas.

[mk2_craig]

I'd love to own that Granada but having just sold some white 1980s Ford two pedal shite in the form of my Sierramatic, it would be unlikely to find favour with Mrs_Craig. The oldest car I ever owned was a £30 mk1 Fiesta, regrettably registered one day too late to sport an X plate

[worldofceri]

L reg cars have rubbish number plates. I've had an L reg in both prefix and suffix and the plates always looked lop-sided.

[Partridge]

I don’t like the 51/02 system either. But they’d just run out of if combinations otherwise. At least with the new system they can go on infinitely, without another huge shake up in how the number plate system work.

I agree that “X†plates looks cool. A mate had a Primera (before the Primera went weird) and the number was X774 XTX or something similar...that plate would be worth a few bob now...

[worldofceri]

They can't go on infinitely. The current system will last until 2051.

[Conrad D. Conelrad]

I'll be 67 then so I'll get a good chance to whine about whatever replaces it. In the very unlikely event cars are still a thing in 2051, that is.

[gtd2000]

They just look cool. I'm attracted to cars because of their plate; for example I'd overlook any car with one of those revolting 51/02 plates in favour of a Y or an X prefix (usually with the old petrol shite I look at, an X plate is cheaper to tax anyway.

 

That's not always the case actually.

 

I think if you go for a larger engined motor with higher emissions it's a good rule though.

 

When I bought my last X Reg Hyundai Coupe the 51 plate was actually cheaper to tax than the X plate...and I thought I was being clever getting the X plate at the time.

[Partridge]

They can't go on infinitely. The current system will last until 2051.

 

Oh that’s OK, most of us will be dead by then anyway so it doesn’t count.

[Conrad D. Conelrad]

I guess after 2051 they could just do the prefix/suffix swap again and carry on to 2101. e.g. ABC GL51.

[Partridge]

I guess after 2051 they could just do the prefix/suffix swap again and carry on to 2101. e.g. ABC GL51.

 

That’s a lot cooler somehow.

[Guest]

Buy this X reg motaaaaah.

 

OK, currently has borked clutch pedal, but that should be fixed soon. Otherwise, pretty fine.

 

[mk2_craig]

I would, but I'd have to re register it in a place where you can't have X in a number plate, so that would introduce a considerable element of fail into the exercise.

[eddyramrod]

I've had a couple of X-suffix (both Lada 1500 estates, curiously!), one X-prefix (which wasn't strictly mine but father-in-law's; I used to drive it quite a bit though) and two new-style plates ending in X (LF 53 UVX and DG 52 KLX). I'm sure all that will mean something to someone...

 

Oh and in Cyprus, I completely failed to buy a car with an X anywhere on the plates!

[alfetta]

14 years ago I had an X-reg saab 99 in brown, good car. One bloke thought X was like a Q plate and a bit dodgy.

 

another X plate saab I had about 25 years ago..

 

[freebird]

Years and years ago they remade "Quatermass" for the TV. Obviously, it was set in the future but I remember the Police driving around in BMC EA vans that had registrations ending in X. I thought this was amazing at the time ( cant remember what we were on then) and now Im looking back at X plates like Gazza looks back on his Football career, a fucking life time ago.

Its no fun getting old, is it.

EDIT: Just found out it transmitted in October and November 1979