Forget the standard registration mark that was allocated to your car when it was first registered; why not go for something a little more desirable? Eye-catching car registrations are available with prices to suit all budgets. The rule is you generally pay more for less. That means the shorter you want your car registration to be in terms of numbers and letters, the more money it is likely to cost you.

The DVLA raised over £16 million in the calendar year 2011 by auctioning off unallocated car registrations to both the trade and private buyers. A staggering £1.7 billion pounds has been raised for the government since number plate auctions were introduced in September 1989.

A large percentage of the private number plates sold by DVLA Personalised Registrations at auction are bought by cherished number plate dealers. Many of the dealers buy on behalf of their clients, but often they will buy these attractive number plates for their own stock. At any given time there are thousands of car registrations for sale on websites belonging to the cherished number plate dealers of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

The most desirable car registrations are the single letter, single number combinations such as 4 A, 2 P or 9 L. Asking prices are often in excess of a hundred thousand pounds and the evidence presented suggests the market is still very buoyant. It is hard to believe that despite the fact that we are experiencing one of the worst economic downturns that many people will ever witness, last year £16m was spent at government-run personalised number plate auctions. That figure does not include any of the car registrations that were sold privately or by cherished number plate dealers.

Not all car registrations being offered for sale have six figure asking prices. Budget personalised number plates can be bought for just a few hundred pounds. That is why if you take to the roads of any major city near where you live in the United Kingdom, you are likely to see cars displaying private number plates and personalised car registrations on every journey. If the idea of adding the finishing touch to your car sounds good, click on the image at the right-hand side of this page and see if there is anything which grabs your attention. There could be a car registration for sale that is just perfect for you.

The economic growth in China has led to too many new cars being bought in the major cities. It is causing gridlocks and congestion on some roads to the point where the number of new cars allowed to be registered each month in Beijing is being limited by the local government to just twenty thousand.

To make it as fair as possible for all the enthusiastic car buyers the government has introduced a lottery. Over one hundred and eighty thousand eager car buyers were given entries to the first new car lottery this month, but only seventeen thousand winners emerged. That means this month there are over one hundred and sixty-three thousand disappointed customers in Beijing who would like to buy a new car but are not allowed to.

This is in stark contrast to the economic situation here in the UK. I’m sure car dealers up and down the country would love to see some eager customers beating down the doors to their showrooms to be able to buy new cars.

Some commentators were suggesting that the new car registrations figures would show an increase. The thinking behind the suggested increase was the rush by customers the beat the newly hiked v.a.t. figure of 20% which has now come into play. Others laughed this off pointing out that there was only a £250 saving to be had on a car costing £10,000. This was not seen as motivation by itself to encourage new car purchases ahead of the v.a.t. increase.

It seems any hopes of a bumper January 2011 to make up for the poor December figures have quickly evaporated. A series of quick conversations with local car dealerships indicates that customers are delaying their buying decisions until the outlook for the general economy becomes clearer.