Focus
GR8 PL8s all the rage with local motorists
By Wang Wen and Cui Xiaohuo (China Daily)
Updated: 2010-03-24 07:50
 |
Large Medium Small |
|
Beijing's pool of customized car plates has just about two million combinations left up for grabs. Lu Jiazuo / For China Daily |
Enthusiasts race for auspicious automobile license combinations
Beginning in 2002, Beijing's car owners were allowed to create personalized six-digit car license plates. The policy was abused with such choices as "FBI-001".
On Oct 6, 2008, the policy was reintroduced, and car owners have showed more restraint in their choices. But if you fancy your favorite combination for your car plate, make sure you prepare an extra combination in case you don't strike it lucky, officials with Beijing's car registration office said on Monday.
Beijing's pool of customized car plates, more than three million, has just about two million customized combinations left up for grabs.
This means that although choices are still abundant for the nearly one million car buyers expected this year in the city, chances are they will have to think of something other than the auspicious number 8 when they try to lock in special combinations.
The current selection, co-existing with a fixed distribution system that issues plates automatically to car owners, can be accessed both at the registration office and via home computers, Zhang Jingchun, spokesman for the Beijing traffic management bureau, told METRO.
Zhang said because of Beijing's favorable policy toward car ownership, most private car buyers prefer custom combinations.
"One out of five new car plates the authority issues to private buyers in Beijing are custom-made," said Zhang. (The majority of vehicle sales are to companies and the government.) "One way or another, most drivers get what they hope for."
Car owners have more freedom if they select their car plate at their nearest registration office. They are allowed to play one English alphabet at any digit of the car plate, save the last digit, which must be a number.
The more accessible computer-based selection allows motorists to book a plate number three days in advance. But buyers must have two English alphabets placed between a group of numbers.
The selection process has drawn criticism since a local newspaper this week uncovered illegal trading of plate combinations in several registration centers citywide.
Scalpers were able to make use of the flaws in the computerized combination selection system and snatched good combinations before most new car owners could. Some car owners have been willing to pay at least double the normal cost to buy their "lucky" combination on the black market.
Officials with the authority said yesterday that they have closed one of its offices where scalpers traded such car plates.
The business of selling car plates also attract 4S - sales, service, spare parts, survey - stores in Beijing, which said they offer 500-yuan service packages for buyers who wish to snatch their car plates on the same day of their vehicle purchase.
| ||||
Owners of imported cars must pay extra fees for the car plates, Wang Baocheng, a seller of imported SUVs in Beijing, told METRO.
And in the latest bid to issue more car plates, the bureau this month opened eight local-level license plate registration centers in as many suburban districts and counties.
The new centers are located in Fangshan, Tongzhou, Shunyi, Pinggu, Huairou, Miyun, Mentougou and Yanqing districts or counties. They have not yet reached the Daxing and Changping districts.
