The Icelandic number plate system is very different to our own. They were first introduced in 1939. This early system ran until 1988; it featured silver characters on a black background and consisted of a region letter followed by a series of numbers. The plates were registered to an owner who would transfer them from their old vehicle to their new vehicle but would require a new plate if they moved from one region to another.

In 1989 a new system was introduced that is still in place today. These new number plates have a white reflective background with blue characters and are issued randomly. They have either three letters followed by two digits or two letters followed by three digits. The plates stay on the vehicle for life and cannot be changed, so sadly you can’t buy a personalised plate in Iceland. The plates themselves are manufactured in the state penitentiary. Commercial vehicles have red plates and cannot be used for personal use. If you change your vehicle in Iceland from commercial use to personal use, or the reverse, you will need a plate in the different colour, but the registration number itself won’t alter.

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There are two reasons why you might want attend the Bonham’s auction at the Goodwood Festival of Speed this July. Firstly there’s a fabulous classic Ferrari up for auction, and secondly, it was the first car owned by John Lennon! A once in a lifetime purchase opportunity for any Beatles fan.

If you’re lucky enough to win the auction then you’ll be wanting the perfect number plate for it. We’ve  got plenty of choice for you. You could have F2 LEN, LEN 75P or how about JOH 11? Perhaps you’d prefer JON 55S or maybe F20 JON? Or even JO11 NYS?

Of course this car is likely to fetch a pretty penny, but even if you can’t afford to buy it, a trip to the Goodwood Festival of Speed is a fabulous day out, whether you’re into motorbikes or car racing, there’ll be plenty for you to see and do with some great events and exhibits, it’s an amazing day out. If you’re a fan of Formula 1 then there’s some good news for you. Seven Formula 1 teams have already confirmed they will be there! You can find out more and book your tickets at the Goodwood website at http://www.goodwood.co.uk/

The new Jaguar F-Type has finally left the Birmingham factory and reports on the performance are good. The last sports car made by Jaguar was the E-Type which was made way back in 1975 so this new model has been a long time coming, greatly anticipated by Jaguar enthusiasts who are unlikely to be disappointed.

A true British classic that is still being made here in the UK. It’s estimated that over 75% will be exported overseas, predominately to the US. If you’re lucky enough to be a proud owner of one of these super 2-seater Jaguar F-Types, you may well want a head turning license plate to go with it. Look no further than Speedy Reg, we’ve got some great JAG plate. You can take your pick from 55 JAG, 75 JAG, JAG 15V, JAG 3R, JAG 64N and more! The perfect compliment for your new car. We’re sure both the car and the plate will bring you joy for many years to come! Just put the word JAG into our search engine and you’ll see some great plate options to choose from.

Are you known for being a fun loving party animal or a bit of a Victor Meldrew? Either way, you could use this to inspire your choice of personalised license plate.

If you’re always cracking a joke you could go for FUN 3Y or PUN 853.

If you’re always up for fun then there are loads of FUN plates to choose from such as TO04 FUN and P15 FUN. If you’re feeling down in the dumps then you could opt for SAD 64 or 10 SAD, or E13 BLU if you’re feeling blue. If you’re feeling more positive then how about JOY 9E, F2 JOY or JOL 3Y? If you have a crazy side then F12 MAD or MAD 11V might be perfect for you, or if you’re just downright bad, there’s still a plate for you, despite whether or not you deserve it! You can have BAD 17K or W40 BAD.

Whatever your personality and whatever your mood, there’s a huge range of plates to choose from. If you have several cars you could buy a couple of plates and pick the plate you want to take out and about depending on how you’re feeling! FUN or SAD?  MAD or BAD? The choice is yours!

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Plenty of celebrities have a birthday this month, and celebs love personalised number plates so let’s find the perfect plates for the birthday boys and girls this month.

Ray Parker the singer and songwriter who created the famous Ghostbusters theme song celebrated his birthday on May 1^st. We think he’d love the plate 66 RAY.  Actress Kay Panabaker born on 2^nd May 1990 might love the plate C5 KAY. George Clooney also celebrates his birthday in May and we’ve found two great plates for him. He could take his pick from GEO 26E or G36 RGE. Of course he’s very famous and very rich, so we’re sure he could snap up them both. He’s bound to have two fabulous cars to put them on!

For young Disney Channel actress Debby Ryan there are plenty of great DEB plates to choose from. We like 87 DEB and 400 DEB. X-Factor finalist Olly Murs could celebrate his May birthday with D10 LLY or MUR 12. Tennis champion Andy Murray celebrates his birthday on May 15. Ideal plates for him would be MUR 444Y or perhaps TEN 11S!

Chow Yun Fat, star of the hit film Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon could be driving around with FAT IIE plates, or he could pick up A9 YUN for under £200!

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Here at Speedy Reg we have loads of great number plates for sale, but other than the huge choice, why else would you opt to buy your plates from Speedy Reg when there are other companies that offer similar services?

Well there are plenty of reasons. Our prices are competitive and we also have a massive array of plates for under £100, as well as plenty of top-end highly desirable plates too of course. Regardless of whether you’re buying one of our bargain cheap plates, or a plate costing tens of thousands of pounds, you always get the same exemplary customer service, something of which we’re very proud. A lot of our business comes by word of mouth, from customers recommending us to their friends, family and colleagues after they have had a great experience.

