Am I the only one who notices Nd recalls number plates?

Posted by StillTrying1981@reddit | AskUK | View on Reddit | 55 comments

I honestly thought this was just a normal thing. When I recognise somebody's car, I recognise it via the number plate. I also recognise cars that are nearby where I live which I see regularly.

I don't remember them verbatim, it's not like I can real off Joan from round the corners number plate. But I know Joan drives a black BMW and the number plate is something like B.12..CR..

I thought this was just observation. But my GF today saw a car and said "is that soandso" and straight away I said "no. Similar car but theirs is BF65 plate." She looked at me like an alien for even noticing the number plate at all.

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No_Bit7786@reddit

I couldn't tell you my friends/ family's reg plates off the top of my head but I know them when I see them.

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Racing_Fox@reddit

No, I could point out all my colleagues/neighbours/families/friends if I saw them in a line up of identical cars

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garsterpee@reddit

My friend and I send registration plates with silly acronyms so I feel I pay more attention and thus recognise more. Things like this;

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WitShortage@reddit

I think you're describing a totally normal situation. Some of us can just remember number plates, and some people look at us as if we're mad. You can guess which camp I'm in.

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perishingtardis@reddit

Normal, especially so if you're autistic.

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bogusalt@reddit

You take that back!

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Historical_Project86@reddit

No. I have to give a longer answer that that so I'm writing some more words to satisfy the bot.

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RagingFuckNuggets@reddit

Totally normal. I know if I'm running late/early/on time depending on where I see certain car reg plates on my commute to work.

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Dragnet_Dan@reddit

I do this too, but it only works if they are also on time!

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RagingFuckNuggets@reddit

Sometimes it's like a competition. If I get to a certain bridge before I see them I know I've won because me beating them there means I'm early and they are late.

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klmarchant23@reddit

What if they went past 10mins ago and you’re realllyyyyyy late

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DIY_at_the_Griffs@reddit

Nope, everyone else is always on time, like the Truman show. Have you never noticed?

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Ricky_Martins_Vagina@reddit

They just go round and round 🤪

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outsidefootshot@reddit

Yes! I love this, I have 6/7 cars that I'll see in more or less the same place every morning. Interestingly I only see one of these on my way home, and haven't retained any other "way-home" cars

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Longjumping_Car3318@reddit

Yep. I remember the numberplate better than what the people look like.

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yesbutnobutokay@reddit

I used to be in the motor trade, starting off in new car stock control and later ending up in sales. I could recall the chassis numbers of hundreds of cars and later, the registrations of most of the used stock too.

I could recognise the vehicles I had sold years later from their plates but very rarely the customers' names. It got tougher after the 2001 reg change and now sadly, the majority of all those cars have been scrapped and long gone.

I still find it easy to remember numbers if I have to, but I don't really take much notice if I don't need to.

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perishingtardis@reddit

By any chance as a kid were you obsessed dinosaurs and trains ... ?

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PatchcordAdams@reddit

Kid in my school knew every dinosaur. Even the obscure ones - Oryctodromeus? Not a problem.

You also only had to tell him your birthday once, and he’d remember it forever.

Kids would come up to him - Keith - what’s my birthday? 22/02/85!

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yesbutnobutokay@reddit

Close. Trams and trolleybuses.

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perishingtardis@reddit

So, safe to guess you're on the spectrum?

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yesbutnobutokay@reddit

I daren't check.

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HarB_Games@reddit

I fear the answer might be: "Yes but no but okay"

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Bossman_Mike@reddit

It is now extremely rare to see a pre-2001 'prefix' plate on what would have been a modern car at the time. The sort of cars bearing those plates tend to be well maintained classics.

You have to look pretty bloody hard to find something like an X-reg VW Polo these days.

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Greatgrowler@reddit

When I see any car from that age it annoys me if the registration plate isn’t the Charles Wright typeface. If you need to replace the plate you should use the newer ‘prescribed font’ but I don’t think it looks right on a car that age but I found it looked weird so sourced the older style on EBay. In modern dramas set in the 70s or 80s they often put weird plates on the car which really bugs me.

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rositree@reddit

My dad was a mechanic, he still remembers reg of people's cars they had 3 or 4 cars ago, but no idea of their name or much else about them. Pretty common in the trade, I reckon.

Same as I knew various regulars by their drink/where they always sat/dog's preferred bar snack but maybe not their name as a barmaid in a village pub. No clue on cars though.

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Greatgrowler@reddit

I do this. I can still remember a few registrations from cars on my paper round and walk to school from 1987.

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DiligentCockroach700@reddit

I do that too.

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yearsofpractice@reddit

Hey OP. This is totally normal.

I recognise (not memorise) number plates, but it’s for a specific reason. I’m 49 and in good health physically and mentally. When I was younger, I suffered with anxiety which could sometimes turn into panic attacks.

A therapist once gave me a great tool - if I was in public and started to feel a panic attack, he recommended that I try to make words or phrases from car number plates. “NE64 STF” (for example) would become “Anyone (else) see those flowers?”. It would just take me out of my panic and amuse me - and even though I don’t get the panic attacks anymore, it’s something I still do to this day… which makes me recognise car number plates I see regularly!

