Seven Letters Give Hope As Investors Scramble

QUEENSLAND investors spooked by the wobbly sharemarket and plateauing property prices are hoping for ripe returns from an unconventional source - personalised number plates.

New Numbers Test The Mettle

NSW car enthusiasts will soon pay up to $500 a year to adorn their vehicles with new metallic number plates.

Number's Up For This Thief

Police in New Zealand's capital have recovered nearly 200 stolen personalised plates, ending what was said to be ``an unusual personal hobby".

Tax On Plates `unfair'

THE NSW Opposition has attacked the Carr Government's decision to introduce an annually recurring tax for personalised number plates. The Government

Number's Up On Virile Ego Trips

The Illawarra has a proud tradition of personalised number plates, which if nothing else are a source of amusement for the speed camera operators.

Packer Returns Home With New Kidney And New Hope

Mr Kerry Packer was discharged from hospital yesterday, six days after doctors successfully transplanted a kidney donated by his helicopter pilot, Mr Nick Ross. Sitting in the front passenger seat of his white BMW with the personalised number plates ``FP" the initials of his late father Sir

R-ego Plates

GOOD taste on the plate is the business of the staff at VicRoads' registration section. They're the state's first and last line of defence against lewd, provocative, anatomical and ambiguous personalised number plates. Tony Caso is one of the staff who read drivers' requests frontwards, backward

Olympic Number Plates Up For Grabs

* TO CELEBRATE the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games, the Roads and Traffic Authority has issued a range of commemorative Olympic number plates. * For the next two Sundays you have the chance to bid in the number plate auction and go into a draw to win some great prizes. * Proceeds of the successful n

Number Plates That Sum Us Up

IT'S NOT that I'm superstitious. It's just that it takes only seconds to throw a pinch of salt over your shoulder or walk around the ladder. Why tempt fate if you don't have to? But one thing I am superstitious about is number plates. I like positive, upbeat number plates. I think they're a good

Doing A Number On Yourself

YOU are an individual, there's no one else in the world quite like you ... So why not make your car a statement to the world? These are the words that VicRoads uses to flog its ``whole range of exciting options in personalised and customised number plates" to the hapless public. I kid you n

Oh, What A Feeling When Your Number's Up

OVER the phone, the money offers kept getting higher and higher. Six or seven calls over several weeks. It appeared someone wanted to buy Mark Lawson's personalised number plates. The price in the end - an astounding $100,000. The cars carrying them were equally astounding. Saved from the tip,

Special Phone Numbers Likely - But At A Price

First it was personalised number plates. Soon we may see the same phenomena with phone numbers. And companies or individuals who want desirable numbers could soon be paying through the nose for them. The Federal Government decided in the last Budget that the phone companies - Telstra, Optus and V

Our Plates Brimmeth Over

Messages and mind-sets on vehicle number plates brim with wit - sometimes. Every day the NSW Roads and Traffic Authority plays a game of cat and mouse with a variety of narcissists, exhibition-ists and others who need to express themselves via their car number plates. Beyond special issue pla

Kerbside Immortality, At A Price

In the early 17th Century, 10,000 might have bought you a baronetcy. By the 21st Century, $10,000 may put your name on a street sign in Hornsby. Hornsby council in Sydney is considering the sale of naming rights to streets _ the biggest thing in self-promotion since personalised number plates. <

Fewer Motorists Are Joining Numbers Game

The number of people who bought personalised number plates in NSW in the past financial year was about 5,000 fewer than in the previous 12 months. The number of custom plates sold also dropped last year, by as much as 10 per cent. But the Roads and Traffic Authority denies that the d

Car Plates Didn't Add Up

This is the tale of MNR-002. At first glance it would appear to be a very ordinary number plate - not fast nor flighty and not, you might think, personalised. But MNR-002's existence on a NSW government car led to suggestions in the Upper House yesterday that ministers faced a security r

Mulock Warns Of Risks In Numberplate Trade

Dr Geoffrey Edelsten may have some of the spunkiest number plates in town but the Minister for Transport, Mr Mulock, has warned the public they are not likely to be worth the $500,000 he is trying to sell them for. When the flamboyant medical entrepreneur filed his claim for bankruptcy las