YOU’RE SO VAIN
How much would you pay to put the number “1” on your car? On February 17th, the answer was $14,000,000 for one Arab businessman—the highest ever paid for a license plate. On the same day at an auction in Delaware, the state-issued black and white “6” went for a staggering $675,000, sold to a family who already own an estimated $2 million in collectible plates alone. The attitude of these extraordinarily motivated buyers can be summed up by Hamdan Khouri, brother of the winning bidder in the Abu Dhabi auction, who said simply, “We wanted to be number one.”
Number 1 came a little easier in 1903 when Massachusetts issued the first official vehicle registration plate in the country to Fredrick Tudor. It featured a white number “1” on a blue background with the words “MASS. AUTOMOBILE REGISTER.” Mr. Tudor may not have been aware of its collectible nature then, but the plate has stayed with the family to this day. Since that time, the license plate has evolved from a means by which states associate vehicles with their lawful owners to a method by which the owners themselves can express their passions, interests, associations and senses of humor.
A vanity plate is an affordable alternative to a bank-breaking bid for a state-issued low-number status plate. Individuality and personalization goes beyond the options available in a new car. Americans especially seem to consider their cars as extensions of their physical bodies. Likewise, a vanity plate is the vehicular version of a tattoo. If the metaphor sounds a trifle overdone, ponder the reoccurring “His & Hers” monograms, expressions of devotion (to nearly anything), and the bold declarations of monetary status, occupation, even sexual proclivity that appear on bumpers. Vanity plates have appeared in countless films and on television from OUTATIME (Doc Brown’s DeLorean in “Back to the Future”) to ECTO-1(“Ghostbusters” 1959 Cadillac ambulance) to KNIGHT (Michael Knight’s intelligent Trans Am in “Knight Rider”) and the famous ASSMAN episode of ABC’s “Seinfeld.” They are a visible testament to self-expression in a stratified society.
If you’ve been harboring the desire for a personalized license plate, odds are high you’ll find assistance online at the website for your state’s Department of Motor Vehicles. Applications for currently registered vehicles generally take from about a month to eight weeks to process. With yearly fees ranging from $10 to around $65, it’s unlikely you’ll need a second mortgage to afford them.
Every U.S. state has special interest groups that have commissioned unique license plates, from California’s Lake Tahoe Conservancy group to Alabama’s Atomic Nuked Veterans Association (though the price of entry for that particular plate may be higher than anyone wants to pay). There are literally hundreds of state university alumni plates and sports team fan club plates, if you’re interested. Lest you think you can pull off anything lewd or lascivious, there are approval officers who examine each plate submission for offensive content.
Before you run to the DMV with a short list of plate names, these statistics might send you running back to dig deeper into your stores of creativity:
In the United States, an astonishing 9.7 million vehicles currently have personalized plates, about one personalized plate for every 25 vehicles on the road.
Virginia residents must take care to be particularly creative, as their state claims the highest per capita vanity plate registration in the nation at 16.19%, followed by New Hampshire at 13.99%.
Surprisingly, you’ll have the best luck in Texas, a state long recognized for its big trucks and even bigger attitudes, but which registers last on the list at a mere .56%.
Driving Rebellion
Congressman Donald Brown (R-FL) recently proposed a controversial addition to the 109 specialty plates already available from Florida’s Department of Motor Vehicles. The proposed “Confederate Heritage” plate would display the flags of the territory as they appeared during the Civil War, flanking a center shield that bears a variation of the red, white and blue Confederate Battle Flag, better known as the “Rebel Flag.” Proceeds from these plates would support educational programs organized by the Sons of Confederate Veterans, as well as maintain graveyards and museums dedicated to Civil War history.
Brown denies any racial overtones, saying the plate merely “give[s] motorists a way to show pride in their heritage.” In response to the bill, State Senator Al Lawson (D-FL) remarked that he “would not let the bill go through with that on it, if it comes over from the House.” Brown meanwhile defends his license plate proposal pointing to his sponsorship of a bill that would rename a local road for Dr. Martin Luther King. • By Rob Deluca
