"Vanity of vanities, all is vanity!"
A couple of years ago, I saw a behemoth SUV in northern Virginia whose license plate read "HRD2PRK." At the other end of the scale is this recent sighting by writer Jay Nordlinger:
I saw a tiny little car, with a vanity license plate: "PARKABLE.'"Don’t think I have ever seen a better one: a better vanity tag, I mean.
Then there was that tricked-out Corvette I saw at a car show:
Australian newspaper columnist Tim Blair recently posted a picture on his blog of a Prius with the license plate "SMUG." The owner is said to be "an extremely likable engineer" and South Park fan who "takes a nerdish delight in the Prius’ engineering innovations."
The University of Redlands has a wonderfully silly school cheer made up mostly of nonsense words. I remember hearing some years back that the school had gotten vanity plates for official cars assigned to some of its administrators which, if they all park in their assigned spaces, spell out the first line of the cheer: "OCH" "TAMALE" "GAZOLLY" "GAZUMP" "DEYUMP" "DEYATTY" "YAHOO."
Those are all pretty good, but this VW photographed by Flickr user "dratz" boasts what is probably the greatest vanity plate of all:
--Cookie the Dog's Owner
Chris Hafner on March 19, 2010 at 08:01 AM
As a guy who works with software, I really love that last one. :-)
I never thought I'd be a vanity plate guy, but I have to confess I got the plate "COUPEGT" for my Audi. My defense is that it's purely descriptive, and it's about the *car*, not about me. Besides, my car doesn't have any model badging, so I may as well tell the world what the heck it is!
Anthony Cagle on March 19, 2010 at 08:13 AM
My Mustang II has BADGER2 on it because A) I'm from Wisconsin, and B) My brother had a regular Mustang with BADGER on it. Never got to park them next to each other though.
How about a white VW Rabbit with "ML8! ML8!"?
Or a sports car with OFCR YME?
That Car Guy on March 19, 2010 at 09:19 AM
When I worked at Nissan near Nashville, I had a plate that said MADENTN (MADE iN TN). But a lot of people read it as "MAD EN TN." However, when we introduced out new 1986 model Sentra, they borrowed it for the front of the car that Miss Minnie Pearl and then-Governor McWherter drove off the line in a media event.
For a still-unknown reason, I also got to pick out the car, a red 4-door that was loaded, with an automatic, so the the Gov would not stall the car like Marvin Runyon did when he drove the first truck, "Job One," off the line. The red car stood out very well in a sea of blue Nissan technician uniforms.
John B on March 19, 2010 at 01:09 PM
I had Mustang with the plate P-51.
Once I got pulled over and the cop asked if I had a P-51.
I wanted to say "If I could afford a P-51 do you think I'd be driving a Mustang?"
Theodore on March 19, 2010 at 03:08 PM
When I lived in Texas my Thunderbird had "BB 35" - the hull number of the battleship Texas. I have also thought about getting "QUO VADIS" - "whither goest thou?"
Vie on March 19, 2010 at 04:03 PM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pI5IfygkIyw
What's in a number plate? - More money than sense in most cases.
Tom on March 19, 2010 at 06:50 PM
I had a friend with "RD RASH" on his motorcycle and "CAR BOMB" on his car. Since he worked as a civilian for the Navy, he had to go through a security gate with the "CAR BOMB" every day.
Loki on March 20, 2010 at 05:53 AM
When I was in college, I dated a gal whose friend had a vanity plate that read "SXISFN" - he somehow tricked the DMV when they asked him what it meant. He responded, "I play saxophone in band."
David Drucker on March 20, 2010 at 06:55 AM
In the go-go eighties my Mercedes SL had BLT2LAST, with a Steal Your Face decal just to the left. At the time, Built to Last was the only Grateful Dead song whose plate was available, and given that the car was already a decade old the plate seemed doubly appropriate. At the same time my '71 300SEL 3.5 wore JUSTACAR.
In '98 I put LWYBMAMB (Lord Won't You Buy Me a Mercedes Benz) on my '88 300TE wagon, and when that car went away I moved the plate to a succession of leased Hondas. What else... BMW 4X4 on an '88 325iX, and GR8FL on my Harley-Davidson dresser.
Bob on March 20, 2010 at 12:24 PM
A few years ago, last page of Motor Trend 0r Car and Driver- not sure, there was a pic of a vanity plate "IXLR8" on a Ferrari or something else that looked very fast.
That Car Guy on March 20, 2010 at 02:44 PM
Well, here's a few:
http://www.holytaco.com/25-awesome-vanity-plates
NatefromOgden on March 20, 2010 at 08:32 PM
Best plate I ever saw was on a Jag sedan down the street from me in Ely, England. Plates there, if you don't know are available at the DMV with the vanity of your choice, they are assigned a series of numbers and letters based on the year they are registered. But plates can be bought and sold and good ones- with 3 initials or something that could mean something to someone else can sell for thousands of dollars.
Anyway, the Jag had a plate- OGO2L, that the owner had refused to sell for any money!
Ronnie Schreiber on March 21, 2010 at 10:23 PM
There's a guy with a Ferrari not far from here that has FRUGAL plates. Also, and I've seen it with my own eyes, someone in Michigan got BUKKAKE past the censors in Lansing. Either the bureaucrat didn't know what it meant of he was embarrassed to explain to his boss how he knew what it meant.
richb06092 on March 22, 2010 at 02:26 AM
Best I ever saw was on a BMW in Connecticut. Plate was "COPUL 8". Guess the DMV minions had no idea what it meant.
Cookie the Dog's Owner on March 22, 2010 at 07:36 AM
FRUGAL on a Ferrari makes perfect sense. How do you think he saved up enough to pay for it?
tigerstrypes on March 22, 2010 at 09:32 AM
One night I saw the gayest plate: a red Toyota Echo with the plate saying "Georgie". You guys should've seen it!
It would've been gayer if it was a Yaris.
Alan Schwarz on March 22, 2010 at 12:40 PM
My fave plate is still MISTVKE with a line through the V to make it look like an upside-down A.
Joey Gray on March 23, 2010 at 07:19 AM
I have the plate "JOE KART" on my Miata. The car came before the idea for the plate, but my son came up with the name and it stuck with the car. I figured it kinda made some sense. I've been complemented a couple of times on the plates.
NatefromOgden on March 24, 2010 at 09:39 PM
There's a modern Maserati in town with the plate, "DOES185". I thought that one was pretty smart.
OldCarGuy on March 31, 2010 at 05:57 AM
My Suburban = INERTIA
Don on April 11, 2010 at 01:20 PM
Couple of good ones seen on the east side of the Denver metro area:
• ALBUNDY, gracing a surprisingly pristine, cream-colored '75 Dodge Dart Swinger. I know, I know: Al's car was a "gold-tone" '72 or '73 Duster.
• CADZLLA, attached to a medium blue Cadillac Fleetwood built ca. 1972 that looked big enough to require separate area codes for the front and back seats.
Gordi on May 09, 2010 at 04:32 PM
I know a man with "ANKER" as his license plate. HOWEVER, he has a University of Washington license plate, which means there is a big purple W before the text on the plate. They recently asked him to do a photo shoot with his car.