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Neo-Chromia@reddit

There's a car on my road that's something like 'SD70 V..' and I called it the Stardew Valley car.

I also recognise others on the way to work a lot by their plates, but wouldn't be able to recite any of them right now without seeing them

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cryamiga@reddit

hahaha one job i had i used to go the same way as someone who had a reg like HK123KLR and i always thought of them as the Hong Kong Killer

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RebeccaCheeseburger@reddit

I do that too.

The ones that are personalised are even more funny cos they’ll be RA64 1EL and I’ll think, that doesn’t even look like Rachel (and i understand 64 is actually a real reg and ironically if this was a random one, I’d go ooooh Rachel 🤣)

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polopinkgin22@reddit

I do this, I just put it down to being quite an observant person

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Varanae@reddit

Huh I thought I was gong to come into the comments and see people saying it’s unusual but apparently not

I could not tell you any number plate, not even a single letter of one. I don’t think I look at them or take then in at all

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Bossman_Mike@reddit

I am pretty good with number plates and always have been. It blew my mind as a kid when my parents said they didn't actually know theirs.

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TheNorthernMunky@reddit

No, it’s the same for me too. But it’s not ‘normal’. The plate is the first thing I instinctively look at on a car, and I know if it’s one I’ve seen before.

When I was a kid, I could recite every number plate on my paper round. I can’t recall them fully now (hurtling towards 50 years old) but I still recognise ones I’ve seen before.

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cwep2@reddit

Depends how your brain works, but can confirm that I do the same. Often I can’t recall exactly what the plate was but I know if it’s ‘wrong’ or ‘right’ (essentially if it matches some pattern in my brain I associate with that person or not).

I also recognised and could recall phone numbers back in the days when we actually had to dial them in every time we used them (area code too). I could reel off like 200+ from adverts or friends I knew when I was a kid. I can still remember number plates and phone numbers I haven’t seen or used from 40yrs ago (but not all 200+).

Faces and names, I am absolutely terrible at.

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Gazebo_Warrior@reddit

The pattern thing is so true. I remember driving along with someone and they said 'I think we just drove past my mum' and I said 'no, the number plate didn't have enough spiky letters'. I still can't tell you their mum's numberplate but I know it if I see it. And it has at lot of k v x w type letters, just like her mum's spiky eyebrows, which are fierce upside down 'v's.

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DIY_at_the_Griffs@reddit

Yep. Same, maybe not verbatim but close enough to know if it’s right or not.

I did used to work in the motor trade though and you become familiar with patterns.

Some notable jobs stick in mind also, like for example some cars that I replaced engines or clutch’s on 20 years ago, old demo vehicles, a batch of new car inspections with same or near registrations etc.

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Dutch_Slim@reddit

Yes and I can’t help/don’t even realise I’m doing it. I’ve noticed we’ve been on holiday with people that live in our street, I’ve seen people from the school run absolutely miles from home, and I can remember parts/all of numbers that family/friends have had going back about 35 years. My husband thinks I’m mental but the kids love the fact I can give the heads up we might bump into a particular kid from school in the supermarket.

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AllThatIHaveDone@reddit

Human brains are pattern matching machines, so recognising the car by a distinct number plate configuration makes total sense. Not everyone is a capable of this as others, just like not everyone is as good as others as recognising faces.

Maybe there should be research done into a possible link between face blindness and buying personalised registration plates 🤔

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RipCurl69Reddit@reddit

I know most of my friends and coworkers plates just from seeing them around. Even know a couple of my old teacher's plates, those ones I try to avoid xD

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Silvagadron@reddit

I recognise a vast number of cars on their daily commute as I walk to my nearest train station and it’s only ever by number plate. Most in your area will always start with the same letter or handful of letters (e.g. most cars in Essex will start with E, L (London) or G (Kent), and many three letter combinations will have a close resemblance to a noise or word so they all end up being memorable after you see them a few times.

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deltree000@reddit

Fun fact: G for Kent stands for "Garden of England".

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Regular_Bike1437@reddit

Totally normal, I recognise a lot of the plates that I see in my morning commute.

I even recognised the plate of an old co worker 2 years later when I saw his car in a carpark in a different city

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Careless-Cooker@reddit

Normal.

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SirGranular@reddit

Normal for some of us.

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GenericBrowse@reddit

Let's go live to our expert, Tom Jones.....

Its not unusual

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Alert_Mine7067@reddit

I do this too. Me and my colleagues all mostly started at the same time and we were given brand new vehicles that are all LA21 plates, I know who it is by the last three letters. I can spot some neighbours, and my colleagues personal cars if we pass on the road.

I pass the same white Audi on the way to work every morning DK69, and I always wonder if the driver thinks the same.

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SpectreSingh89@reddit

I too have this weird trait about me. I might recognise who lives very close to us just by seeing no. Plate.

My "fascination" mite be I used to cycle and going passed cars would quickly "scan" read them.

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