A friend of mine used to have DEEP 13 on his plates. Those who got it thought it was great; those who didn’t thought it was a porno reference. Worked either way.
My dad currently has W8N 4IT. Simple, yet elegant. I like it.
I don’t get it.
One of my favorites, for it’s absolute pointlessness, was $20 XTRA - I forget where I saw that, but I think it was in NC.
What up, dawg?
North Carolina has only a rear license plate (“tag”). People decorate the space left on most cars for a front license plate with all manner of strange things, but one extremely common thing is a plate imitating the standard state tag but inscribed ‘JESUS’ It seems He owns a lot of cars down here.
Of course, no such discussion would be complete without reference to the people who personalize their car with XLR8R – but my favorite story about this is traveling down I-95 and seeing a car with that plate pass us at a relatively high rate of speed, then passing him a few miles further on as he sat by the side of the road discussing something in a gentleman with a police uniform and an unmarked car with police lights flashing in rear window and from front grille.
I saw one on a Mercedes that said DPKS BNZ.
Just another Indian guy with a big wallet, I guess.
I saw one recently that said JC - RGN.
He also had “Jesus” stickers and “W '04” stickers.
So, that license plate might not mean “Jesus - Reagan” but I couldn’t think of anything else.
My all-time favorite bumper stickers were on a pickup truck–one side said “I [heart] Jesus” and the other side (in Spanish) said “Jesus is my gardener.”
I saw a VW Rabbit once with IM LATE. You can guess what color the car was.
My all-time favorite was an elderly lady in my hometown who had an old Mercedes 350SL and another Mercedes 220. On both she had one of those novelty license plate frames that read “My other car is a Mercedes.” I could never decide if she didn’t get it, or did get it and the joke was on us.
Aw man. Now I want that.
I am ashamed to say that my father’s BMW has the plate
DANASZ3
We have vanity plates too and I saw this guy drive a red Porsche Carrera convertible with theplate MACHO. Either self-irony at the highest level or really, really, really dumb.
The Shortsided Award goes to the drivers who are so proud of their new car they get a plate that says 2005BMW, not considering that in 3 or 4 years it will look pretty lame.
Just yesterday, I spotted “DX 2 NV” on a ratty Honda DX in partially riced condition. You know the type - the fiberglass curb-snagger bumpers are on, but still in the out-of-the-box primer gray color and the coffee can muffler tip is still on backorder. I’d want to envy this, why?
The ones I want to beat until unconscious are any that incorporate the name of the car. RED BMW, BLUE BUG, MY 340I, etc, I’m looking at you.
In Virginia, personalized licese plates are only $25 at the most. Therefore, I see more than anyone’s fair share of stupid personalized license plates every time I leave the house. NVME, JANSVW, IAMMIKE…if it has seven characters or less, you can slap it on there.
I’ve also seen STFU LOL. My next-door neighbors have IM EVIL and IM EVIL2. For a while I had TLPCASM - this license plate contains a satanic message. Then for a while I had TCNOHOR. Technowhore. Now I have a regular ol’ generic plate, but maybe I’ll blow $25 and get yet ANOTHER stupid personalized plate for my birthday. 
My plate is so ordinary. Just a refernce to what i do and where I teach: YHS 4N6
The Security people keep reading that last as “Foreign Sex.”
I think vanity plates are all really easy to read. They say “look at me I’m wonderful.” The rest is just a regional accent or something.
Was your football team 4-6 that season?
:running off to Crafton Hills:
I got vanity plates for my wife’s car because – when I have to drive the darn thing – I wanted to make it absolutely clear to the rest of the world that it was her idea to buy it, not mine. 