Is It Worth Having A Private Reg On A 180SX?

by Staff | Last updated 1st May, 2019 | Posted in 180sx Club News

Now, the Nissan 180SX is incredibly popular among drifters, but as for actual real-world road use, there’s not really any element of luxury involved. At least, not for the ones that are completely stripped out, as per petrolhead tradition. An awful lot of modification goes into these cars, but perhaps one of the most overlooked vanity modifications on the 180SX is getting a private number plate.

It’s fairly self-explanatory as to what a private number plate actually is, but if you aren’t from the UK or haven’t heard the term before, a private registration plate is one of the most common ‘modifications’ you can do to your car without any hassle such as raising car insurance costs or finance company restrictions. Most people tend to buy a registration plate that has their initials, whether literally or spelt phonetically.

You see them all the time on the likes of Instagram influencer cars, but drastically less so on older JDM style models, this is largely to do with the fact that most of the older Jap cars in the UK are all imported, some of which are designated a ‘Q’ plate if the DVLA can’t determine its age or chassis details. Then, for those that are eligible for a private reg, you’re not exactly spoiled for choice as you’ll probably be shopping for a number plate prior to the year 1999.

We came across a recent survey by the UK based car leasing company All Car Leasing on some of the UK’s car owners, which made the point that a private registration could be considered the go-to ‘vanity’ mod, as it’s the most accessible modification and a significant portion of the survey respondents claimed that they had one. Its worth noting though that not many of the survey respondents drive cars like the 180SX, it’s more your typical run of the mill family car. According to the survey, you’re most likely to see a private registration plate on an Audi, followed by a Ford and lastly a BMW. This does make sense as the majority of these types of cars will be taken on a finance deal, so changing the number plate is likely the only thing you can realistically do until you own the car outright. Given that there isn’t much variety available for a car as old as the 180SX though, the money spent buying a private reg is probably better spent on mechanical modifications instead.

The full survey itself covers much more than what we’ve touched on here, there’s a great infographic below which accompanied the survey and even a podcast if you’d prefer to listen.

Infographic

Doin it for the gram

Doin’ it for the ‘gram by All Car Leasing

Podcast