Staggering 14.3 Million Worth of Plates Auctioned

Let the bidding begin!

When the auction houses around the world send out alerts for exclusive number plates to go under-the-hammer to incipient bidders, you can bet it's Christmas 8-times over for number plate agents and auction houses on that coming weekend.

Some of the world’s top auctions can be organised by the UK’s very own DVLA, and far out east, the Emirates Auction company in the UAE.

Famous for its numerous accolades in record-breaking achievements; the Emirates Auction has governed the sale of 2 of the most expensive vehicle registration plates ever; one in 2007 and the other in 2008.

In 16th Feb, 2008, the most expensive car license plate made up of the single digit ‘1’ was sold to Saeed Abdul Ghaffar Khouri of the UAE for a mind-boggling £7.2m (Dh52.2million) during a special event.

This year, however, the figures were lower, but substantial in the auction category of highly sought number plates.

The Roads & Transport Authority (RTA) equivalent to the UK’s DVLA, had recently held an auction where 90 distinguished number plates generated an eye-gorging £9.2m (Dh42 million).

The star plates this year included the sale of the I10, which crept up to ~£1.5m (Dh6.7 million) whilst companion plates; C55 (perfect for the Mercedes Benz C55 AMG) sold at £885,000 (Dh4 million) and Q12 fetching even higher at £1.1m (Dh 5 million) rounded the bigger wins of the day.

 

Big shock of 2016!

The biggest shock of the auction was the Q2 single digit plate; a plate superb to add to an Audi Q2, which went unsold on the day.

Better, however, was the surprising news of a 5 digit reg plate being sold into the million-mark Durham - the day’s biggest highlight. L11111, one of the more sought-after number plates, found a bid of Dh1.98 million (£438,000) with another plate encompassing the magical '5'; E55555 bagging Dh1.03 million (£228,000) at the prestigious auction.

On the other side of the world, the recent DVLA auction pitting vanity number plates to the public eye, found a staggering £5.1 million exchange hands in the 3-day event held at The Hanbury Manor Hotel in Hertfordshire.

Unlike the Emirates’ auction, the DVLA travels and holds the bidding events up and down the country, hoping for greater reach of buyers looking to fancy up their motors.

Highlights of the day included some rather tasty examples. One such plate-hugging print was ‘LAM 805V’ which had sold for £26,100.

If you add in the 20% VAT, buyer’s premium – a further 8% and an assignment fee of £8, plates can be lots more expensive that otherwise stated.

For the new owner of this plate, however, a stunning ‘super fly yellow’ hued Lamborghini Aventador Superveloce (SV) would be a match made in heaven..

Other fine examples of cherished plates included none other than ‘488 M’; a superb compliment to an adrenaline-pumping ‘Abu Dhabi blue’ Ferrari 488 Spider.

 

Other challenging-to-acquire character combinations won on the day, included:

# 911 A – Ideal for any brilliantly-engineered Porsche 911 dated since conception in 1963.

# 110 A – Suited towards the iconic French-built sports car Alpine A110 from 1961 to 1977.

 

# 993 TT – Plate of choice for the 993 generation of the Porsche 911 built between ’93 and ’98.

 

 

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