We’ve been around since 1984 so we’re a long established business. That means we’re not going anywhere and we know what we’re doing! We undertake your registration transfer in super quick time, and we’ve streamlined all our processes to get your new number plate on your car as quickly as possible.

That’s not all though, we are the number one supplier of Irish number plates in the UK and our website and search facility is very easy to use making choosing a new plate easy and trouble free.

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We love the idea of a co-ordinated car / personalised number plate combo and so we’ve come up with some suggestions for you to tie in your car’s make or model with a personalised plate.

If you’re a BMW owner, you’ve got plenty of brilliant choices, you could have 71 BMW, F6 BMW or BMW 200L. TVR owners also have some super plates to choose from. Some of our favourites are 4 TVR, F2 TVR and F3 TVR.

If you drive a Lamborghini you could have 10 LAM, 111 LAM or LAM 30X. Rover drivers can have B17 ROV or C10 ROV. If you have a Citroen 2CV then how about B2 CVJ or B2 CVN? Jaguar owners could pick up 75 JAG or the awesome JAG 3R. Jeep owners needn’t miss out either, we’ve spotted J505 EEP just for you. If you own a Volkswagen Beetle then there are plenty of great BUG plates. How about BUG 5S or C20 BUG? For the owner of a Rolls Royce we’ve got ROL 13R, own an MG then you can have the pick of some fabulous plates; do MG 3, MG 4 or 5 MG take your fancy?

Whatever make and model of car you drive, you’re bound to find a great plate that will match nicely with your car of choice. Of course if you don’t find a match for your make or model, you’ve got plenty of other options, pick a plate with your name on, one that advertises your business, or a plate that makes a statement about your hobbies or interests.

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If you’re looking for an investment that’s also a lot of fun, you really can’t go wrong with personalised license plates. They may not be the first thing you think about when you’re looking for an investment, but they are definitely worth considering. Personalised plates retain their value well and often increase in value too.

Any short plate will be desirable, as will those that clearly represent a desirable word or a common name. You might get lucky and pick up a cheap plate that becomes far more valuable when the words you’ve chosen become more popular, perhaps representing a new band, celebrity or high rating TV show that didn’t exist when you bought the plate.

Of course the joy of investing in number plates is that you can use them while you’re waiting for them to increase in value. They’re great fun to have, they turn heads and they can also be a good way to advertise your business. The car you put your plates on will no doubt keep depreciating, but the plates will keep their value, often ending up being worth more than your car.

Unless you get very lucky, your plates probably won’t rocket in value overnight, but as a safe medium to long term investment they’re ideal. They’re easy to buy; you can have them on your car within days, and they’re easy to sell when you’re ready to. Of course they are a luxury item, but even in these tough economic times sales of personalised number plates are on the increase, so there’s no great risk that trends will change and personalised plates will go out of fashion. They’ve been with us a long time and these days they’re chosen by people from all walks of life, they’re no longer considered to be a frivolous extravagance for the rich and famous, but an accessory for anyone with any type of car. The perfect way to express your personality via your vehicle.

There are few products in life that you can buy, use and enjoy, without them depreciating. Personalised plates are a pretty safe bet in the risky world of investments. There are plates available to suit any budget, so whether you want to invest a hundred pounds, or hundreds of thousands of pounds, you’ll find a plate that’s just right for you. Pick a good plate that is both desirable to others, but personal for yourself too, and you can enjoy it for a few years until you cash in your investment and reap the resulting rewards.

If you’ve always wanted a personalised number plates  but thought it would be too expensive then think again. What you may not know is that you can pick up an Irish number plate for a very low price and it is completely legal to display these plates on any UK vehicle. The process for obtaining an Irish number plate is no more complicated than that for any other plate so you needn’t worry about it taking too long or requiring a lot of extra paperwork.

You can search for cheap Irish plates at Speedy Reg and here’s the good news, you can pick up a plate for as little as £40! Irish number plates are shorter than the British plates so they look very desirable. As an example, CXZ, DXZ, MFZ, UUI, UJZ plates are all available for just £40.

You can also transfer an Irish plate onto any vehicle regardless of age, there are no restrictions, making it the perfect choice if you want to disguise the age of your vehicle. All Irish plates are dateless as the DVA have a different system to that which we’re used to with the DVLA. You can put the plates on any vehicle, including motorbikes.

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We’ve been out on the street asking you what you’d love to have on your personalised car number plate if money were no object.

Karen Holdsworth said she’d love to have her name on her number plate. Everyone calls her Kaz and she thinks this would make a great plate. We agree and let her know that with a visit to Speedy Reg she could pick up AF03 KAZ for under £200!

Tom Grantley said he’d also like his name on a plate, but he’d love a really short plate as he thinks they look the coolest. We’ve found the perfect plate. 86 TOM, not only does it have his name on, but it also has the year of his birth – 1986!

Evan Smyth runs a web design company and he’s been thinking about a plate that would help promote his business. We took a look at what is available and came up with the fabulous F1 WEB, however at over £20,000 this might be a little over Evan’s budget, but he could always opt for E15 WEB for under £600. He could pick up a plate even cheaper if he wants his company name, EVS on his plate; ACO2 EVS is available for under £200!

Photo credit: Ed Callow [ torquespeak ] / Foter.com / CC BY